Does a Writer Get Grumpy? Some advice for writers in the wild about being kind (to themselves) Moira Butterfield

 In May I have a new book out with illustrator Adam Ming and publisher Bloomsbury. It’s called Does A Monkey Get Grumpy? and it introduces children to specific animal feelings –what we know about them and why we should be as understanding and kind as possible to our friends in the animal world. 

But what about writers? When do they get grumpy, sad, excited or scared? Let’s take a sneaky peek at writers in the wild! (And pay tribute to Adam's great art!) 

 

PS: I didn’t spend much time 

on the blog text rhyme. 

Sorry! 

 

Feeling Grumpy 

Grumpy? How a writer feels

when celebs get big fat kids’ book deals! 

Fiddlesticks! Not another celeb book! 

Let it go. It’s the way of the world and there’s nothing to be done. 

Instead concentrate on doing the best YOU can. 

Forget it. Chill and do your thing instead! 

 Feeling Happy 

Got an achievement to celebrate? 

Shout about it now! Don’t wait! 

We want to hear the good news! Spread it! 

 

It might be your natural manner not to shout from the rooftops because you’ve always been told not to show off. Well, forget that, I say! If you’ve achieved something in your writing and you’re feeling happy, definitely tell everyone! You deserve praise.  If somebody thinks you’re showing off, so what? It’s their problem. 

Show off! Celebrate! Tell everyone! 

 

Feeling Sad 

When an idea you worked on fails, 

It may feel as if you wasted time. 

It’s easy to feel down and sad

and think that all your writing’s bad. 

We all feel this way about our work sometimes. 

This a natural and understandable feeling but in fact everything you do leads to everything else you do so it cannot be that you wasted time. You think. You learn. You move forward. In fact success comes from repeated failures almost 100% of the time, and even the most successful creators keep failing as they go forward. It’s a myth to think otherwise. So swear a bit, eat a treat, go out in the sun away from work for a little while…and then dust yourself down for the next stage. 

 

Feeling excited 

It’s such a great feeling…Pop, pop, pop… 

…when you’re writing well and just can’t stop! 

Feeling like a bouncy guinea pig? Hurrah! 

 Enjoy! This kind of high is the fabulous reward of being a creative! 

 

Feeling scared 

Don’t ever be scared about your work. 

Cos , look… 

…It’s just a book.  

Always remember. Whatever happens...It's just a book. 

 

Feeling playful 

Leave your keyboard sometimes, right? 

And play 

in a different way. 

Make sure you play! 

 

Go and paint or walk or scribble a silly poem or explore a new street or do some dancing. Whatever. Creatives need to play creatively away from their work. It enriches everything.

 

Feeling lonely 

It’s easy to feel isolated 

when you write 

day and night.  

 

You are not alone. Network with some writing friends locally or join an online community. There are lots of great ones! 

And so....Just before I go...

 

 

 Moira Butterfield is one of the founders of the Picture Book Den Blog and an internationally-published author of picture book non-fiction and illustrated non-fiction for 7+. Her newest books are out in May: Does a Monkey Get Grumpy, illustrated by Adam Ming and published by Bloomsbury. The Secret Life of Oceans, illustrated by Vivienne Minneker and published by Happy Yak. 

 

www.moirabutterfield.co.uk

twitter @moiraworld 

instagram @moirabutterfieldauthor

 

Checking roughs – a vital picture book author skill Moira Butterfield

I was inspired to write this blog after reading an interview with actor and writer Brett Goldstein, co-creator of the marvellous Ted Lasso TV series. He emphasised how important attention to detail was in his work. He also told the story of visiting the set of Sesame Street and being really impressed by the attention to detail that was evident as part of the team’s passion to make the work the best it could be. He even saw Elmo giving script notes! 

Elmo likes things to be just right, and so do I. 

 

It struck a chord with me because picture book authoring requires great attention to detail – especially non-fiction picture book work. There are checking stages the author will be asked to do and they require concentration, care and even a measure of diplomacy. It’s a vital part of being an author of illustrated books – a vital part of making good work. 

 

I‘m asked to check illustrator pencil roughs and then the colour work. I’m checking to ensure the illustrator has correctly interpreted the factual details of my text. The artist has invariably done a wonderful job and I take care to tell the editor so, whilst pointing out any things that need correcting. 

 

I’m not making purely subjective comments on the art but I point out factual errors - perhaps a beak is the wrong shape on a bird I’ve named or a creature is missing its tail, for example. I’m also checking for mismatches between the pictures and what is said in the text. So if I’ve mentioned, say, a particular creature and it hasn’t appeared as it should on the page. 

 

Occasionally, if the art is now in colour and it doesn’t affect the book, I might make a small text change to accommodate a new picture and make the work correct. Here are some examples of things I spotted in the last few days, just to show you the kind of detail I might point out.

There was no crab to spot. 

The coral cup needs a line to separate it from the tentacles. 

I changed the text here because Herefords weren't illustrated. 

The grass wasn't drooping like a mini arch. 

 

The writer should not point out errors with a heavy hand. You don’t want your reaction to sound like this: “Ha ha! Good for me! I found something!”. It ought to sound like this: “The illustrator has done a great job. I really appreciate the efforts made. Here are my comments. I hope they help. Do come back to me to discuss them if you would like.” 

Be this! 

