Illustrators Share: How Writing Inspired Their Picture Book Art

Hi there! I’m Veronica Miller Jamison, and I’ve been the SCBWI guest blogger for the month of March. I’m a picture book illustrator, and my author-illustrator debut, The Stories In You: Inspired by the Wisdom of Toni Morrison (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) will be released later this year.

This month I’ve been blogging about how great writing can inspire the illustration process. I started by going behind the scenes of the first book I illustrated, A Computer Called Katherine, written by Suzanne Slade. Then I dove into the artistic process behind This Is A School, written by John Schu. Last week I talked about how I developed the main character design for Up Periscope! How Engineer Raye Montague Revolutionized Shipbuilding, written by Jennifer Swanson.

This week, I reached out to some illustrator friends to ask them how great writing inspired their book projects. 

Selina Alko - The Keeper of Stories

I met writer and illustrator Selina Alko when we both served on the board of ICON: The Illustration Conference between 2016 and 2018. Selina is a powerhouse - a prolific, award-winning picture book maker who creates vibrant, stunning artwork. Her latest book, Otherwise Known as Judy the Great, is an illustrated collection of poems celebrating author Judy Blume.

When we served on the ICON board together, I was working on my first picture book and stressing out a little – okay, stressing out a lot. Selina gave me the best piece of advice: “Let go of perfection.” That was permission enough for me to loosen my grip on my work and get back to having fun with creating, and I’ve carried that with me ever since. Any time I get stuck on a project, I come back to our conversation from all those years ago. So thank you, Selina!

Selina shared with me her process behind creating the art for The Keeper of Stories, written by Caroline Kusin Pritchard.

A passage from the manuscript that inspired Selina's artwork:

The people looked up at the wounded building, the one they had trusted for years.

They knew the truth.

That this keeper:

their keeper,

trusted them, too.

They couldn't let it down.

Hundreds of students and teachers, rabbis and pastors,

neighbors and strangers became "Operation Booklift."

They wound up the staircase like the flames had before,

forged together by stories.

Hand

over hand

over hand

over hand

they passed one drenched book down, then the next.

For two weeks, they lifted and reached, together:

An unbreakable human chain.

   Outstretched hands, keep our stories alive.

How Selina approached the art for this passage:

I depicted a diverse human chain in the cross-section of the charred building–- purposefully making the image almost abstract so the eye could focus on the zig zag of the staircase following the flow of helping humans. I wanted to get the feelings of seriousness and urgency across by using somber colors and rusty, burnt textures in the mixed media art. 

Interior spread for The Keeper of Stories, illustrated by Selina Alko.

Alleanna Harris - Oshún and Me: A Story of Love and Braids

Alleanna is my tri-state buddy (I live near Philadelphia, she’s in Southern New Jersey) and is a veteran illustrator of picture books about Black history and culture. Alleanna’s work is imbued with warmth and connection, and celebrates all corners of the Black diaspora.

Alleanna’s latest book, Prayer Is, written by Tameka Fryer-Brown, introduces young readers to prayer and its many different meanings. And her author-illustrator debut, O Holy Night: A Modern Day Christmas Carol, debuts with Bloomsbury Kids this fall!

Here, Alleana tells us about her work in Oshún and Me: A Story of Love and Braids, written by Adiba Nelson.

A passage from the manuscript that inspired Alleanna:

“The cowrie shells told Oshún how to help the people she loved. And because I love you, I put the cowries in your hair so you carry her protection with you. When you’re scared or sad, you can just touch your cowrie shell, and it will give you the strength and power of Oshún, the most beautiful and loving goddess.”

How Alleanna approached the art:

Creating the art was a straightforward, yet fun process. I wanted the illustration to be a literal representation of Adiba’s words, so I had to show little Yadira touching her cowrie shell and Oshún showing up to protect her. However, It was the very first time in the picture book where Yadira and Oshún interact directly, so I also looked at the passage as the perfect chance to symbolically show Oshun’s strength. 

