Creativity Survey (Part 1)
Our creativity survey explores the deeper meaning behind what it means to be creative. Each month a different group of our authors and illustrators will share with us how they approach the artistic process and, most importantly, how they keep the creative flame alive. We think you will enjoy their answers, in both differences and similarities. Creativity is a gift, but it does not come free -- balancing art with life is a full-time job. Lee & Low appreciates the dedication of the following individuals and celebrates the wonderful books for children they have created.
We look forward to your comments.
  
Davida Adedjouma (left)is a contributing poet to In Daddy's Arms I Am Tall, and editor of The Palm of My Heart: Poetry by African American Children.
Jeri Hanel Watts (center) is the author of Keepers.
William Miller (right) is the author of Zora Hurston and the Chinaberry Tree, Frederick Douglass and the Last Day of Slavery, Richard Wright and the Library Card, The Bus Ride, Night Golf, The Piano, Rent Party Jazz and Joe Louis, My Champion
(1) Do you have a regular writing regimen? Please explain.
Davida Adedjouma: I used to be so much more diligent about writing a set number of hours everyday. But I am now trying to expand my career to include film production, and so find myself writing non-stop for days before a deadline, which is quite a feat with a full-time job. But I've been turning out quite a bit of work writing under the gun -- sort of like James Caan in the Steven King film, "Misery."
Jeri Hanel Watts: I try to write at least thirty minutes a day but sometimes it just doesn't happen. Laundry, lunches, and lesson plans are examples of the distractions in my life. I've given myself permission to not beat myself up if my time is eaten up occasionally.
William Miller: I write something, a poem usually, every day, as well as my children’s books.
(2) Where is your favorite place to work? Why?
DA: Since moving to New York, and moving into a studio, my favorite place to write has been either at work, after hours, or at Gators Restaurant, at South Street Seaport (NYC). My studio is not conducive to writing since I always like to write in a second bedroom, and I don't even have a first bedroom now.
JHW: My favorite place to work is at a desk in my bedroom. It's sunny and bright there, which makes me feel happy and it is a place I ONLY use for writing.
WM: I work in my office at school because I have my computer there. Once I start writing, it doesn’t matter what physical place I’m in.
(3) What/where is your dream place to work? Why?
DA: I would love to live and write by an ocean. There is something about water that releases my thoughts. I have been known to write in the bathtub, when all else fails.
JHW: Gosh, I've never thought of this. I suppose my dream place is a book-lined study with a window that looks out over the mountains. And the time to work there everyday!
WM: I don’t think about those things. I think about the computer screen and my words appearing on it.
(4) Where do you get your ideas from? What inspires you?
DA: I usually get my ideas from my life, and the lives of my friends. Music
inspires me, gossip inspires me, sadness inspires me.
JHW: My ideas come from real life. The kids I teach, my family, my memories. Sometimes it takes only one sentence from one of my daughters to fuel a story.
WM: I get my ideas from personal experience, family history, books, newspapers, etc. I’m inspired by ordinary people who do extraordinary things.
(5) How much does your work depend on inspiration?
DA: Recently, not much. I used to wait for inspiration. Now I write on deadline, as a career more than as an art.
JHW: My work depends on inspiration very much, at this point. I'd like, actually, to try writing a few stories where the idea is given to me -- just to see if I could put it together. But yes, for me now, inspiration is the key.
WM: Very little. Writing for me is 1% inspiration, 99% hard work.
(6) How do you deal with writer's/artist's block?
DA: I've recently learned to just push my way through it, just put something on paper. And I've also gone back into therapy.
JHW: I've had a problem with writer's block this past summer. I decided to take a break, to read a lot and let ideas "percolate." I've focused my writing time on revisions of older pieces that weren't totally successful but are still salvageable. And as the fall approaches, I've found myself working mentally, plotting and planning for my new character I want to write about.
WM: I don’t believe in writer’s block -- I think it’s an excuse not to write. I work on numerous projects at one time -- a novel, a poem, an essay, a children’s book. That way I stay busy writing.
(7) What do you do to stay focused?
DA: Realize that I have to work a job for income because I'm not writing on schedule. And I've always made more money writing than working a 9 to 5. So I consider a "real job" my punishment for not living my real life, which is through words.
JHW: I shut the door and try to immerse myself in the idea I'm working on. If I haven't done laundry for a while, or if the dog is sick, things don't go so smoothly, but otherwise my family tries to respect that closed door.
