This post was originally sent through my author newsletter on May 5th, 2023. To subscribe to my newsletter and receive up-to-date news, musings, and more, click HERE.
"The book will tell you what to do, if you make space for it."
That's one of the things Christopher Denise, author/illustrator of the Caldecott Honor Book Knight Owl (and illustrator of many other acclaimed children's books) shared during his keynote speech at the New England Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators conference last weekend—and it stuck with me.
Christopher talked a lot about making space: for creativity, for productivity, for growth. He talked about being open: to sparks of inspiration, to projects that seem challenging, to new directions. The theme of the conference was "STRETCH," and many of the workshops were about pushing past boundaries and comfort zones, but Christopher also interpreted the theme as being able to step back—and being willing to go deep.
Being at the conference was shoving me out of my comfort zone.
I was definitely stretching.
The "stretch" wasn't the conference itself; I'd attended before, in 2014. I was pre-published. The Distance Between Lost and Found had sold to HarperCollins, and I'd completed my edits, but I was still 10 months away from the release date. I was there with my friend Janae Marks—and it was at this conference that I first met my eventual coauthor, MarcyKate Connolly, face to face!
Pardon the extremely fuzzy 2014 photo. ;)
So, the conference environment itself felt familiar. But this was my first time being on faculty at any sort of professional conference, leading workshops for my peers. I felt confident in my knowledge of the workshop topics: planning and booking school visits (with Janae) and co-authoring a book (with MarcyKate). I didn't feel confident that anyone there would be interested in what I, a decidedly non-famous, solidly midlist author, had to say.
My workshops were both scheduled for Sunday, and so on Saturday, I listened to Christopher's inspiring keynote speech, then popped back up to my hotel room to do a couple hours of work on the book revision that was due on Monday. After lunch, I sat in on MarcyKate's first workshop, about creating magic systems for fantasy novels. Then, I went to a workshop for published authors, led by a bookstore employee and a school librarian, with tips for connecting with independent bookstores and libraries.
In the magic workshop, I came up with an inkling of a new idea—something that might just dovetail perfectly with another topic I've wanted to write about for years, but couldn't figure out how to tackle. In the bookstore/library workshop, I took pages and pages of notes on tactics I may implement to more effectively spread the word about my books.
That evening, I thought about those two sessions as I went over my notes for my own workshops the next day. And when it was finally time for me to be standing at the front of the room, slideshow cued up, I felt ready. (Or at least, as ready as I could ever be...)
The workshop on school visits was first, and it was a full house! Standing room only! The room was about 50/50 authors who'd done school visits before and those who hadn't, but wanted to dive in. Janae and I tried to be thorough and honest, particularly about the sometimes thorny topic of setting your fees. We took questions—and suggestions, when someone in the audience had a slightly different point of view based on their own experience. The thing about school visits is, every school is different. Every single one! Different budgets. Different culture. Different atmosphere. Different priorities. While there are definitely some tried-and-true tips for making school visits a part of your author platform, there are other elements that you have to figure out on the fly—every time.
I finished that workshop feeling absolutely exhilarated. We'd made our points, we'd stayed open to audience participation and conversation, and we seemed to have genuinely helped especially the newbie authors start to think about how they could incorporate school visits into their offerings.
But I still had one workshop to go!
After lunch, MarcyKate and I were set to talk about the co-authoring process. This workshop also went well—but it was very different. The audience was small, so we decided to go for a more casual vibe. We followed our presentation outline, but also went off on a few tangents based on what people were interested in hearing about co-authoring and about our upcoming book. It felt more like a chat amongst friends than a workshop. Which was fine, and fun!
And then I quickly changed shoes, turned in my faculty lanyard, and speed-walked to the train station to catch my Amtrak back to NYC.
Now, as I reflect on what ended up being a very successful weekend (even though I signed zero—ZERO!—books at the faculty book signing, haha...), I have a few more thoughts on making space for inspiration and growth:
1) Sign up to do the scary thing. Presenting at this conference wasn't my idea; Janae invited me to submit a workshop with her, and then I asked MarcyKate if she wanted to submit a second one. I don't know if I would have had the courage or the confidence to do this on my own! But I am so glad I did.
2) Take advantage of opportunities. Part of the compensation for being on faculty at the conference was getting to attend for free! I did have some work that had to get done, but I'm so happy I made time to sit in on a couple workshops. The info I learned in the bookstore/library one will be so valuable to me moving forward—and I made a personal connection with one of the presenters. Meanwhile, I can't stop thinking about the idea I had in the session on magic systems. I truly feel like I have cracked this other topic I wanted to write about wide open. (Sorry-not-sorry to be vague...) Would I have come to this new idea without having been in that room, with those people, thinking about that subject (creating rules for a system of magic)? I don't know—but I do know that an idea you can't stop thinking about is magic in itself.
3) Make space to be in community. The official theme of the conference may have been "STRETCH," but it might as well have been "JOY." Everyone was just so happy to be with one another in person! And even though I wasn't reconnecting with as many friends (I'm technically a member of the New York chapter of SCBWI), I felt that joy as well. To be in a room filled with hundreds of storytellers, celebrating the stories that we create and the readers for whom we create them...it's a dream. Getting away from "real life' for a weekend isn't always easy, but I was reminded that I need that community—that space.
And now I'm home, processing everything I learned and thinking about what could be next! (And getting tons of snuggles from my kiddo!)
What do you do to make space in your creative life? It doesn't have to be as big as a conference or retreat. Do you have everyday ways of feeding your creativity and giving yourself room to grow?
~Kathryn
What I'm:
Reading: After spending the weekend with Janae, I picked up her third novel (and the sequel to her debut), On Air With Zoe Washington. I don't want to spoil the events of the first Zoe Washington book for those who haven't read it, but I do want to say that I love Janae's writing. She has such a perfect middle-grade voice: able to tackle tough topics while also staying in the sweet spot of tween/young teen interests and drama. I can't wait to read Janae's next book!
Working on: I turned in my revision of the write-for-hire book on Monday, and on Wednesday, MarcyKate and I received our first-pass pages for The Thirteenth Circle. First-pass pages are basically a final proofread, after the manuscript has been formatted for printing. Once we approve this version, it won't be terribly long before advance copies start making their way out into the world.
Loving: An attendee at my school visit workshop with Janae took this picture, as we were each introducing ourselves and our books. While it's admittedly not the most flattering picture that's ever been taken of me, I love having this record of what turned out to be a pretty cool "first" in my career!