I ended up illustrating Oshún behind Yadira, and touching her shoulder as if she was actively supporting her. I wanted to show Oshún’s power and strength as a sun-kissed, glowy, enveloping space, so I decided on having a golden yellow and orange background. I painted light emanating from Oshún’s gold gele, but I wanted the light to have movement and rhythm, so I sketched in a geometric pattern based on Yoruba Adire textiles. I also illustrated sunflowers growing around them because Oshún is always associated with sunflowers.

Interior illustration for Oshún and Me: A Story of Love and Braids, illustrated by Alleanna Harris.

Thank you Selina and Alleanna for sharing your work and process with us! And thank you to the good folks here at the SCBWI Blog for hosting me as your guest blogger for the month. I’ve enjoyed sharing my experience as a picture book illustrator and talking about the creative process with other artists. Until next time... keep creating! :)

• • •

Veronica Miller Jamison is surface pattern designer, fashion educator and illustrator of picture books. She is the illustrator of A Computer Called Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Helped Put America on The Moon (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2019), This Is A School, written by John Schu (Candlewick Press, 2022), and Up Periscope! How Engineer Raye Montague Revolutionized Shipbuilding, written by Jennifer Swanson (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2024). Veronica’s author-illustrator debut, The Stories In You: Inspired by the Wisdom of Toni Morrison, will be published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in Fall 2026. Veronica lives near Philadelphia, PA. You can visit her at veronicajamisonart.com.

Words That Evoke Emotion and Inspire Illustrations

Hey there! I’m Veronica Miller Jamison, picture book illustrator and soon-to-be-published author-illustrator (!). I’m happy to be the guest blogger for the SCBWI Blog this month.

Last week, I kicked off this series by sharing how Suzanne Slade’s writing in my first book project, A Computer Called Katherine inspired how I developed the art. This week I’ll be discussing the process of illustrating my book with the wonderful John Schu, This Is A School.

This Is A School: Leading with emotion

John Schu’s This Is A School is a loving poem that celebrates the school community and the spirit of learning. In this text, there is no narrative; instead the words describe the kinds of people a young student meets and the emotions they may experience as they connect and learn with others.

When I read the manuscript, I was reminded of that warm, first-day-of-school excitement by this passage:

Some days we get so excited,
We can’t wait to try something new.

These two lines inspired my first sketches for the book. I created a character (inspired by childhood photos of my husband) who is unabashedly excited about learning. My initial drawings show him bounding up the steps toward school and enthusiastically raising his hand in class. 

Top: Initial sketches of the character "DJ" in This Is A School. Bottom: A newspaper clipping of the real-life DJ in elementary school.

From there, I created a character map, brainstorming words to describe his personality and traits, and how he would react to different situations throughout the book. Mulling over the phrase “can’t wait to try something new,” I decide this character would be a budding scientist, who is awestruck as he tackles his first experiments (with safety goggles, of course!) in the classroom.

When I started work on This Is A School, I was in the middle of a couple of creative explorations. First, I had been experimenting with a collage technique that combined traditional and digital tools. I created swatches of colors and texture using watercolor and acrylic paint, then scanned those swatches into my iPad so I could build collaged illustrations in Procreate. 

Secondly, I had come across the charming work of French illustrator and author Alain Gree. I was absolutely enchanted by his warm, joyful colors and adorable, cut-out-like characters. 

An illustration by Alain Grée.

When it came time to send a piece of sample art to Candlewick, I created an illustration of my first character that combined my hybrid technique with my newfound source of inspiration.

A sample character illustration I created for This Is A School.

Once I was clear on my visual direction, I fleshed out the visual narrative of the book by creating more characters. As mentioned above, the text for This Is A School is an ode to the universal experiences of starting school as a young child; the artwork would create a cast of students, each of whom would have their own journey throughout the book. As I did with my first character, I brainstormed the traits and personality of each subsequent character. 

Though they are not shared in the book, each character has a name. (Some of them have changed since the initial sketches.) It’s fun to watch Mr. Schu reveal the names when he discusses This Is A School in his presentations.

