Rejection and Rubbish Are the Essential Stuff of Creation • by Natascha Biebow

I have been reading this book:

 

How to Fly A Horse: The Secret History of Creation,
Invention and Discovery by Kevin Ashton

 

Ashton is a technology pioneer, whose own personal journey as an inventor proves his point. It was only as a result of tens of thousands of hours of work, filled with failures, mistakes and flashes of inspiration, that he was able to build ‘the internet of things’.

 

He debunks the myth that creativity is the remit of the few and that geniusus create in a dramatic moment of ‘eureka’ inspiration. According to Ashton, there are no tricks or quick fixes, just hours of ordinary to reach the extraordinary.

 

The title is intriguing, isn’t it? It comes from the story of the Wright Brothers’ process of inventing a flying machine. They were the first people to fly, not because they were the first to build an airplane (many people had similar ideas!), but because they problem-solved how to make it fly step-by-step, rather than in one big leap. They observed how birds flew, but when they tried to replicate this, they noticed their contraption moved erratically like an 'untrained horse'. Solving the problem of air gliding plus balancing when dealing with a ‘bucking horse’, required failure, lateral thinking and resilience until they eventually put all the parts together.

 

The Wright Flyer airborne during the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, United States of America, 17 December 1903. Orville Wright is the pilot while Wilbur Wright runs alongside.

What does his have to do with being a picture book writer? Lots!

Here are some of my take-aways:

 

Ahston argues that creativity is innate, as much part of being human as walking, talking or eating. People are not equally creative, just like we are not all equally athletic or mathematical thinkers, but everyone can do it.  

 

• Creation is the result of many small incremental steps: when we look carefully, we can see that every innovation has been built on the foundation of what has come before us. So, we are building on the sum of the work of authors and illustrators who have preceded us, across generations, continents and cultures. There is always room to innovate further.

 

So, when we look at the competition and feel overwhelmed by all the amazing books already out there, or when we think someone else has already covered a topic about which we'd like to create a picture book, we can take a deep breath and continue.

 

• Everything you start with will probably be rubbish: what we first produce will not be as good as what we can create once it’s been reviewed, fine-tuned, refined, or even thrown out and begun again. So, start we must.  

 

“Good writing is bad writing well edited”  Ashton writes.

 

 

So it’s important to just start, repeat and repeat again. Stretch ourselves to power through the nay-saying voices in our head and the temptations to get way-laid by interruptions (coffee, email, researching randomia, the washing, the dog . . .). Just work!

 

• Rejection is essential: everything is created by the process of failure to foundation.

 

When we look around and admire others’ amazing work, we often do not see what was thrown away, what failed and what didn’t make the cut. Rubbish is the foundation for innovation. Something to remember, too, when we receive those rejection letters when submitting - it's an opportunity to try again and do better!

 

“Innovation is whatever remains when all our failures are removed.” 

 

In every picture book I’ve ever edited, there is a whole process that unfolds behind the scenes, but you wouldn’t glean any of the frustrations, micro-decisions, re-thinks, and amends that go into each spread from looking at the finished book. Which is how it should be! Here is just one example of this:

 

From Cotton Cloud Refuses to Rain by Elizabeth F Hill and Hannah George (published by Five Quills)

 

Figuring out how to show this turning point moment where Cotton Cloud is upset, thinking her rain might have made people sad was tricky. To give it more impact, we suggested zooming in and deleting the detail on the ground. The editor, designer, author and illustrator collaborated closely to solve this problem. (From Cotton Cloud Refuses to Rain by Elizabeth F Hill and Hannah George)

 

The final artwork highlights the characters' emotional turning point with much more impact and draws in readers into the moment. (From Cotton Cloud Refuses to Rain by Elizabeth F Hill and Hannah George)

The next spread needed adjusting too. (Picture books have an annoying habit of when you fix one thing, another unravels, but ultimately the end result is so much better!) Here, we see how Cotton Cloud's rain has brought joy and growth to the parched landscape, animals and people. This early rough was a great starting point, but we wanted to add more expression and emotion to this key moment. (From Cotton Cloud Refuses to Rain by Elizabeth F Hill and Hannah George)

 

 

In this new rough, the characters are more prominent and Hannah's signature and delightful details draw in the readers with their stories. The author and I discussed amending the text to accompany the revised image - see final artwork below. (From Cotton Cloud Refuses to Rain by Elizabeth F Hill and Hannah George)

 

(From Cotton Cloud Refuses to Rain by Elizabeth F Hill and Hannah George)

We each bring our point of difference, our unique ‘us’ to our work. It’s important to create prolifically, building on each other’s creativity in order to innovate.

 

“There are more people creating, so there are more tools in the tool chain . . . so we have more time, space, health education, and information for creating.” Each creator is essential – and there’s room for all of us.

