Shutta Crum

Just before I left for Florida, I did a major rewrite marathon (8 days, 10-13 hours a day!!) on a fantasy novel I am doing for Knopf. (Tentatively titled, THOMAS AND THE QUEEN OF THE DRAGONS.)

Now that I am back from Florida, I am working on picture books again. Sometimes, switching between the two formats has my head swimming. And thinking about swimming made me remember a post I did for Big Universe a couple of years ago. So I thought I’d update it and repost it here . . . as it is relevant to my emotional and mental state these days.

Enjoy . . . 

Recently I was interviewed for an online piece to accompany an adaptation of one of my books into a reader’s theater script. (MY MOUNTAIN SONG) During that interview I reflected upon the difference between writing picture books and novels. I’ve done both. What I’ve found-at least for me-is that these are two very different processes, and my emotional response to the task at hand is different for each.

 

When I write a picture book it feels more like solving a puzzle. How can I get this, and this, and this, into very few words? If the text is in verse, there are the added constraints of rhyme, meter, and other patterns. Finally, I cut to the point where I feel something triumphant in my chest if I can find just one more “the” to delete. I use more of the problem-solving side of my brain with a goal of getting it all into the sleekest lines I can. Thereby, lots of the story remains for the illustrator to depict. It feels quick and fun, and like a satisfying splashy romp through a sprinkler on a hot day.

 

When I write a novel, I feel like I am jumping into a warm lake. I am overcome with the need to kick my feet, keep my head above the water, and keep swimming. I need to reread all I’ve written since the last time I worked on it (usually from the day before)-or a great deal of the entire manuscript up to that point. I need to do a lot of thinking rather than simply cutting, rearranging, and looking at pattern as I do with picture books. I need uninterrupted time to visualize my characters into being-first, he moves his hand to cover his eyes . . . then he raises his eyes and sees . . . what? What, then, does he say? What effect does it have on the character who hears what he says? How will his words move the story forward?

 

Writing novels is an altogether a slower, longer, deeper immersion. I am using more of the intuitive side of my brain as I figure out how to settle in for a marathon swim across a dark lake whose other side I can’t quite see from here. And when I get there, though it may not be anything like I expected, there is the exhausted satisfaction of having done it.

 

If you’ve a mind to write, join me! The water’s wonderful. We can chase each other across the lawn and dive into the lake, or leap over the misty rainbow-making sprinkler on a hot day.

[Excerpted & summarized by permission from an interview conducted by author Toni Buzzeo. The full interview is at the LIBRARY SPARKS website under "Web Resources."  Or click here for a direct link: Meet the Author: Shutta Crum . ]

Happy Swimming!

(I know, it’s crazy—here I am blogging from Michigan in “0″ degree weather and I am talking about swimming.)