There’s Noah, who is shy and anxious about his first day of school, and who finds his gifts as he makes friends.

There’s Callie, modeled after my niece, who is super-friendly and outgoing, and faces a challenge when she needs to stay home from school for a few days.

There’s the first character created, DJ, who is enthusiastic about learning and loves science.

There’s Evie, who I like to think of as a future president - confident and determined, and born to be a leader. She’s inspired by the daughter of a good friend.

There’s Imani, who is comfortably introverted and observant, and doesn’t mind going on solo explorations. 

There’s Nate, who is sweet and energetic, but has some learning challenges. He blossoms when he learns he can count on his teachers and friends.

There’s Ava, whose curiosity gets her into a bit of a pickle in the classroom.

And there are the twins, Sam and Nat, who I had so much fun animating in each spread. You can get a sense of their infectious energy whenever they show up.

The last ingredient was developing the color palette for This Is A School. As mentioned above, each time I read the manuscript, I became enveloped in that warm, happy, first-day-of-school feeling. So I chose colors that would be warm, saturated, bright, and welcoming. I experimented with different color mixtures, and then created larger swatches of paint that I scanned into my iPad.

Color palette blobs.

While I started with an intention to use primary colors (including my favorite, Naples yellow), it wasn’t long before turquoise and orange emerged as the main colors for our school community. They appear in almost every spread - at the front entrance of the school, in the hallways, in the library, and in the gym.

Turquoise and orange are also the main characters in the endpapers, where, as I mentioned in my previous post, I admittedly have a lot of fun. 🙂

Ahhhh, endpapers! :)

So there you have it! A poetic line about a familiar feeling inspired a journey of creative explorations that coalesced into the artwork for This Is A School. My hope is that young readers recognize the different emotions that they feel when starting a new school year, and that for them, school becomes a place of learning, curiosity and acceptance.

How Impactful Writing Can Inspire Illustrators

Hi friends! I’m Veronica Miller Jamison, illustrator of three picture books, one middle grade novel, and an adult fashion memoir. My first author-illustrator title, The Stories In You: Inspired by the Wisdom of Toni Morrison, will be published later this year by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (yay!). I’m excited to be this month’s guest blogger for the SCBWI Blog.

Picture books, as we know, are a fantastic medium where words and images work in a beautifully symbiotic fashion. As an illustrator, I create my favorite work when the text of a manuscript immediately inspire images to form in my imagination. And when an image is strong and exciting enough, it can set the tone for the whole project!

This month, I’m sharing a few things that can make a manuscript irresistible to an illustrator - or at least, to this illustrator.

A Computer Called Katherine: When word choice adds up to inspiration

The first picture book I illustrated was A Computer Called Katherine, written by Suzanne Slade. At the beginning of the project, as I read the manuscript, this particular passage, describing a young Katherine Johnson entering high school, instantly inspired the first image I would create for the book: 

…she took an exciting math class called geometry.

She learned how points and lines made shapes—triangles, trapezoids, and perfect parallelograms.

And her love for math grew exponentially!

In just a few lines, Suzanne’s writing gave me so much to work with! This passage made me visualize how young Katherine's imagination might look like a colorful swirl of mathematic exploration.

First, “triangles, trapezoids, and perfect parallelograms” provided a treasure trove of shapes and forms to play with. I time-traveled back to high school geometry to mine for other images, like diagrams of circles, cylinders and right triangles. 

My favorite part of this passage is the adverb “exponentially.” How perfect is that word choice?! With it in mind, I designed the layout of the spread to mimic the movement of an exponential curve, starting small on the left and growing with a dramatic upward slope to the right. The equations followed suit, beginning small and transparent on one side of the spread, growing big and bold on the other.