 

I found Ashton's book fascinating and I’d highly recommend it for the curious creator.  More importantly, reading its stories provided me with an uplifting sense of the possible in what I might create, renewed confidence and hope. 

 

_________________________________________________________________

 

Natascha Biebow, MBE, Author, Editor and Mentor

 

Want to level up your picture books? I am launching a new course!

Natascha is the author of the award-winning The Crayon Man: The True Story of the Invention of Crayola Crayons, illustrated by Steven Salerno, winner of the Irma Black Award for Excellence in Children's Books, and selected as a best STEM Book 2020. Editor of numerous prize-winning books, she runs Blue Elephant Storyshaping, an editing, coaching and mentoring service aimed at empowering writers and illustrators to fine-tune their work pre-submission, and is the Editorial Director for Five Quills. Find out about her picture book webinar courses! She is Co-Regional Advisor (Co-Chair) of SCBWI British Isles and was awarded an MBE for her services to children's book writers and illustrators. Find her at www.nataschabiebow.com

Are There Any NEW Book Ideas Out There? • by Natascha Biebow

Are there really any NEW book ideas out there . . .? When you have a book idea, do you go online and search if anyone else has done it already?

For example, say you wanted to write a book on the topic of TREES. Here are just seven different ways 'in' to the topic that you might find:

Trees to Spot by Kirsteen Robson and Sam Smith

The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman
Changed a City Forever by H. Joseph Hopkins and Jill McElmurry

Tree by Britta Teckentrup

Trees: A Lift-the-Flap Eco Book illus by Carmen Saldana

Little Tree by Loren Long

As an Oak Tree Grows by G Brian Karas

The Wisdom of Trees by Lita Judge

So, arguably, most of the time, the answer is yes – in some shape or form - someone will have already written a book on 'your' topic. Why?

People are often asking the same questions – we’re curious by nature.

Everything reminds us of something . . .

It can be dispiriting, sometimes, to find yourself almost halted by this kind of obstacle before you’ve even really started.

 

But  . . .

 

Here’s a glimmer of hope: most ideas HAVE already been done, but they haven’t already been done by YOU.

 

So, how can you figure out your fresh, new take on an idea, your uniquely YOU story?

 

Writing coaches and industry professionals will often say:

 

“Write from the heart.”

 

“Write what you know.”

 

“Share what you’re driven to share.”

 

Yes, if you do this, your writing will come from you and your experience.

 

But the key here is to find a connection with readers that feels fresh and new. How?

 

You have to find a way to make your idea resonate with readers in a uniquely YOU way.  

 

How?

 

You have to make them say a-ha! or ahhhh!!! or aw! or WOW!  

 

To understand this, we have to delve into where any ‘new’ ideas come from.

 

Humans are driven to be creative and innovate. It gives us a boost. But . . .

 

“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.” ― Mark Twain, Mark Twain's Own Autobiography: The Chapters from the North American Review

Our ideas are in all kinds of combinations, in a 'mental kaleidescope' 

So how do we make ‘new and curious combinations’ that are amazing and feel fresh and new? How do we create something that feels AUTHENTIC?

 

GENERATING NEW IDEAS:

 

To create new ideas, we often start with what’s come before, then question the defaults in order to innovate. In an article for the Smithsonian Magazine, this is summed up perfectly:

“Across the spectrum of human activities, prior art propels the creative process . . .

Before 1908, building a new car was laborious. Each vehicle was custom built, with different parts assembled in different places and then painstakingly brought together. But Henry Ford came up with a critical innovation: he streamlined the entire process, putting the manufacture and assembly under one roof. Wood, ore, and coal were loaded in at one end of the factory, and Model Ts were driven out the other. His assembly line changed the way the cars were built . . .  Ford later said, “I invented nothing new. I simply assembled into a car the discoveries of other men behind whom were centuries of work.” 

 

So, authors must Start with the BUILDING BLOCKS of our world and our lives and seek out the new. We must be curious. This is why we must look around us – really LOOK.

 

We must do RESEARCH: listen to people around us, read lots of books, watch movies and documentaries, view art, search for problems that need solving in new ways, get involved in pursuits that are unrelated to writing for creative inspiration. Spend time with our young audiences.

 

We must ASK QUESTIONS: our writer ears must be attuned and open to possibilities. We must look for adventure and explore.   

 

Then, we must CHANGE THINGS UP, push the BOUNDARIES of our everyday and knowledge, and look for NEW ANGLES on existing solutions and ideas beyond what we already know.

We must make creativity a habit!

 

BE PROLIFEROUS

In his book Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, Adam Grant suggests creatives should generate a lot of ideas to find the original. 