WM: I have very little time to write, as I am a single dad and a full-time college professor. When I have time, I don’t waste it.
(8) How has your childhood or adulthood affected or shaped your work?
DA: I've written ever since I was a child. My father was an artist; and every school I ever attended, from grade school through college, stressed the importance of the arts. I also drew as a child (I had my first illustration published in a children's book when I was about 13), so the arts have always been a part of my life.
JHW: I suppose we are all affected by our lives. I spent much of my life wishing I were taller or slimmer or prettier -- but all of my experiences gave my life a structure that makes it mine and allows me to tell the stories the way I do, so I’ve stopped wishing for things to be different. I just wish now for the wisdom to shape my experiences into tales that have universality. I use all of my life as fodder to feed the writer I've become, and am becoming.
WM: My parent’s divorce when I was ten followed by a life threatening bone disease, osteomeylitis, definitely shaped the ironic or dark side of my work.
(9) Do you prefer to work on a single project, or multiple book projects at one time? Why?
DA: I now prefer multiple projects. I'm getting to that age where I feel it's important for me to turn out as much work as I can. Multiple projects also help with writer's block -- if I can't get the juices flowing on one project, I usually can with the other[s].
JHW: A single project is usually about all I can handle. I have a scattered life anyway -- mother, teacher, wife, daughter -- and just getting to the writing time is difficult enough. I don't like to juggle projects. I CAN, but I prefer not to.
WM: See answer #6
(10) Is research a large part of your work? If so, what kind of research do you do? What are some useful resources that you’ve found?
DA: The only research I do is travel as much as possible. I'm working on a novel set in France -- I lived in Paris for two years, so I'm writing from experience. I wrote a book about Australian women artists while living in Australia. I may use the Internet or the library for specific research -- dates of events and so forth. But my research comes from life.
JHW: Yes, and no. My published book, Keepers, required no research. The story I've been revising has required more. The research depends on the subject of the book, but I've recently researched holidays around the world, healing herbs, depression and the 1930s and 1940s.
WM: Reading biographies and non-fiction history is where I get many of my ideas.
(11) How does your ethnicity and/or cultural background influence your work?
DA: I write from the black experience -- which is the only experience I know. I live in a predominately white culture, but that culture is always filtered through my prism of blackness. The rhythm in my work comes from jazz and blues and Afro-Cuban beats. And my stories are those of my people.
JHW: My cultural background has influenced my work -- I write about Southern people and places I know.
WM: I’m a poor, white Southerner -- or was. I always felt inferior, especially when I moved to the North. My great-grandmother was a Creek Indian, so I’m not totally white.
(12) Is travel important to your work? If so, why?
DA: See answer #10
JHW: Yes, but perhaps not in the way you mean. I find that when my family takes long trips, they all listen to music (the girls with those infernal Walkmans) and I am provided with wonderful time to think. I just stare out the window, leave them in their musical worlds, and enter my own world of ideas and images.
WM: Not really.
(13) How do you usually respond to a rejection letter?
DA: Throw them away.
JHW: There is a sinking feeling in my stomach -- even when the editor was kind and I know he/she is right. I put the letter away and go back and read it again after a few days. Then, a few days after that, I make my decision -- send it out again, revise immediately, or give the piece time to sit before I look at it again.
(14) What is the best editorial advice you have ever received?
DA: To write in my own voice, and tell my own story.
JHW: An editor once asked, "What is your story about?" I start my writing with a character and I sometimes get so carried away with the person and the images and the words, that I forget to hone in on the story that evolves. I'll try to hammer away at the story I thought I was telling and not focus on the true story that emerges. So now, I try to re-read it after that first or second draft and ask myself, "what is this story really about?"
(15) What is the biggest challenge about being a writer?
DA: Income to support yourself while writing.
JHW: I think my biggest challenge about being a writer is to believe in myself, as a writer. I don't get many acceptances and every minute spent writing is time I could spend being a better mom, teacher, wife, etc. I ask myself constantly if my writing is worth that time stolen from other things.
(16) What other advice would you offer new writers?
DA: Just write. Don't think about publication, or money, or fame. Just write what's in your heart, and your audience will come.
JHW: Read a lot, write a lot, and keep working to refine your writing to make it the very best. All of us have stories to tell; we just have to find the right way to tell them and the right people to tell them to.
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