Initial sketch of the first spread I completed for A Computer Called Katherine

In conveying Katherine’s “love for math,” I knew our main character would be wearing a joyful, almost awestruck expression as she explored equations in her imagination. And to communicate math as “exciting,” I decided the color for the spread needed to be bright, bold and energizing. I did a few small (and very rough!) color tests to see which hues worked best. I landed on the blue and teal combination, which are complementary colors to the character's glowy, warm brown complexion.

A few color tests I did for this spread. The blue and teals won out!

Just to punctuate how much I was inspired and excited by this passage: this image was not only the first I sketched, but also the first I painted in full color, and I was so thrilled when the editor and art director chose it as the cover!

The final product: The first spread I painted for the book, which also became the cover.

With this first image as an anchor, I now had a visual language I could play with in the book. The blobs and blooms of the watercolor background became a main texture throughout the spreads. And with the help of art director Saho Fujii, we found more ways to incorporate math equations and diagrams into the artwork. As Katherine grows in age and experience, the math in the artwork becomes more complicated. In the book, you can see the progression from a very young Katherine counting and adding, to a professional Katherine using highly advanced computations to help send rockets to space.

The math and geometry get pretty complicated by the end of the book!

The blue and teal spread, where young Katherine is inspired by geometry, also serves as the basis for a callback. Later in the story, a grown-up Katherine is facing some uncertainty about the task at hand, and imagines a worst-case scenario if the math and science aren’t quite right. For this scene, the layout is similar, with an older Katherine also looking up, this time with a worried expression. “What if this all goes wrong?!” (Thankfully, it doesn’t.)

A callback to the earlier spread.

Finally, the geometry of it all is echoed in the endpapers. (Confession: As a surface pattern designer, endpapers are among my favorite parts of a book project.) Again we see the constellation of geometric shapes, but this time, they float on a shimmery watercolor painting of space.

I had a blast creating the endpapers.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at A Computer Called Katherine, and learning how a well-written text can inspire so many images. Next week we'll talk about words that convey emotions and universal experiences. See you then!

Creative Gifts You Can Give Yourself In 2025: Time to Play

Continuing this series of looking ahead at creative gifts you can give yourself in 2025, today's post is giving yourself the gift of time to play.

This can look like so many things, but the core is to allow yourself time to create just for the fun and joy of creating. Creating not with the intent that it will be consumable by others, or ultimately for others, but creating something just for you. For the process more than the result.

For the last two years, at the suggestion of my adult daughter, our family has done a parallel-play (where we do it at the same time but everyone works on their own) new year vision collage. This has involved going through old magazines, cutting out images and words and just letting things flow, assembling something that resonates both visually and with words that can be like a poem or even a rallying cry of encouragement for the year ahead. I keep mine up by my desk all year, as a reminder of the joy of creativity.

You don't have to collage, but I encourage you to start playing in some way. With art. (Try out a new medium - get messy!) With words. (Try a new structure of poetry!) Build a sand castle. Or a snow fort. Maybe even put on some music and dance, as if—as the saying goes—no one is watching. 

Interestingly, I don't have a lot of photos of me playing... mainly because when I do it's not something I document to share with others. But this is a photo from a vacation, where I did play with some balloons and created a hat. Balloons are not generally my medium. No one is going to write a symphony about the creativity behind this balloon hat, but that wasn't the point. It was play pure and simple, and joyful just for the creative process. 

The act of creating, just for us, has so much joy and value built in it, and it's a great thing to remind ourselves that we can give ourselves this gift whenever we need it. We can even give it to ourselves regularly, if we find it contributes to our joy. If it helps to make it happen, put some time aside in your calendar now. 

I hope, in the year ahead, you'll consider giving yourself the gift of time to play, whatever that looks like for you. I fully believe the rest of your creativity—and you—will benefit.

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

P.S. If you haven't seen it yet, I invite you to check out the first creative gift post, the Gift of Community.

Creative Gifts You Can Give Yourself In 2025: Community

It's December! Here's the first in a series of posts on creative gifts you might start thinking about giving yourself throughout the new year ahead.

Today's post is on community.

