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Creativity Survey (Part 4)

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.

Ken Mochizuki photo

Ken Mochizuki (left) is the author of Baseball Saved Us, Heroes and Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story.
Matthew Gollub (right) is the author of Cool Melons -Turn to Frogs! The Life and Poems of Issa and Ten Oni Drummer.

(1) Do you have a regular writing regimen? Please explain.
Ken Mochizuki: Early in the morning -- the earlier the better -- is always my best time for writing. The morning is when the mind is fresh and receptive. As the day wears on, the mind becomes soiled like laundry -- soiled by encroaching judgement and cynicism.

Sometimes I am writing while wearing pajamas and a bathrobe into the late morning because I don't want to interrupt the writing process.

Matthew Gollub: First, if I'm at all tired, I take a short nap. I can do busy, but not creative, work when I haven't slept well. Secondly, I like the ritual of reading the newspaper, particularly the box scores in the Sports Section during baseball season. On one hand I'm aghast at the waste of resources in professional sports. On the other, I suppose that I'm like anyone else in that I identify with how familiar ballplayers perform. Sometimes I feel like I, too, strike out, hit a single, a double or maybe a homerun. Finally, I enjoy taking in a hot drink. Coffee makes me jittery, so I instead I drink Postum, which, while not as 90's, is at least is the same color as coffee. It also helps if I clear off my desk before working. Finally, I resolve not to answer the phone.

(2) Where is your favorite place to work? Why?
KM: For me, the only effective place to work is at my desk, and in front of the computer. Writers say that creative writing means transforming into a trance-like state. And that is only possible during the actual process of writing.

MG: I love the romance of writing outdoors, overlooking the ocean, mountains, or even a quiet field. I also love to write while traveling abroad. But, truth be told, it's more efficient to write at home because whatever I jot down away from my desk eventually has to be keyed in on my computer.

(3) What/where is your dream place to work? Why?
KM: My dream place to work would be in a nice beach house by the ocean -- especially the Oregon Coast. I can think of nothing better than sitting before a laptop computer with a good cup of coffee and ocean waves providing a drone in the background. Runner-up would be to work in some remote area in a forest. I guess these locations are a result of being a native of the Pacific Northwest.

MG: I would say my dream place to work would be far from the trappings of modern life, perhaps in a small village in someplace like Mexico or Greece. In that sort of environment you can eat when you like, socialize if you wish, and otherwise experience no demands on your time.

(4) Where do you get your ideas from? What inspires you?
KM: My ideas often come from current events and history I store -- mostly gleaned from books and the mass media, particularly newspaper and magazine articles. Reading is the main source of inspiration. I am often asked, "How do you get inspired? Do you take long walks?" I could walk forever, and inspiration will never strike. Ideas and inspiration occur while in the process of writing. The truly magical moment arrives when fictional characters assume lives of their own, when they start acting and talking in ways I had never planned.

MG: These days I do a fair amount of traveling to present my material at schools and conferences. My interaction with kids who attend my assemblies and workshops keeps me in touch with the workings of young minds. School visits, my family, and my years of living in foreign cultures seem to keep my story ideas flowing. Like many writers, I feel that I have more ideas than I can develop; the challenge is to settle on one idea at a time and work it through the long process of fruition, i.e., writing it, revising it, getting it accepted, edited, illustrated, etc.

(5) How much does your work depend on inspiration?
PM: When I do presentations in schools around the country, I always tell students: Writing is maybe 10 percent inspiration and talent; 90 percent hard work. Writing is a business of rewriting

CWC: I believe in the adage that creativity is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. But that 1% of inspiration is vital for the success of a book.

(6) How do you deal with writer's/artist's block?
KM: Writer's block can always be overcome -- eventually. A writer has to write his/her way out of it -- write whatever is of interest at the time without judgement or intent to satisfy anyone but yourself. When passion is lost is when a writer is really in trouble.

MG: Believe it or not, I've had much less writer's block in recent years. I believe it's because I've had less time to write. Somehow, when I'm conscious of the limitations of time, I seem to work more efficiently. When I'm stuck working on a new manuscript or revision, I walk away from my computer, pick up a pen and piece of paper and give myself five minutes to resolve the problem. I scribble and scratch whatever ideas enter my head. Sometimes that little exercise does the trick; sometimes it merely loosens my thoughts and sets up a non-deliberate sort of resolution which may occur while I'm doing something unrelated like washing dishes, sleeping, or running errands with my kid. Another little creative habit that I find quite helpful is sitting down at my drum set, my congas or my dumbeg, and losing myself in Middle Eastern or Latin jazz rhythms until I gather the patience to go back to my desk and write. Needless to say, I don't do well in apartments.

(7) What do you do to stay focused?
KM: There is nothing like a deadline to keep a writer focused. If one doesn't really exist, I establish a self-imposed deadline so it will force myself to concentrate on the project at the moment.

MG: If it's not inspiration that propels me forward, it's a sense of pressure and the expectations of others. If I know an editor is waiting for a revision, that becomes a constructive pressure -- especially when the editor is well-attuned to the project and cheering me on in subtle ways. I similarly feel a kind of pressure -- and this is totally contrived, I admit -- when my critique group of other children's authors is about to meet and I don't have anything interesting to share.

(8) How has your childhood or adulthood affected or shaped your work?
KM: As a child, a teacher could teach so much during a school day -- the rest I would have to learn on my own. I was lucky to have a set of encyclopedias at home, plus newspapers and magazines around all the time. My lifelong interest in history began then. Also, I grew up with a lot of '60s television, which was very grounded in a storytelling tradition. TV shows told stories, with some of the most memorable being "The Twilight Zone," "Night Gallery," "Combat," "Star Trek," "Mission: Impossible". Even comedies such as "I Love Lucy" and "All in the Family" emphasized a complete story told in a half-hour. The storytelling tradition of that time definitely influenced me to become a writer.

