by As adults, it’s easy for us to get entrenched in the necessities of day-to-day living whether it be money, bills, work, deadlines, marketing, dinner, laundry, family time, and the list goes on… I know because I’m guilty. As a TV producer for World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. for ten years, I was immersed in work, concentrating on my career, traveling around the globe, and trying to hold my own alongside 7 foot, 400 lb. men.
But everything changed when I started to hang around two little guys who weighed less than 30 lbs. After the birth of my two boys, I realized the importance of seeing beauty in the ordinary and opening my eyes to things I hadn’t before. I became curious and observant and enjoyed to watch a caterpillar inch along the sidewalk or the clouds drift along the sky. I gained a renewed sense of humor in gas and poop jokes and rediscovered what fun it can be to blow bubbles in your chocolate milk.
As I began to think like a kid, ideas and creativity flowed in my head like Roaring Rapids at Six Flags. I found all of my inspiration for writing came from my two boys. As a result, I felt an urge to express myself on paper.
In fact, the idea for my first picture book, The Bug That Plagued the Entire Third Grade, came to me when one of my sons had that dreaded stomach virus that makes its way around a house until it’s hit every family member! When family and friends called to see how he was doing, I would say, “He caught the bug.” It’s something we all say when we’re sick, but it made me stop and wonder why we say that. Something clicked, so I expanded on the play on words of getting sick and catching an insect. Hence… “The Bug” was born.
The idea for my second picture book, Oh the Possibilities, a work-for-hire I wrote for John Hancock’s Back to School campaign, can also be credited to my two boys. John Hancock was looking for a children’s book about that age-old question, “What do I want to be when I grow up?” Everyone always takes the time to tell me how my boys are “all boy.” And they truly are, fascinated by everything from super-heroes to dinosaurs to trucks to dragons. I was thinking about professions and thought, what boy doesn’t dream of being a dragon, right? I built off that, so when my character, Miles, realizes he only has human genes and must decide on something soon, he runs through all the possibilities.
As my writing career was starting to take shape, I discovered one of the most dramatic shifts we can make as picture book writers is to see life through a child’s eyes. After all, who are our readers? Picture books are targeted toward 4 through 8 year olds and the rule of thumb is that children want to read about characters their own age or a bit older. So how do you get inside the head of a five year old? I don’t know about you, but I’m the type of person who can’t remember what happened yesterday, so there’s not much chance of me tapping into my own childhood memories and bringing to the surface what I was feeling when I was five. So the best way for me to identify with my main characters is to hang out with my readers. There’s nothing like picking up a crayon and coloring, blowing bubbles, whizzing down a slide, and running my fingers in a sandbox for inspiration.
Chances are, if we’re writing for children, we like
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Really wonderful to share your thought process. There are so many great sayings out there “like catching The Bug” that we use all the time and don’t consider all the possibilities of the great stories that we can weave from them.
It is great fun to climb inside the heads of our kids and experience it through their eyes. Can’t grownups be dragons, too? Great post!
How wonderful to see you blogging here today. Lori. My kids are my inspiration too. One of my girls is all girl and the other is a tomboy with girllike moments. It makes for some interesting ideas.
Congrats on both your books. Wishing you the best.
Cheryl
Nice post, I have two small boys myself, they’re always insipiring me (my 3 year old is all about poop jokes:).
Thank you Lori! I agree, children are some of the greatest inspirations. I have always said my daughter was my muse.
Congrats on your books and thanks for posting!
Loni
Lori, minus the wrestling part, we’re a lot alike. I also started writing after the birth of my two boys. I refer to it as my ‘early mid-life write this’. There’s just something about having children (especially boys) that has away of catapulting us back into our past. Everything suddenly becomes fresh and new,and all the things that we take for granted become interesting again. And you’re right, poop and gas have never been funnier. LOL! Thanks for sharing your story with us!
I came across your books online just the other day. That’s pretty cool. My children are 4 and 6, (girl and boy) and they certainly provide lots of inspiration. Thanks for sharing.
Great advice! My current chapter was completely inspired my one of my kids, and so was one of my PB’s.
How inspiring that you have taken real life and made it into fun fiction! Thanks for sharing your story behind the story and writing advice
Great post. Kids give us so much inspiration. thanks for sharing such great advice
I enjoyed reading everyone’s comments. I’m glad to see that many others find inspiration from their own kids as well.
Let’s face it, kids are so much fun and everything from their smiles to their questions to their laughter brighten our days. (Okay–maybe not their temper tantrums, but even those can be a source of inspiration!)
Hope everyone’s finding their inspiration from somewhere and I can’t wait to read about the books that all started right here at PiBoIdMo!