Writing, illustrating, and translating books for kids and teens is a very specific calling. As I've joked with some of my KidLit friends, it's hard for folks outside our industry to understand that sitting on the couch staring off into space is actually working. (It's an important part of the gig, dreaming and exploring the what ifs.)

So here's the thing: 

Where and when are you going to not just find, but be IN community this coming year? 

Meeting up with some of my KidLit author friends at the 2024 American Library Association conference, from left: Ann Suk Wang, Karol Silverstein, Paula Yoo, and me (Lee Wind) 

Social media can play a role. Bluesky is becoming very popular with KidLit creators, and community events like #kidlitchat have moved there. And at the same time, I would encourage you to recognize that true connection is often hard to achieve on social media platforms, and feeling connected -- that you have peeps, support, and understanding -- is the goal.

So here's how to take it further:

Are you able to go to an online or in-person retreat or conference? There's SCBWI and also Highlights Foundation and the Writing Barn and residencies you can apply for, along with free online writing meditations, and many more options to explore.

Is there a SCBWI local chapter/region nearby that you can get involved with? Are they hosting a mingle you can attend? An event you can volunteer to help out at? (Volunteering is a great way to find community.)

Do you have a critique group or accountability partner or just other folks you can reach out to who understand?

Do you have a group of KidLit friends? Set aside some time with them.

If you don't have a group of KidLit friends yet, how can you build some friendships? Even one person you can reach out to to share a phone call or a virtual cup of tea can make a huge difference in your feeling connected and plugged into a community that cares about you. A community where you belong.

Being in community is a great gift to give to your creativity (and yourself) in the year ahead!

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

AI re-gurgitation can be a call for YOUR unique creativity

So there's a lot of talk about "generative" AI. I think that's a misnomer. It's re-generative. It's not generating anything new. It might be even more appropriate to call it "regurgitative" AI, as it's digesting stuff and then bringing it back up in an altered form...

The Summer-Fall 2022 issue of The Authors Guild Bulletin included an article by Mary Rasenberger (the CEO of the Authors Guild) called "Artificial Intelligence: How Will Authorship Be Defined In An AI Future?"

These words, from the final paragraph, have been resonating with me since I first read it, and it seems worthwhile considering them as we head into 2024:

"Do we want humans or AI creating our literature and other arts? ... AI cannot feel, think, or empathize. It lacks the essential human faculties that move the arts forward. While it is remarkable that engineers could create a "new" Rembrandt that so closely resembles an authentic one, we do not need new Rembrandts; we need new art and literature to reflect where we humans are now, and where we might be going."

—Mary Rasenberger

I find in those words enormous inspiration, a call to creativity. Let's tap into the very things that make us remarkably human as we create works for kids and teens. Let's not regurgitate "new" classics, let's create new books that become classics—because of how human they are, how much they speak to kids and teens now, and how profoundly they give voice to each of us creators.

The advice has often been put in another way:

Tell the story in the way only YOU can tell it.

That's our voice - as writers, as illustrators*, we need to find our voice, and then tell stories in the way only WE can tell them.

And with that inspiration for your creative work ahead,

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On!
Lee

*Not to leave translators out. There's enormous creativity in translating, and two translators will create two different translations from the same text. But it seems that part of the art of translation is the effort to bring the original creator's voice to a new language while keeping not just the story but also the feel, the tone, and maybe we can use the word here, too: the voice of the original. Translation is fascinating, and if there's a translator reading this who wants to be a guest blogger about the art and craft of translating books for kids and teens, just reach out: leewind (at) roadrunner (dot) com

Goals and Your Creative Time in 2024

Happy New Year, SCBWI Community!

As we head into 2024, and you plan your creative works ahead, consider applying the (often used in business) SMART goals tool.

If you want to nerd out on the history of SMART goals, there's a fun article on it here. But more to the point, as you look at setting goals for your writing, illustrating, and/or translating year ahead, can you make your goals:

SPECIFIC

What exactly are you hoping to achieve? A new picture book dummy? A revision of a novel? An MFA?

