Public Service Announcement #5
If you write for kids, fight for kids! + PSA: trust you can revise + sneak peek of collab with Weng Pixin + sweet goodnight picture books
If you write for kids, fight for kids series
“If you write for kids, fight for kids!” Artwork by Julie Rowan-Zoch.
These cuties are part of a collaborative series. I saw Julie use that brilliant phrase in one of her IG stories and I thought: yes! I thought: I’ll ask if she’ll partner to illustrate more of these phrases if I write some!
With Julie’s totally adorable creatures and these rhymes, our intention is to motivate and move folks in our industry, to plant seeds of speaking out and action. Because we believe that as children’s book creators, we have a responsibility to care for, and thus fight for, kids—with our words, art, books, voices, hands.
Each graphic is an invitation, a small seed we hope will grow.
We’re using the #kidlit4ceasefire hashtag, with thanks to Sandra Proudman for creating it. (Their new website.)
You can download these cute images for sharing (as well as captions) on google drive: “If you write for kids…” (You can credit us using these tags if ya do! @julierowanzoch @writesinLA)
And I hope you'll check out more of Julie’s work at her website. She’s got picture books as well!
PSA: TRUST you can when it comes to revision
Why do I write these PSAs? Partly because I need to hear them. This is stuff I struggle with. And I figure you do too, even if it looks slightly different for everyone.
Here goes: trust you can when it comes to revision.
Do you have the following experience?
When I’m faced with notes on a project to tackle or a story problem I’m stuck on, I tend to feel…overwhelmed. So not cut out for it. Like the whole endeavor is impossible and potentially not worth bothering with. The prospect of revision can feel like a tidal wave of doubt, nuh-uh, no way, I’m drowning. I hear this from friends and clients as well. My community college and middle school students used to feel this way too.
Don’t we all long for the finish line? No matter the project or undertaking (making, painting, writing, building, lesson-planning), feedback or snafus can feel like obstacles that further convolute our murky path. So not only do we sometimes ignore our intuition that our work-in-progress might not be quite there yet, but we also might fall apart when someone else—critiquer, friend, agent, editor, teacher, collaborator—points out the tough stuff: something may need to change. We may need to rethink. Step back onto the murky path in search of an unknown solution.
But here’s the deal. You can! It’s about remembering the times that came before, building up the muscle memory of the last time this happened. Because that initial gut punch, avalanche, giant wave of can’t clouds those memories, diluting our confidence.
So what to do? I tend to take a break. I go swimming, walking, moving, or doing something else. I then look again and reflect. I may talk with someone. The trick is to not jump to those doomsday conclusions (if possible!) or else, simply ride them out, know they’ll pass. For me, the passing is quicker now. Sometimes only an hour or two.
After my swim or walk or talk or meal, I usually have an idea. Maybe not a complete solution, but a way forward. A spark or lamp to see by. And almost 100% of the time, it’s so much more doable than I thought, whether it’s going to take an hour or an afternoon, days or weeks. It’s solvable, possible, and will make me stronger.
I encourage you to trust that you can solve any story problem. Trust your creativity, subconscious, intuition, history of doing so, acumen. It’s been there before and it’ll be there again. Without you even doing much except waiting, moving, riding the doubt-wave, listening to your intuition, then doing your revision.
But also, if feedback does take a project off track, away from your true vision, you must trust your own knowing about that too. It’s just as important.
Either way, your creative brain can tackle it, unravel it, see you through.
Sneak peek of a picture book project!
Speaking of revision and the PSA above, I’d love to show you a work-in-progress that reflects it!
I’m working with an illustrator I admire very much on a top secret picture book project.
Introducing: Weng Pixin, wondrous illustrator, author, artist, teacher! Pix’s work is strange, surreal, sometimes funny, sometimes soulful, weird in the best way. Always brilliant.
Her Instagram is a fantastic showcase of her comics, other works-in-progress, and small paintings.
And I love her latest incredible graphic novel LET’S NOT TALK ANYMORE about five generations of women from her family—it’s inventive, intriguing, and even imagines a future generation via a character who doesn’t exist (outside of imagination). Genius!
She’s Singaporean, which is neat for me because I spent ten years of my childhood in Singapore.
Pix and I are working on a picture book together. I wrote the manuscript and approached her with it. As we’ve shown my agent a couple of times, there have been two major revisions to undertake. The first was the illustrations in Pix’s layout. The second was the words in my manuscript. In both cases, I think I can safely say we each felt overwhelmed, uncertain, unsure at first. But then, as happens, we explored, brainstormed (separately and together), and, dare I say—trusted that our re-visioning would bear fruit. As is often the case, while rocky setting out, the new versions of the parts and the whole are much better—words and pictures shifted as we listened to one another, ourselves, the story, and my agent’s thoughtful notes.
And the whole process and outcome sing the beauties of collaboration, process, and believing you can! What’s funny is that the story itself is an exploration, in a way, of this very idea—setting out and trusting you’ll arrive.
Okay, sneak peek of sketches time, with Pix’s permission.
Here’s hoping we’ll get to show you the finished book someday!
Sweet goodnight picture books
Because it’s cold, it’s winter, and there are horrible wars on our minds and in our hearts, I thought I’d round up a few gentle goodnight books as you hold your dear ones close and warm each night. Here are eight sweet bedtime books full of comfort.
Bedtime for Sweet Creatures; A Big Mooncake for Little Star; Like the Moon Loves the Sky; Goodnight Ganesha; Lilah Tov Goodnight; Baby, Sleepy Baby; I’ll Meet You in Your Dreams; Egyptian Lullaby.
Paid subscriber PSA chat!
If you’re a subscriber who’d like to upgrade before our very first ever paid subscriber Q&A video chat, you can join in too! I am grateful for your support of this writer. And if you can’t, no worries about that either!
Thank you for spending this time with me and for reading! I hope it served you as moments well spent. And please do tell a friend, leave a comment, or stay tuned for the next PSA from Danielle Davis.
So excited... Pix work is beautiful and I am sure your writing is amazing as always..
Loved seeing the pre sketches for your book!!! Can’t wait to see the final product!!!!💕