Creative Process • by Natascha Biebow

I recently had an epiphany about the creative process.

Here’s how it goes:

Imagine you walk into a building.

You look around, take in the place - its atmosphere, the furnishings, the knick-knacks (or the lack there-of), the smell . . . you start to make a story in your head about the house and the people who live there.

So, there’s a story right there.

But what if you dig a little deeper? What if you look in the attic, under the floorboards, or in the historical records about the place and its owners?

This crocodile - a gift from a WW1 veteran - was uncovered beneath
the floorboards of a Welsh Primary - what surprising items
will be beneath the 'floorboards' of the story you're crafting?

A new story slowly emerges . . .

Some of it is unfamiliar, strange, even.

So, now you’ve got to sit with the unfamiliar, the blank page. What next? Is THIS the story you ask? Sit with it for a moment.

But sitting with that blank page is scary. What if the story doesn’t come? What if it isn’t good enough? What if nobody likes it?

The fear grows. EMPTINESS. The story stops.

But hang on a minute.

Get out of your way! Look FEAR in the eye. TRUST the process.

Fear is your friend. Look harder at the story, for the story.

Ask it what’s at its heart. What is the feeling of the story?

What is it telling you, telling the world?

What would a child really like about this story?

Now, I give myself permission to be inspired by other things. I leaf through magazines. I go to galleries, parks, playgrounds, writing events or whatever lends itself to the theme at hand. Completely unconnected things are often the best way to kick-start the writing process in new, exciting directions.

Recently, I heard author M. T. Anderson said speak:

"Don't just live in the place you live." Authors need to embrace the unfamiliar, he said. "Open up the floors and see what's there. Explore the strange and the new, and make it your own . . .  that is where the sublime happens."

How can you make it your own?

Only you can look for the story inside, in the pockets of life that you carry around with you.

But if you’re brave enough . . . What might you uncover? Something unexpected, something exciting – just waiting to be discovered!

 

And so your story, those words on the page, they start to take shape, to have more depth, and maybe now they also have more resonance too.

Because they are bigger, wider. They reach into the world into place other people, your readers, can also connect with. When they visit, maybe they’ll see other things, perhaps even things you never even saw in the original story.

And so . . . they will find in it their spirit, their connection, too. 

And this is a process of creating story. It isn’t ever the same, but perhaps we can all share something in this experience?

_______________________________________________________________

Natascha Biebow, MBE, Author, Editor and Mentor

Natascha is the author of The Crayon Man: The True Story of the Invention of Crayola Crayons, illustrated by Steven Salerno, Elephants Never Forget and Is This My Nose?, editor of numerous award-winning children’s books, and Co-Regional Advisor (Co-Chair) of SCBWI British Isles. She is currently working on more non-fiction and a series of young fiction. She runs Blue Elephant Storyshaping, an editing, coaching and mentoring service aimed at empowering writers and illustrators to fine-tune their work pre-submission. Find her at www.nataschabiebow.com

What's your Other Life? - post by Jonathan Allen

As I've been at this job for a good thirty years or so, I think I can use the pompous phrase "In my long and varied career. ." without any exaggeration.

So, In my 'long and varied career' as a writer and illustrator, I have always had other interests bumping along in the back of the van, as it were. I suppose that, because I have never had what could be called a 'proper job', nothing that required travel to a place of work and a commitment to eight hours of labour of any kind, I don't compartmentalise my time. By which I mean that I don't feel I have to be doing any particular thing at a particular time of day. I am constrained by deadlines, but have free choice about when I do what in order to meet said deadlines.

I have lived long enough to realise that this is very unusual, and how lucky I am to be able to earn a living (of sorts) doing what I like and am good at. Basically I draw funny animals and get paid for it. . . Ridiculous. . .

A Fat Cat - but you knew that.

As what time I spend on what, is determined by me, I have been able to pursue other creative avenues in a fairly intensive way, deadlines permitting.

How about you? What interests do you have running parallel to your life a an author or illustrator?

I think creative people are inclined to use their creativity in all areas of life, after all it is a mindset rather than a 'hat' you put on from time to time. It would be interesting to know what strong interests other writers and illustrators have or have had in their lives alongside their writing and Illustrating careers, and how they feel it might feed back into their 'work'.

My list starts with music. I played bass in a band at art school, art school being one of the traditional places bands emerge from. We never got anywhere, but really wanted to for a while. From that I got interested in recording, and had a small studio in a house I lived in, with a couple of mates. I lost interest, as I hadn't got the level of commitment needed to spend long and antisocial hours in a darkened room with a rock band from Croydon (for instance). . .

Status Shark, 5 string, passive electronics. Ho yes.

I got interested in computer related music tech and electronic music. Sampling etc, but again, didn't pursue it to any tangible end. (story of my life. .)
That led to an interest in computer generated landscape software, fractal based forms and how to make 'realistic' textures and patterns using them.

This kind of thing - computer generated landscape from a good few years ago now. . .

I still mess with that stuff, but I now make abstract patterns and print the images onto ceramic tiles. Getting the patterns out onto real objects led me to polymer clay, which in turn led me to making beads and jewelry of a particular 'rustic' kind. I've started selling them online. . . (under another name so as to avoid confusion. .) I could never have predicted that one!

'Rustic' Image Transfer beads, antiqued up to high heaven - fun to do

I think it feeds back into what I do in that the same process of refining a rough idea into something finished goes on. (Well, obviously!) What I mean is that the process of structuring a good pop song, or bass line, or idea for a pendant etc is comparable to that of putting together good picture book. It's the same mindset at work, getting stuck in to the complex work that goes into producing something simple but solid in concept and execution.
Anyway, enough about me. What is and what has been your creative passion outside writing or illustrating, and has it been an inspiration or a distraction? (I think mine have been both at various times. . )