 

It takes significant work time to do a thorough check on an illustrated non-fiction book. In fact it’s a good idea to check everything twice – and then even look again the next day if you have the schedule time and the book has lots of detail. 

 

Recently I had a spread up onscreen when a friend arrived and I explained what I was doing. “Oh kids won’t know it’s wrong,” she remarked, but they very well might and I certainly would. It does matter because attention to detail is a part of a writer’s creative passion, as Brett Goldstein pointed out. It’s necessary to make the book the best it can be, and that’s what I want for every book I write. 

Moira Butterfield is the author of many non-fiction picture books, most recently Maya's Walk, illustrated by Kim Geyer (Oxford University Press) and Grandma's Story, illustrated by Salvatore Rubbino (Walker Books). 

www.moirabutterfield.co.uk

twitter @moiraworld 

instagram @moirabutterfieldauthor

My picture book publicity movies By Moira Butterfield

A couple of years ago I started making mini publicity movies for my books. I post them on Youtube (I haven’t ventured onto Tiktok). I did post on Instagram TV but that doesn’t seem to exist now. Instagram now has a short reel thing going on, to try to go up against Tiktok presumably. 

 Nobody asked me to do this, but for various reasons I don’t spend time visiting schools so I decided it might be helpful to appear somewhere. Now I offer my mini movies to my publishers, who can use them for publicity if they so wish. That led to me making one specifically for a US publishing conference, and involving my illustrator. We tried to make it stand out and the publisher was very happy with the end product. 

The opening of a movie for a US conference. We animated the vehicles and added sounds.
Featuring illustrator Bryony Clarkson. 

I find it a lot of fun to experiment with movies, though I think it’s fair to say my early efforts were somewhat haphazard and a wee bit crazy-looking. My various forays have certainly taught me a lesson about not trying too hard in front of the camera! But I learn a little each time I make one and I want to share some tips below in case you fancy trying movies, too. 

 

I don’t generally get more than a few hundred views on Youtube but one of mine has racked up 67k views, so you never know. That one was boosted when the book got read out by a celeb, and is also used in schools in the US through Quarto Classroom. 

67k people have watched the videos for this Quarto book. The movie featured me and my next-door neighbour - beekeeper Phil. I haven't told him about the 67K yet. He might want paying or
he might just freak out! 

I didn’t find setting up a Youtube channel hard. It was very clear. I put child settings on it and limited comments. I can take down my posts at any time. Nothing is permanent. 

 

 M’S MOVIE TIPS 

 

*  I script my movies and use an app called Teleprompter on my phone. It enables me to type in my script and then scroll it as slowly as I want. I mount my phone on a selfie stick which also has a small and somewhat rickety fold-out tripod on its base for standing on a table. 

 

* I like to go out and about with my movies and that has taught me that the place where I live is unbelievably noisy! There seems to be daily drilling somewhere, plus revving trucks, car horns and sirens – and especially people calling their dogs in the park behind my garden. So it’s best to film somewhere quiet, and definitely not at school run time if you’re in town. Very early in the morning works well if I can get my act together. 

 

* I film my movies in sections that get edited together. That way I can do takes and retakes and choose the best. Doing everything in one take is just too tough because I might garble words, sneeze, fall over or perhaps swear at the neighbour’s drilling! 

 

*Being outside doesn’t require special lighting but I did find that the outdoor light reflects the colour of my clothes onto my face. This resulted in a very green face when I wore a green dress! It’s worth experimenting with clothes to minimise skin reflection. 

Green and ill-looking! 

 

That's better. 

*I do have a desk halo light for filming inside but I haven’t actually used it yet. I brought a cheap green screen that I have used, however. It’s on a very rickety stand but it does the job (when it stays up) and enables some graphics to be put behind me when necessary. I used it  for my movies on Dance Like a Flamingo and Sing Like a Whale (Welbeck), so we could add some of the illustrations. 

The green screen gets knocked out to add graphics 

I like to get kids involved if I can. Luckily my relatives are game and give
permission to be shown. 

* I don't mind looking a bit amateur. I am an amateur filmer! I do want the movies to have some character and so I'm happy that they aren't too slick, but I don't want them to be too ropey either. I pay a friend to edit my movies the way I want them – as I don’t have the skill. They add the graphics and music. 

Publishers don’t pay me because I do this off my own bat. I know that novels, for example, get publisher-funded publicity reels but I’ve never been offered one. Perhaps one day I will, maybe even prompted by my amateur forays into the movies! 

PS: After I wrote this blog I did some filming which came out pretty badly. No worries. I get to throw it away and do some more takes, but here are a couple of fails. 

Er...I think those binoculars are the wrong way round, and did someone train the spotlight on your nose? 

 

Moira Butterfield is known for writing non-fiction picture books. She is currently writing a follow-up to her bestselling Welcome To Our World (Nosy Crow). She has three books coming out in May – Maya’s Walk (OUP) aims to make daily repeated walks much more fun for pre-schoolers and their grown-ups. Grandma’s Story (Walker) aims to introduce children to the concept of history and get them chatting about childhood with the grown-ups they know. The Secret Life of Birds (Quarto) is part of the Secret Life series (following Trees and Bees). So she has a lot of filming to do! 

 

Link to Moira’s movies: 

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk74GKogEymUxb3HBNUNzhg?app=desktop

 

 

www.moirabutterfield.co.uk

twitter @moiraworld 

instagram @moirabutterfieldauthor