MG: I don't think I've really mined my childhood yet. But I've often tried to stretch and challenge myself in adulthood. Perhaps as a reaction to growing up white and middle-class, I've spent considerable effort learning to speak Japanese and Spanish and -- more importantly -- how different those cultures see the world.

(9) Do you prefer to work on a single project, or multiple book projects at one time? Why?
KM: I always like to finish what I start, so I usually take on one project at a time.

MG: Initially, I feel good about dabbling in a few projects at once. But once I'm near the finish with one book, I become much more compulsive about details. This intense focus can last many weeks and preclude me from tending to normal chores such as paying bills. So although this deep level of concentration can be thrilling, it's not always conducive to leading a calm and orderly life.

(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?
KM: Since most of my work has been historical so far, research does play a major role. Especially, of course, for non-fiction stories. I've found the best resources to be other people, who connect you to others and their resources.

MG: Basically, I'm a fiction writer with little patience for researching other books. I much prefer conducting research "in the field," by personally delving into the country or culture I'm writing about. One book that did require some scholarship, however, was Cool Melons -Turn to Frogs!. Because I was writing about a well-known poet (Issa), I had to get the basic events of his life in order, even though I fictionalized his conversations as he grew up.

(11) How does your ethnicity and/or cultural background influence your work?
KM: My cultural background influences everything I do, because, for me writing is a component of a larger purpose. And that purpose is to prove to others that Americans of Asian descent have been a part of America for a long time. That can be achieved by telling our stories -- particularly our American experiences. These stories have been rarely told. My books were once called "revisionist." My response: What am I revising when these stories have never been told?

MG: See response to #8. Although I grew up in a Jewish household (and learned just enough Hebrew at Hebrew school to confuse me in my first college semester of Japanese), I haven't been drawn to writing about the Jewish experience. For one thing, it's been done quite a bit, and I don't know if what I'd have to say is unique. But many aspects of Judaism have shaped me as an adult: a peculiar mix of idealism and pessimism, a certain intellectual restlessness and, of course, a love of books.

(12) Is travel important to your work? If so, why?
KM: Travel is a critical component of my work. If my overall purpose is to show others that I am not a foreigner, I am not from Japan, but am a member of a family and ethnic group that has been in America for centuries, then there is no more effective way to accomplish that goal than through personal interaction. I sometimes humorously dub my traveling as "missionary work."

MG: Travel has broadened my horizons immeasurably, starting with my trip to Ecuador where I traveled alone when I was fourteen. Over the years, I must have travelled to around 35 countries. But, oddly enough, now that I'm NOT travelling, in some ways I feel in more sync with the world. Everywhere I traveled I saw people focused on their families, people working to get along and, in one way or another, to be loved. Now that I'M married and focused on MY young family, I feel I have a huge common bond with Balinese duckherds and Turkish fishermen and a great many others with whom I've crossed paths.

(13) How do you usually respond to a rejection letter?
KM: When responding to a rejection letter, consider the source. If YOU respect the person rejecting you, and consider the person credible, then consider the rejection an education.

MG: For a brief, but delicious, self-indulgent moment I dismiss the taste, vision and intelligence of the offending publisher. Then I may do a little soul-searching about the work's merit. Usually, however, I just sort of shrug and assume that the publisher isn't confident that my story would work for them.

(14) What is the best editorial advice/comment you have ever received?
KM: The best editorial advice I have ever received: "It is the second draft that separates the men from the boys, the women from the girls." Others: "Show, don't tell" and "Don't think about it - just do it."

MG: This came about early in the development of Cool Melons -Turn to Frogs! when Lee & Low's editor at the time, Liz Szabla, encouraged me to try to make Issa's biography come to life. I'd been so careful to present the facts of the poet's life that the narrative sounded stilted, almost professorial; I'd lost sight of the point which was to speak to modern children. A close second best bit of advice from Liz was, really, no advice at all. She just let the artist, Kazuko Stone, and I create the book and applauded our every improvement along the way.

(15) What is the biggest challenge about being a writer/illustrator?
KM: The biggest challenge about being a writer is that the profession becomes a lifestyle onto itself and a world onto itself. Writing is an isolating, lonely business, for most personal interaction occurs with one's own creative mind. The much honored and prolific children's book writer, Laurence Yep, said, "Writers are daydreamers by profession. Not everybody loves a daydreamer. And daydreaming doesn't always pay for houses or put food on the table."

MG: Earning a living. That is why many of us speak or teach on the side. I happen to enjoy speaking and performing, but I'd also be content to simply write on salary.

(16) Do you do anything special to make sure editors notice your work? Please elaborate.
KM: There is nothing particularly special to be done to make sure editors notice a writer's work, except to always produce and submit good, quality work. Reputation is everything.

MG: I just mention what positive reviews my books have received and what I've done as an author to help promote sales.

(17) What other advice would you offer new writers?
KM: Advice to new writers: Write. Just do it. And try to write in as many forms/mediums as you can. Versatility will not only help pay the bills, but will also make YOU more adaptable to any project in the future. The destination is never as important as the journey to get there!

MG: I'd advise newcomers to try to learn their craft well, take rejections in stride and to savor the opportunity to read and be creative. Creativity, I believe, is the closest we come to godliness. Everyday is a blessing in which we can dream and communicate our thoughts.

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