Episode 11: How do you come up with characters? Are they based on real people? with Jeanne Birdsall
*Please note that these episodes were all all recorded pre-pandemic!
Welcome to Episode 11! How do you come up with characters? Are they based on real people? Please join us with author Jeanne Birdsall!
TRANSCRIPT:
Grace: 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 Moon Cake for Little Star. Today, I'm here with Jeanne Birdsall, the author of The Penderwicks series. Hi, Jeanne.
Jeanne: Hi, Grace.
Grace: I'm so glad you joined me today.
Jeanne: Thank you for asking me. We're actually in the same room.
Grace: I know. That's the goal of these podcasts is to actually meet people in real life.
Jeanne: Right.
Grace: Okay. Are you ready for today's question?
Jeanne: I don't know.
Grace: Well, I'll tell you it and then you can tell me.
Jeanne: Okay.
Grace: Today's question is from a girl named Winter. She asks-
Winter: How would you come up with your characters? Are they based on real people?
Grace: How do you come up with your characters? Are they based on real people? So.
Jeanne: Hi, Winter. It's a combination. I would never look at a person and say, oh, that gives me a good idea for a character. It's more as though the characters come to me in little flashes through ideas or scenes from other books even. And then as I write about them and put them in more and more scenes and have them interact with more and more characters within their story, they become more fleshed out. And then they start to remind me of people I know. Sometimes they remind me of myself, and that's always a little astonishing when that happens.
Jeanne: An old friend of mine that I went to elementary, junior high, and high school with, whose name is Bill Geiger. So, Tommy Geiger's got his last name from Bill, told me after the first book, first Penderwick book came out, and I was working on the second. We were talking about which sister I was and blah, blah, blah, and he said, well, obviously you're Jeffrey. And it was this huge revelation to me, but I was Jeffrey. I gave him my hair and eyes and freckles. I gave him much more musical skill and soccer skill than I have, but Jeffrey was there in that big house waiting to be rescued by these four girls and taken into their family. And in a way, the Penderwick sisters brought me into their family in the same way, and didn't rescue me because my life was okay, but it got so much better after they were there.
Grace: That's lovely.
Jeanne: Oh, well, thank you.
Grace: I think it's so interesting how you say that they're all, how some of them, some characters you see yourself in. Because I feel like in my books all the main characters are pretty much myself, just different versions. Well, I have some books like The Year of the Dog and The Year of the Rat, which are basically based on my life anyway. So, that's definitely myself. But then I have other books like Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and When the Sea Turned to Silver, and while those main characters aren't exactly me in terms of my life, I feel like they're parts of me. Like in Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, the main character Min Lee is not really who I am, but who I wanted to be, somebody very strong and brave and who is quick thinking and did things. And so, I remember thinking, she's not me, but she's who want to be.
Grace: Then the main character in When the Sea Turned to Silver, she was very shy and very timid and I remember feeling like, oh, that's like me when I was younger. So, I feel like all these characters are different layers of myself.
Jeanne: I don't know how else we should do it. I mean, I think that the effective characters, the ones that feel real, are the ones that authentically come out of the person writing them. We were just talking about Anne of Green Gables because everybody, Grace is wearing an Anne of Green Gables t-shirt. And Anne spoke very much for her writer, L.M. Montgomery. And she's one of the most beloved characters of all time. And this also brings me to another thing in terms of that you've been involved with with diversity in children's books is the part of what we've learned is not just that we very desperately need people writing from their viewpoints that are other than the boring old white middle class thing, but that we boring middle class people, meaning me, do not have in us the right, we have no right to try to write from inside a very different experience than ours.
Grace: Well, I think that it's not that you can't write from a different experience, but I do think that when you write from your own experience, you have an authenticity that no one else can replicate. I mean, it even goes all the way back to Little Women and Louisa May Alcott and the whole thing with Jo March. It's so much based on her real life, and that's the book that everyone responds to, Little Women, because it was from her life. So, I think that there's a lot to be said from taking characters from yourself and maybe real people too. Anyway, thank you so much, Winter. That was such a great question. I hope you found our conversation helpful.
Jeanne: Me too. Thank you, Winter.
Grace: Bye.
Jeanne: Bye.
Grace: Wasn't that great? If you would like to learn more about today's author, please go to our website, kidsaskauthors.com, for more information.
Grace:
Special thanks to the High Five Books and Art Always Bookstore and Ms. Carlton's second grade class at Jackson Street School for their help with our kid questions and reviews. Grownups, remember, if you know a kid that has a question, a book review, a short story, a poem, or even a joke they would like to share on this podcast, please submit it to kidsaskauthors.com. And if you'd like to reach me, you can sign up for my author's newsletter by clicking on the little link icon at the top of the kidsaskauthors.com page, or follow me on Twitter and Instagram where I use the handle @ Pacy Lin. Also, if you enjoy this podcast, please spread the word. Tell your friends and colleagues to listen and, of course, please leave a review on iTunes. That really helps me know that you like what we're doing so we can keep doing it.
Today’s book review comes from Grace D.! Thank you so much Grace!
The book I would like to talk about is I Can Make This Promise by Christine Day. This book is about a girl named Edie who knows her mom was adopted by two white people, but Edie wonders about her own Native American heritage. I liked this book because Edie was always determined and persistent, and that helped her to discover who she really is.
More about today’s author:
Jeanne Birdsall is a New York Times best-selling author of books for children. Her middle grade novels about the Penderwick family have collected many honors, including the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, and have been translated into thirty languages. She also writes picture books for younger children.
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.
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.
