Hope you're as pumped as we are for tomorrow's "National Day on Writing." It's been really fun to write these, read these, and talk about these entries around the office. We all write for different reasons, but the magic we feel is the same. Today we present an entry from our own nErDCamp So Cal co-founder Alex Ross as well as an entry from Sarah Momo Romero whose new picture book Wake Up, Little Bat is out now! Go check it out...perfect for the season!
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Why I Write (Alex Ross)
I write because it’s all I know how to do. Truly. To not write is to not breathe,
to not process the world, to not make sense and art of the chaos and harmony I see.
I know that sounds dramatic or like hyperbole or whatever, but I cannot think of a time
when I did not write.
In second grade, I wrote fantastical stories about the members of KISS. In these tales,
the KISS characters (Catman, the Demon, Star Child, and Space Ace) would travel the
globe in opulent limousines replete with comfortable leather couches and pinball
machines and jacuzzis...or else travel to outer space and fight martians and creatures
with laser-beams and magic. I’d write these stories on this pulpy grey paper my favorite
teacher Miss Storm would provide, the kind of grey paper with a big rectangle box
on top for illustrating your story. To be pulled out of my story-telling reverie to do math
or spelling or even P.E. was to be jarred from a world I wasn’t sure I wanted to return from.
Yet.
By 4th grade, I was a member of student council, acting as secretary: a role that involved
copious (ok...copious by elementary standards) note-taking and some correspondence
here and there. During one fateful encounter between the press and me, I took umbrage
with the fact that the local paper, The News Chronicle, had failed to include me in a story
about our fundraising efforts to beautify the Statue of Liberty. I was writing to discover my voice, and stake my claim in the world (even if at the time that claim extended only to my little patch of the Conejo Valley).
During college, I wrote to fight off the angst of reading too much Charles Bukowski and
Hunter S. Thompson. I wrote to emulate the exquisitely crafted lines that master poets
like Adrienne Rich and Sharon Olds composed. I wrote to survive loneliness or heartaches; I wrote to surf the soaring feeling of love and travel and new friendships. I wrote letters and postcards and later emails to let people know they mattered, they were thought about.
Today I write as a way of crafting a legacy of adventure and presence. I want to have lived, to have been here, to have wandered around this planet and made it better or more beautiful in even some small way. I write to linger on as a light once I’m gone; I want my grandchildren and my great grandchildren to know me, minor successes and embarrassing foibles alike. I think George Perec, the mind-bogglingly gifted French constraint author, said it best in a quote that hangs, with love, above my desk at work: “To write: to try meticulously to retain something, to cause something to survive; to wrest a few precise scraps from the void as it grows, to leave somewhere a furrow, a trace, a mark or a few signs.” I write so I can live.
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Filling the Creative Well: finding my way back to inspiration
(Sarah Momo Romero)
If you had told me just three years ago that I would be a published author and illustrator, I would’ve called you crazy. “You have the wrong person,” I’d say, secretly hoping it would actually come true. Just three years ago, I was literally in a dark place, the basement of my house, pinning sketches on the wall, desperately trying to revive the creative spirit I had let whither away. As an artist, I felt so lost and unhappy, unable to figure out what went wrong and how to turn things around. Have you ever felt this way?
If you had told me just three years ago that I would be a published author and illustrator, I would’ve called you crazy. “You have the wrong person,” I’d say, secretly hoping it would actually come true. Just three years ago, I was literally in a dark place, the basement of my house, pinning sketches on the wall, desperately trying to revive the creative spirit I had let whither away. As an artist, I felt so lost and unhappy, unable to figure out what went wrong and how to turn things around. Have you ever felt this way?
At the time, I was working as a graphic designer, finally settled into the rhythm of the company I had grown to love working for. So what was that darkness tugging at me, the empty feeling I just couldn’t put my finger on? What I didn’t realize was while I focused on my career, ultimately the path I thought would be right for me left my creative well empty inside. I had to figure out how to get the artist who quietly sank into the background back out into the sunshine. What did I do?
I tried EVERYTHING to spark a little creativity. I played and got my hands dirty again, literally. I took a wheel-throwing ceramics class and made lopsided, ridiculously heavy bowls. I sketched something every single day and hung it on the walls of my basement, the only space I had for my artwork in our little house. Slowly, that little spark grew into bigger projects, a local art show, and craft events. The artist inside me was starting to see the light again, but nothing felt quite right.
Then I decided to try taking an online children’s book writing class with the Children’s Book Academy, and that was it! With each lesson and every live webinar, my once empty creative well slowly started filling up again. Character development, story arch and the unexpected spark this ignited in my creative spirit was exciting and I couldn’t get enough. From then on, one thing led to another, I connected with my publisher, Callie Metler-Smith at Clear Fork Publishing, and after several rounds of editing my story, I signed a contract to publish Wake Up, Little Bat!
I truly believe if you have a passion or yearning for creative expression, it won’t just fall in your lap, no matter how much talent you have or how lucky you are. You really have to work at it, and in the end, it may not look anything like what you had originally imagined. I am so grateful for the long journey to get to where I am now, and am always reminded to stay hungry and keep reaching for the next creative adventure. As Angela Duckworth, author of the bestselling book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance says, “It’s not about discovering your passion and your purpose. It’s about developing your calling.”
Then I decided to try taking an online children’s book writing class with the Children’s Book Academy, and that was it! With each lesson and every live webinar, my once empty creative well slowly started filling up again. Character development, story arch and the unexpected spark this ignited in my creative spirit was exciting and I couldn’t get enough. From then on, one thing led to another, I connected with my publisher, Callie Metler-Smith at Clear Fork Publishing, and after several rounds of editing my story, I signed a contract to publish Wake Up, Little Bat!
I truly believe if you have a passion or yearning for creative expression, it won’t just fall in your lap, no matter how much talent you have or how lucky you are. You really have to work at it, and in the end, it may not look anything like what you had originally imagined. I am so grateful for the long journey to get to where I am now, and am always reminded to stay hungry and keep reaching for the next creative adventure. As Angela Duckworth, author of the bestselling book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance says, “It’s not about discovering your passion and your purpose. It’s about developing your calling.”
Maybe you’re like me, searching for your true purpose or just looking for a little creative fulfillment. Just keep working, keep playing, keep trying things out, because you never know where the creative path will take you. Today, I am a published author/illustrator of my very first picture book for children, Wake Up, Little Bat! Sometimes I have to reach out and hold the book in my hand to remind myself that it’s all real and not just a dream. And in the summer of 2019, I’ll be part of nErD Camp SoCal, connecting with educators, writers, and kids at my alma mater, Torrance High School. Someone pinch me.
Are you looking for that spark of creativity to light you up? What do you do to find inspiration again when you feel lost? I would love to hear about your experiences!
Are you looking for that spark of creativity to light you up? What do you do to find inspiration again when you feel lost? I would love to hear about your experiences!
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