Originals: How Non-Conformists
Changed the World by Adam Grant

Surprisingly, he shares that William Shakespeare wrote his famous plays MacBeth, Othello and King Lear at the same time as quite a few ‘un-exceptional’ plays. Similarly, Mozart and Beethoven composed more than 600 pieces in their lifetimes, and only a handful were masterpieces. Picasso painted thousands of paintings and Edison registered over 1000 patents, but each are remembered and revered for a handful of achievements.

Grant also says that most people make the mistake of generating only a handful of ideas and ‘then obsess about refining them to perfection.’ Sound familiar?

So, to create new, innovative ideas, we must push ourselves to generate more of them and think big.

FINDING THE EXTRAORDINARY IDEA

So, now you have a pile of ideas . . . but here’s another problem – how can you figure out which ideas are the ones to pursue? Grant says that as creatives we are too close to our work to evaluate it successfully, which is why we are either often too positive about something (we love what we’ve just made!), or unable to see its faults. The solution? To ask fellow creators because they are “open to seeing the potential in unusual possibilities” and they often don’t have a stake in the outcome of our ideas in the way we do.

So, find a reliable critique group partner or, if you’re lucky enough to have one, listen to your editor, agent or art director – they know what they’re talking about!

REMEMBER! IT TAKES TIME to percolate to have the thought in the back of our minds long enough to come up with creative and unique idea.

 

Let's take another evergreen picture book topic (New babies in the family!) and look at some examples of how different creators have approached it and innovated to create a ‘new’ book idea that felt fresh and new and connected with readers:

There's a House Inside My Mummy
by Giles Andrae and Vanessa Caban

15 Things NOT to Do with a Baby
by Margaret McAllister and Holly Sherling

The Baby's Catalogue by Janet and Allan Ahlberg

Waiting for Baby by Rachel Fuller

The NEW Small Person by Lauren Child

Wolfie the Bunny by Ame Dyckman and Zachariah OHora

There's Going To Be a Baby by John Burningham and Helen Oxenbury

How to Be a Baby by Me The Big Sister by Sally Lloyd-Jones and Sue Heap

Mr Bear's New Baby by Debi Gliori

Mummy Laid and Egg by Babette Cole

On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman

Mommy, Mama and Me by Lesléa Newman and Carol Thompson

Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born by Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell

So many ways 'in'! You can change up the target age group, fiction vs. non-fiction, flip the point of view, turn the voice on its head, innovate the structure and so much more!

Even if you don’t come up with a brand new idea, by adding your unique take on it, you could add a new perspective or spin that might feel new and connect with young readers. And THAT is valuable!

_________________________________________________________________

Natascha Biebow, MBE, Author, Editor and Mentor

Natascha is the author of the award-winning The Crayon Man: The True Story of the Invention of Crayola Crayons, illustrated by Steven Salerno, winner of the Irma Black Award for Excellence in Children's Books, and selected as a best STEM Book 2020. Editor of numerous prize-winning books, she runs Blue Elephant Storyshaping, an editing, coaching and mentoring service aimed at empowering writers and illustrators to fine-tune their work pre-submission, and is the Editorial Director for Five Quills. Find out about her new picture book webinar courses! She is Co-Regional Advisor (Co-Chair) of SCBWI British Isles. Find her at www.nataschabiebow.com

The Wonderful Rule of 3 by Natascha Biebow

All good things come in threes (and bad things, too). Why? It seems that three is the smallest number needed to create a pattern; it makes stories more satisfying and funnier. Plus everyone knows that stories must have three elements: a beginning middle and end.

From early on, children are preconditioned to expect this pattern:

The rhythm of the day has three parts – morning, noon and night –
and three meals too – breakfast, lunch and tea.

The rhythm of growing has three stages: baby, child and teen.

Most of the lullabies, songs and nursery rhymes told and sung from babyhood are built upon the rhythm of the magical number 3:

Baa, baa black sheep – three baa’s and then wool for the master, the dame and little boy in the lane 

Three little bears – with three sizes: big, middle-sized and small

© www.peoniesandpoppyseeds.com

Three little pigs, three billy goats gruff, and so on.

From Pat-a-Cake Nursery Rhymes by Annie Kubler

Even in the tiny story of the nursery rhyme, the rhythm of three sets up the pattern of storytelling, in which the story is set up, there are three examples and then a turning point/conclusion:

Set up the story: Pat a cake, Pat a cake, baker's man
Bake me a cake as fast as you can; 

Now, build up the story with three elements:

1. Pat it,
2. and prick it
3. and mark it with a ‘B’, 

Give it an outcome: And put it in the oven for baby and me. 

When writing picture books, it is often handy to keep in mind how using the rule of three helps to deliver an exciting, page-turning plot and keep the narrative moving swiftly forward.