MEASURABLE

What are the steps to achieving your goal? Are you going to measure time invested? Words accrued? Editors researched?

ACHIEVABLE

Sometimes the "A" in the SMART acronym is shown as attainable or even assignable (a management thing), but for us, is the goal something within our power to make happen? Here's an example: Getting your book featured in the New York Times would be awesome, but it's not directly achievable by you. Pitching an agent you've researched is achievable.

RELEVANT

Maybe you want to take a class to improve a skill, or learn new software that can aid your process. Maybe you want to read 1,000 picture books to really understand how a picture book works, and what makes one sing... Keep in mind your overall vision of creating books and content for kids and/or teens as you're setting your goals. But I'd suggest not being too stringent on this. If you really want to learn how to make bread, maybe that's the thing you need to fill your creative well... and who knows, maybe you'll create a story about a character who is obsessed with tracing back the origins of their sourdough starter!

TIME BOUND

It's always fun at the start of a new year to set goals for the year ahead. But a year is a huge amount of time. It might be more effective for you to set weekly goals. Or monthly. Or, daily... Consider that without a time-constraint on your goal, it could never get to the front-burner of your attention. 

So now, take five minutes to write down one or two creative goals for 2024. And check if they're SMART.

Good luck on the adventure ahead, as we all illustrate, translate, and write on,
Lee

Back to School and Time to... Play?

It's September, and most kiddos are back to school after the summer break.

Maybe because we ourselves were kiddos at one time, and our formative years were shaped by this pattern, September still has that 'time to get back to work' feel.

Only, now I'm an adult, and kind of work all the time. 

I can almost hear you say that. Then again, maybe that's just ME saying that.

Either way, I'd like to share a challenge that's partly inspired by the wonderful Debbie Ohi, who's been sharing on social media (like here on Instagram) how much fun she's having with a new artistic technique - collage.

As Debbie wrote in that post, 

"I have no idea if I'll ever use this for illustrating children's books, but I'm having so much fun just PLAYING right now." —Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Maybe ask yourself, what does play look like in your creative process? Can you play with poems? With composing in a different language? With music? With art yourself?

How can we add play to the mix of our lives as we all juggle our must-dos and want-to-dos?

Some play might be just what we (and our creative work) need.

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

Ten Random Thoughts From an Author/Illustrator

    As I was racking my brain for what to write for this post, I had two problems. I had no ideas, yet also too many ideas. Random phrases and miscellaneous publishing thoughts kept inserting themselves onto the page. However, as soon as I typed them out, my mind went blank.

    So instead of making a choice, I’ve decided to share them all with you. Here are my top ten random thoughts about writing, illustrating, and being a creative person, in no particular order. (Complete with random art!) 

1. Trust Your Reader

     When we are writing or illustrating, we should intentionally leave room for the reader or the viewer. Sometimes we get feedback asking us to explain things more thoroughly or assuming that our audience won’t pick up on the intended message of the book. When you get this type of feedback, consider: If I take this feedback will I be over-explaining? Is there, in fact, something missing that is making the message unclear? Or if I add more details, am I not trusting my reader?

2. Blank Pages Are The Worst

Be An Artist - Illustration by Anne Appert

    Get something, ANYTHING on the page. You never know where it will take you. A chance phrase may just be the idea that carries your story or illustration across the finish line. When brainstorming this post, I wrote “light up sneakers” on the page because it popped into my head as I was pondering ideas, and didn’t want to be staring at a blank page anymore. This phrase helped me arrive at the idea to share my ten random thoughts. You never know where seemingly unrelated ideas will lead you!

3. Everything Takes Time. And Always More Than You Think It Should

    The amount of time you think something should take? Double it. Triple it. It is incredibly satisfying to reach your audience with your book(s), but publishing is a slow industry. One of my favorite pieces of advice that I have ever received was from one of my college professors: If you don’t give up, you will succeed. In publishing, just know this could take two or five or ten or twenty (or more) years. However, if you are passionate about getting your stories into books for children to read, it will be worth it. 

