Episode 1: How do you get your brain ready to write? with Leslie Connor

*Please note that these episodes were all all recorded pre-pandemic!

Welcome to Episode 1: How do you get your brain ready to write? with author Leslie Conner!

TRANSCRIPT:

Grace Lin:                     Hello, I'm Grace Lin, children's book author and illustrator of many books, including the middle grade novel, When the Sea Turned to Silver and the picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star. Today I'm here with Leslie Connor, the author of, The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle and A Home for Goddesses and Dogs. Hi Leslie.

Leslie Connor:              Hi Grace.

Grace Lin:                     Okay, are you ready for today's question?

Leslie Connor:              I am.

Grace Lin:                     All right. Today's question is from a young girl name Mia. She asks.

Grace Lin:                     How do you get your brain ready to write?

Leslie Connor:              That's a great question, Mia. So, the way I get my brain ready to write I think, is mainly that I walk and I'm usually thinking about the scene that I need to come home and sit down and work on and while I'm out walking, taking steps out in nature, all unplugged, no sound coming in my ears, I am letting myself kind of hear the voices that will be the dialogue of that scene. I'm kind of hearing the whole tone of the scene and I find that I let it run, both in my ear and a little bit of a mental movie and by the time I get home, pour a cup of tea and sit down with my dogs, I'm usually ready to go. I've kind of already seen it once through and it makes it easier for me to write.

Grace Lin:                     Oh, that's so cool. That's something I have been starting to do too for the last couple of years, is going on these really, really long walks. So long that my husband was like, "I was worried about you. Where were you?" But it's these long walks out in nature that have really started to help me get my brain ready to write too. Do you find that it's a little bit different walking in nature versus say, walking at a gym or walking someplace else?

Leslie Connor:              Yeah. Well, I do I think, but I think also it might be affected by the fact that I've read that there's actually science behind it. That nature is the place and I won't say that there aren't distractions, but I guess that, I don't know, the distractions of the natural world are maybe a little more conducive to creativity than some of the distractions of, say even being kind of on the sidewalk or cars driving by or whatever. So, I may look up and see a very large bird flying overhead and I may be looking up ahead to see my dogs because I'm always walking with my dogs, they're the ones who kind of keep me honest about getting out and walking. I think probably the fact that nature, fresh air and light I think are all affecting how well that'll work for me, how it'll serve.

Grace Lin:                     So, you aren't cursed by the things that I'm cursed by, which is the things that I usually do to get ready to write is clean my studio, do the dishes and all the other procrastinating chores around the house.

Leslie Connor:              I try not to let those be my curses, those things I've tried to learn to take as writing breaks a little bit more, just run down to the house. In my case I'm kind of working in a studio outside a little bit, so I might run back down into the house to I don't know, switch out loads of laundry or something like that, just briefly. But that way I'm kind of choosing to interrupt my writing, not being interrupted. We got this far, I'm going to set this down and I'm going to go think about this while I run the water in the sink or whatever has to be done, so I mean those things will always be there but I try not to let them be my curses.

Grace Lin:                     So Mia, you've heard it from us. Leslie prepares her brain to write by taking long walks and I prepare by procrastinating, by doing chores. So, thank you very much Mia for your great question.

Leslie Connor:              Bye, bye.

Today’s book review is on Charlotte’s Web, from a young girl named Lea. She says:

The book I would like to talk about is Charlotte's Web by E. B. White. This book is about a girl named Fern and her pig named Wilbur. Charlotte is the gray spider that lives in the spider web in the left hand view of the barn. Charlotte helps save Wilbur's life. I liked this book because it was kind of a fantasy book where animals could talk.

More about today’s author: 

Leslie Connor is the author of several award-winning books for children, including two ALA Schneider Family Book Award winners, Waiting for Normal and The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle, which was also selected as a National Book Award finalist. Her other books include All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook, Crunch, and The Things You Kiss Goodbye. She lives in the Connecticut woods with her family and three rescue dogs. You can visit her online at www.leslieconnor.com.

Grace Lin, a NY Times bestselling author/ illustrator, won the Newbery Honor for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and her picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star, was awarded the Caldecott Honor. Grace is an occasional commentator for New England Public Radio , a video essayist for PBS NewsHour (here & here), and the speaker of the popular TEDx talk, The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf. She is the co-host of the podcast Book Friends Forever, a kidlit podcast about friendship and publishing (geared for adults). Find her facebook, instagram , twitter ( @pacylin) or sign up for her author newsletter HERE.

Special thanks to the High Five Books & Art Always Bookstore and Ms. Carleton’s 2nd grade class at Jackson Street School for their help with our kid questions and reviews.