Creative Learning, Part 2: Family Story Journal

Friends with kids at home, I thought I’d share our latest creative learning project. 

It’s a Found Story Journal for the whole family. 

The rules are: 

• The journal gets left on the table along with pens and story aids. (More on those in a minute.) 
• The writing has to be done in secret. 
• We have to be sneaky! We can only write in it when no one else is watching. 
• Only 1 celebrity /pop star cameo per story. 
• Each entry continues from the previous one.     
• Each entry keeps to one page or less.

Our story aids:

These help if anyone gets stuck and needs an idea boost. 

*STORY CARDS: They’re made by Eeboo, & illustrated by Stephanie Graegin, (author-illustrator of LITTLE FOX IN THE FOREST and FERN AND OTTO (publishing later this year).

*STORY CUBES are a fun and tactile way to provoke ideas. They're called Rory's Story Cubes.  

If you don’t have something like the cards or the dice, not to worry! 

*STORY IDEA JARS are a longtime favorite.

 

The WORD JAR keeps scraps of paper with random words on them. 

The STORY SPARKS JAR holds phrases like “locked in a cage,” “a door to nowhere,” “the boat with a hole in the bottom,” “a mermaid with wings.” 

It took like five minutes to write a list, cut it up and stick in jars.

Times are rough, kids have homework, but creativity and writing can always bring some joy.

Wish us luck! 

My entire life is about sneaking in art and stories into all the rest of life. 

If I could illustrate my taxes, I SO would. 

Anyway, I hope this idea will be a fun one for my family - and for yours! 

If you try it, will you share how it went with me? 

Tag me in your photos so I can share, too.  

Peace, friends! 

Here’s to all the good stories that await! 

BOOK NEWS!

WHOOP!

I have news! 

I am so excited to tell you about this. 

Can you tell!?!

I might be using more exclamation points than are allowed for a few weeks

because...

TWO MORE BOOKS!!!

 Ah. I am exuberant. 

I am ecstatic. 

Thank you, Molly O'Neill and Root Literary,

thank you, Nikki Garcia and Little, Brown 

for believing in this story and in me!  

So much of this joy is thanks to my agent Molly O'Neill, 

who talked me through the finishing of my first book 

(THE STARKEEPER which comes out with Random House in June!) 

and helped me face the beginnings of another one!  

Thanks to Molly, I found out that while making book number two is HARD!, 

hard is not necessarily a bad thing. 

See, if we didn't struggle, the end result wouldn't be so victorious. 

Which is sort of how PERFECTLY IMPERFECT MIRA has made her way here!

I can't wait for you to meet MIRA. 

This story is kind of about being a work in progress, 

and learning to love the journey of becoming. 

Which is something that feels very familiar to me. 

 Another fun thing is that during the time this story was in revision,  

 I took a writing course with Jolie Stekly "MINDSET MEETS CRAFT." 

MIRA's story is so much about mindset, and revision, too. 

When I had a stroke, then heart surgery, and other life surprises   - 

each time, I felt thrown for a loop. 

That was not the direction I planned. 

That was not the way my road was supposed to go.

 Or was it? 

Because if I hadn't had the stroke and kind of lost my way into writing, 

I wouldn't have taken a WRITING WITH PICTURES course, 

which opened up my heart to illustration and stories 

in a way I'd never dreamed of being able to do.

So, here's to the journey, my friends! 

Here's to the blooms that can come out of hard things. 

- and sometimes the blooms that come because of hard things! 

And here's to the work, day and night, 

learning!

growing!

revising!

 

Hooray! 

On perfection

Advice from my incredibly insightful agent Molly O'Neill. 

So, this is how we dance with perfectionism and fear - 

jump in and do the best we can do - 

today. 

Because we can only ever be as good 

as we can be in this moment. 

And that is enough.

I'm off for a few weeks to finish my deadline, 

blinders on, hopefully, 

nose to the grindstone, 

remembering not to stick my paintbrush in my coffee cup.

If I can, I'll check in briefly 

about this thrilling picture book process. 

Fingers crossed, etc! : )

Here’s to the best you make today, lovies! 

12 Easy-Peasy Writing Secrets, or How to Find Ideas

I get to talk with 4th graders this week about writing. 

As they especially want to know where writers get their ideas, 

I thought I should make a list. 

I decided to share it with you, too. 

This isn't the quantitative, end-all list of idea-catchers, mind you

because, as all writers know, ideas can be found....

• 1. At the bottom of the dryer
• 2. In snatches of conversation 
• 3. In the waiting room at the doctor's office 
• 4. Under the couch, next to the monster's eyeball
• 5. Inside a pair of Seven League Boots
• 6. Buried under the witch's bones in the graveyard
• 7. In a fistful of stolen pirate gold
• 8. In the pocket of the Wrong Coat at the Lost & Found
• 9. Behind a secret staircase in the old castle
• 10. In the next chapter after the final chapter of the last book you read

Of course, this list goes on 

and on

and on...

Writer friends, where do you find your ideas?

Any special plants or potions or special tricks

 that keep your ears and eyes 

ready for your next idea?

Teachers, you are welcome to use this freebie printable as a teaching resource.  Feel free to share links to this page. 

To use this resource, just drag the image to your desktop and print. 

Thank you for keeping this original content credited to its creator.  Cheers!

new news

I'm so thrilled to share my news with you:

I'm now represented by Molly O'Neill at Root Literary.

Here's to all the words ahead -

The scribbles, sketches, 

 fresh pages,

new chapters,

erasers.

Here's to exuberance -

all those story seeds wishing their way into the world 

- and to hope.

