People say I have a fearless streak, which always makes me chuckle.
Yes, I’ve dived with sharks, sipped the blood of cobras, and skateboarded up and down the walls of dry swimming pools.
But fearless? Not at all.
I simply live for great story material.
What really scares me? The thought of Marla Frazee and her black Sharpie permanent marker.
Frazee, one of the most respected illustrators in children’s books, has her Sharpie at the ready every time an editor faxes over another manuscript for her to consider.
You know those irritating illustration notes that rookie writers try to pass off as gentle suggestions? Without hesitation, Frazee blackens them all out with her Sharpie.
Zip! Zap! Zip!
Why does this scenario get my knees a-knocking?
Because, dear readers, I’m guilty as sin in this regard.
Despite knowing it’s a no-no, I haven’t always been able to resist the temptation to include a few eensy-weensy illustration suggestions with my manuscripts.
Heck, there were times early on when I might as well have included a paint-by-number kit, such were my lame-brained directives.
But not anymore.
After interviewing several illustrators--David Small, Joe Cepeda, Cyd Moore, Dan Yaccarino and Frazee--I am officially enlightened.
Here's why:
1. Imagine if the tables were turned. You, the writer, are handed a set of pictures and told to supply the words. But wait! The illustrator has supplied you with detailed suggestions for plot, character and theme. You try to concentrate on your own vision for the book, but you can’t get those suggestions out of your mind. Argh!
2. Visit the children’s section of a bookstore (especially a big chain) and watch customers in action. Notice how most flip the pages from back to front, stopping occasionally to read a passage or two.
Writers are loathe to admit it, but the average Joe or Josephine selects picture books based on pictures first, text second. Is it any wonder illustrators get a little testy when authors try to tell them how to do their job?
3. While it’s normal for the writer to feel anxious about having their manuscript illustrated by someone they’ll likely never meet or speak to, let’s face it: if it really freaks you out, perhaps it’s time to write novels instead.
4. Remember: 99% of the time, picture books are not collaborations between artists and authors. They are, Frazee says, collaborations of pictures and words, with editors as mediators.
Dont believe it? Consider the author-illustrator team of Sarah Stewart and David Small.
Stewart and Small have been married 25 years and have produced four books together, including The Gardener, which received a Caldecott Honor. (Small received the Caldecott Medal in 2002 for his work in Judith St. George’s So You Want to Be President?)
So, Stewart and Small work side by side, right?
Wrong.
Each morning after breakfast, Sarah climbs two flights of stairs to her home office; David walks to his nearby studio. Once in a great while, David invites Sarah to the studio to look at some sketches, but Sarah says she’d never dream of telling him how or what to draw.
“The artist is the artist,” Sarah says. “Once the editor and I think [the manuscript] is singing, it’s David’s book. I mean it’s gone.”
Frazee, who discussed this issue at a Visual Literacy workshop at UCLA, says she isn’t interested in a manuscript that spells out every scene. Her job is to interpret, as she puts it, “the space between the words.”
That’s why she pulls out her black Sharpie and eliminates those pesky distractions we writers think are so helpful.
A scary thought?
Not anymore.