1.  Sometimes, the whole plot is built upon the rule of three. For example, in Duck in a Truck, when Duck’s truck gets stuck in the muck, Jez Alborough uses three instances to resolve the main problem: 

1.   Frog hops down to help.
2.    Sheep tries to push.
3.   Then Goat, passing by in his motor boat, comes up with the clever plan that solves Duck’s problem:
   
   
   

   

   From Duck In a Truck by Jez Alborough

   
   

   
   

2.    The rule of three is also a great tool for advancing the plot.  

Once the author has set-up the story and its central problem, it can help to build-up suspense and work towards a clear turning point in the plot.

For instance, in That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown, the Queen wants Emily Brown’s much-loved rabbit Stanley in exchange for a golden teddy bear. Feisty Emily Brown tells the Chief Footman firmly that the rabbit is not for sale. So, the Queen sends: 


 1. The Army

From That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown by Cressida Cowell and Neal Layton

2. The Navy

From That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown by Cressida Cowell and Neal Layton

3. The Air Force

From That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown by Cressida Cowell and Neal Layton

Each time, they try to exchange ‘Bunnywunny’ for an even greater number of outlandish gifts. And, with each spread, Emily Brown’s consistent refusal builds until she is “FED UP!”

Then something must change in the pattern of the plot. So when the Queen has Stanley stolen, Emily Brown has no choice but to confront the Queen herself so she can tell her how to make the golden teddy as loveable as Stanley.

In another example, when Max is crowned King of the Wild Things in Sendak’s classic, three wordless spreads follow, adding drama and indicating the passage of time. These illustrate the wild things’ antics, building up to the turning point when Max orders the them to stop and sends them to bed. Then, realizing he’s lonely, he goes home to his supper and those who love him "best of all".

From Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

From Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

From Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Often, three consecutive examples can also help to advance a sub-section of the plot.

In the classic, Harry the Dirty Dog, when Harry comes home after having played by the railway, played tag with the other dogs and slid down the coal chute (three things!), he is no longer a white dog. His family are sure that this can't be Harry, so he:

1.  “flip-flipped and flop-flipped”
2. “rolled over and played dead”
3.  “danced and sang
   

   

    From Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion & Margaret Bloy Graham

But, his family still don't recognize him . . . What follows is a moment of pause, before the story picks up again and Harry remembers to dig up the scrubbing brush he's hidden in the garden and ‘beg’ for a bath!

3.   Sometimes, the rule of threes is even used like a mini-plot within the story, as in Olivia:

1. Olivia admires modern art at the museum
2. She tries it herself at home . . .

   

    From Olivia by Ian Falconer

 

3. Then, “Time to think!“ 

Or as a way to introduce some information about the characters (especially useful as an illustrative device across a page or a spread).

As in Quentin Blake’s Angelica Sprocket’s Pockets:

1.       “There’s a pocket for mice,”
2.       “and a pocket for cheese”
3.       “and a pocket for hankies in case anyone feels that they’re going to sneeze”
   
   

   

   From Angelica Sprocket's Pockets by Quentin Blake

In Olivia, her morning routine includes three elements:

 From Olivia by Ian Falconer

1. “In the morning, after she gets up and moves the cat,”
2. “and brushes her teeth and combs her ears,”
3. “and moves the cat”

4. Finally, the rule of three is a really useful way to give the writing a satisfying rhythm.
Here are just two examples:

In Jane Clarke’s Knight School, Little Knight and Little Dragon discover that  school is fun:

From Knight School by Jane Clarke & Jane Massey

1.   “Little Knight and Little Dragon sang funny songs.
2. “painted fabulous pictures,”
3. “and listened to fantastic stories.”
   

In Mo Willems’ Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs, by virtue of it being a spoof of Goldilocks and the Three Little Bears, practically the whole book follows the rule of three. Here is an example of how Willems uses it at the climax of the story, giving the page a great read-aloud rhythm: 

“Just then a loud plane flew by, which sounded pretty much like a trio of Dinosaurs yelling 

1.   “NOW”
2. or “CHARGE!” 
3. or the Norwegian expression for “CHEWY-BONBON-TIME!"

From Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Mo Willems

The rhythm of three is everywhere in picture books! If you look for it, you will start to see how it can work wonderfully to create predictable and unpredictable rhythms in your work, too.

Natascha Biebow

Author, Editor and Mentor

BlueElephant Storyshaping is an editing, coaching and mentoring service aimed at empowering writers and illustrators to fine-tune their work pre-submission. Natascha is also the author of Elephants Never Forget and Is This My Nose?, editor of numerous award-winning children’s books, and Regional Advisor (Chair) of SCBWI British Isles. www.blueelephantstoryshaping.com