4. Any Idea Can Be A Good One, With A Little Work

    Okay, I know people will disagree with me on this one. Hear me out. If you thought it was worth writing down, if it made you laugh or someone else laugh, if someone started building off your “silly” idea when they heard it, then maybe, just maybe, there is a seed of something there. Just like a random phrase can lead to a post worth sharing, a bad idea can lead to a good idea worth writing or drawing. You may just have to polish it a bit (ok a lot) before it shines.

Be Your Own Unicorn - Illustration by Anne Appert 

5. Put Yourself On The Page

    My first post for this blog was about how BLOB helped me discover myself. You may think you don’t have anything new or unique to say, but your writing and art will surprise you. By being you, by allowing yourself to be vulnerable, by allowing yourself to be silly or frustrated, happy or sad, by letting yourself feel whatever thing you are feeling, you will connect with your audience.

6. It’s Always Okay To Buy Another Notebook Or Sketchbook

    Don’t even question it. Of course you need it. It may just be the thing that unlocks your next idea! You never know, and you wouldn’t want to risk anything by NOT buying the notebook/sketchbook. Right? 

7. Always Tell A Story

    As writing advice this may seem obvious; however, sometimes we get so caught up in adding elements such as alliteration, repetition, and lyrical language that the story gets lost. The story is what is important. Always. As for drawing advice, you can create a gorgeous painting, but if it doesn’t tell the viewer a story, you won’t be hired to create a book. Always think: what story am I trying to tell? What details can I add? How can I hint at the before and after? How can I get the reader or the viewer to ask, what happens next?

8. When In Doubt, Add Sparkles

    Those light up sneakers? Of course your character needs them! While we don’t want our story to get lost in too many unnecessary elements, a little extra bling in the form of outrageous outfits, creative color choices, or alliterative adjectives can bring your manuscript or illustration to the next level.

9. It’s Okay To Be Not Ok

It's Ok to Be Sad - Illustration by Anne Appert

    Hey! We are still in a pandemic. Life is hard. Writing is hard. Illustrating is hard. Maybe you got a rejection from your dream agent. Maybe your advance was lower than you wanted. Maybe you didn't get the call to illustrate the book you really wanted to illustrate. Maybe you are burnt out and can’t think of a single idea for anything, not even a blog post. Sometimes we try to squash our feelings because we convince ourselves we should just be happy with how far we’ve come, that because we have had some success our feelings aren’t valid. Publishing can still be disappointing, and It’s ok to feel how you feel.

10. Celebrate Everything

    Sold a book? Celebrate! Signed with an agent? Celebrate! Finished your book dummy? Celebrate! Figured out that ending you could never get right? Celebrate! Finished a sketch that was keeping you up? Celebrate! Made it to your computer to write? Celebrate! Decided to take a self care day? Celebrate! Cleaned off your desk? Celebrate! Went on an artist date? You know what to do.

Bonus Thought! Ignore Everything I’ve Said

    Everyone's journey is different. Everyone has opinions about the right way to do things and the correct path to success. As with a critique of your work, perhaps some of this stuff feels superficial or unimportant to you. That’s ok! You find you and your own path. Then, celebrate that.

    Maybe add some sparkle too. Just for good measure.

    And of course, buy that notebook.

Anne Appert (they/them ) is a nonbinary author/illustrator who spent their childhood with their nose stuck in a book, while their wild imagination transformed their New Jersey backyard into faraway places. Anne still enjoys spending time in their backyard dreaming, and now their imagination turns their dreams into words and pictures for children. Anne wrote and illustrated their debut book Blob, which was published by HarperCollins in Fall of 2021. Their second book What If You Wish? will publish with HarperCollins in 2024. They are a member of SCBWI, from which they received an honor in the 2021 Conference Portfolio Showcase. When not writing and illustrating, Anne enjoys teaching college students, dying their hair every color of the rainbow, and attempting to roller skate. You can see their work at anneappert.com.