If you're interested, I'd love to show you my new website:

faithpraybooks.com

I'll still tend this blog when I can, 

still share my lovely finds

 of life and books and story-making, 

wildebeest-wrangling, life-learning, and looking for joy in the daily dirt.

Thank you for supporting and encouraging and connecting with me

through the past eight years. 

Thank you.

Here's to our adventures ahead!  

Magic Spells for Improving Your Craft

Here is a little something I wrote for Puddle Jump Collective about magic and art-making:

My twins just read the Harry Potter series -

seven books and one play.

My whole rabble of wildebeests is now running through the house with pointy sticks, saying, "Wingardium Leviosa!" and "Expelliarmus!"

Aside from the bad parenting of letting children run with pointy objects, 

I myself would not mind a wand for a few things in life. 

1. The dishes.  (A den full of four hungry wildebeests and their keepers can be very full of dishes)

2. The laundry. (Again with the den analogy.)

3. The writing and the art.

Wouldn't it be fun to flick a pointy stick 

and magic oneself into a brilliant writer and/or illustrator?

 

So, really, where is that magic spell?  

Wouldn't it make everything easier?

So, I once had the opportunity to hear picture book illustrator Renata Liwska and her husband Mike Kerr speak at a SCBWI conference in Seattle.
Wide eyed and wonderstruck,
I wanted to know the tricks and magic spells
that would turn me into a picture book illustrator exactly like Renata Liwska.

Ever do that?

Well, maybe not. But I did. 

So, we all of us watched thirstily as Renata and Mike unpacked for the talk.
They pulled out a motherlode of black sketchbooks and laid them in a mountain in front of us.

Each sketchbook was filled with perfect illustrations. 

Perfect! Pristine in skill and finish! 

How was there not even one scratched out, loopy mess up in the entire collection? How?

Renata is soft-spoken, humble, and has such a kind smile.
Her husband Mike pointed to the pile of books and told us Renata's magic spell:
"This!"

Sketch every, every day.

That's it? 

W-w-w-work? 

Just work?

Where's the magic in that? 

 

Two years later, it's beginning to sink in.It isn't an instant change, but each drop in the bucket is a spell of sorts.
 
Each drop is a growing of your eyes and ears and hands,
every sketch is an observation, a study of the world,
each page is a honing of your vision -
and therein you find the transformation! 

So, my friends, let me share some magic spells for improving your craft in a nutshell:  

1. Show up. Every day.

(Writers also call this "butt-in-chair.")

2. Sketch. Sketch. Sketch.

(Or insert your passion here. Bake cakes. Practice soccer. Juggle fruit.)

3. Write. Write. Write.

(Especially important for aspiring authors.)

4. Read. Read. Read.

(Observe and learn from the world relating to your craft. If you want to be a picture book illustrator, by golly, read picture books like a sieve!)

5. Repeat.

6. Every, every day.

Once more:


  


And the thing is?
The more I do it, the more I love this daily rite.

It's like magic.

{Excerpt first published Tuesday, August 30 on Puddle Jump Collective.}

Books!

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George

Withering-By-Sea by Judith Rossell

Half Magic by Edward Eager

The Magic Half and Magic in the Mix by Annie Barrows

A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig

Strega Nona's Magic Lessons by Tomie de Paola

Books on Writing and Art:

Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly by Gail Carson Levine
Rip the Page: Adventures in Creative Writing by Karen Benke
Spilling Ink by Anne Mazer & Ellen Potter, illustrated by Matt Phelan
Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals
20 Ways to Draw a Cat by Julia Kuo
Let's Draw a Story by Sachiko Umoto

Who's Your Mummy?

Peanut shell sarcopha-guys. 

Yes, I know. 

We're nuts.

I like to think of research as
permission to plunge overboard,
to get lost in your story world
in order to find it.
 
Some people tape maps to the walls
and wear fuzzy Russian hats.
Others swear by magazine clippings.
Hungarian folk music.
Books on fly fishing.
French chocolate.

We wear pipe cleaner headdresses. 

 

What's your research quirk? 


Can you tell what we're into these days?
It helps that King Tut's treasure is only a ferry ride away.

We said our howdies to the Pharaohs

and hopped home, hot about Egypt.

I buried old pottery shards for a "Dig."


Kids + Dirt = Heaven!

When I was sixteen, my parents took us to Egypt.

Valley of the Kings, pyramids and the Sphinx
all did their dazzling best. 


And then there was this old dump,
littered with broken scraps.
At the time, mum and dad seemed so very un-cool
sifting through that Egyptian dump,
selecting a few shards to bring home.
 
But who's my mummy now?
Oh yeah!
There has never been such excitement in our backyard.

My fake gold necklace
came in handy
as the crowning discovery.

Treasure!
 

  
Hieroglyphs + Clay  = Name cartouches!
 

Sarcophagi:

Our wee coffins

are nothing more than

peanut shells, paint, 

and gold pens for a little extra pizazz.

That's it in a nutshell.



So many great books to share with you!

The 5,000-Year-Old Puzzle - Claudia Logan, Melissa Sweet
Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile - Tomie dePaola
The Egyptian Cinderella - Shirley Climo, Ruth Heller
The Secret Room - Uri Shulevitz
Zekmet, the Stone Carver - Mary Stoltz, Deborah Nourse Lattimore
How the Sphinx Got to the Museum - Jessie Hartland
The Three Princes - Eric A. Kimmel, Leonard Everett Fisher
One City, Two Brothers - Chris Smith, Aurelia Fronty
Exodus - Brian Wildsmith
I, Crocodile - Frank Marcellino
The Shipwrecked Sailor - Tamara Bower
The Jewel Fish of Karnak - Graeme Base