Episode #113: How do you come up with such imaginative plots?-with Nidhi Chanani
Welcome back! Today on Kids Ask Authors, we have a great kid question, “How do you come up with such imaginative plots?” that Grace and Nidhi Chanani answer!
TRANSCRIPTS:
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 Moon Cake For Little Star. Today, I am here with Nidhi Chanani, the author and illustrator of the graphic novels, Pashmina and Jukebox. You can see some of Nidhi's childhood art next to her adult professional work online today at the virtual art exhibit, Now and Then. Hi Nidhi.
Nidhi Chanani: Hi Grace. How's it going?
Grace Lin: Good. I'm so glad that you're joining us today. Are you ready for today's kid question?
Nidhi Chanani: Absolutely.
Grace Lin:
Okay. Today's kid question is from a person named Nor. Nor asks...
Nor: How do you come up with such imaginative plots?
Grace Lin: How do you come up with such imaginative plots?
Nidhi Chanani: I love that question. I would say that the way that I come up with my plots is actually fairly predictably from reading a lot. I read a lot of books, and I watch a lot of TV shows. I feel like stories are everywhere. I really pay attention to the things that I think are interesting. Then I like to ask myself questions like, "What if this maybe store idea and this story idea were smashed together?" Or there's maybe a kernel of an idea from something that I'm reading, which actually is how I came up with my next middle-grade graphic novel. I was reading a Neil Gaiman book, and the book was talking about kind of a whole underground that was under the city of London. I thought, "Well, what would it be like if there was an underground in San Francisco?" A lot of it comes from ideas that sparked from other ideas.
Grace Lin: Oh, that's so interesting. I have talked about plots a lot with a lot of authors, and I tell them how actually a lot of times my plots are very straightforward. They're just hero goes on a journey, like one of those things, but what I do to make it more interesting is I add layers and layers of other stories on. The thing that helps me is thinking about every person has their own story. It's such an interesting... I remember being a kid and realizing the way I see things, my story, is different than my sister's story. She thinks she's the most important person in her story, but I'm the most important person in my story. Realizing that has always been really interesting to me. When I write my plot and I want to add more, I think about this person, what is their story? I decide whether or not to layer them in. Sometimes it takes me on really strange branches.
Nidhi Chanani: Yeah. It sounds like you're very character driven. For me, I think that I come up with maybe the overarching story first, and then I think about who would be... For instance, in Jukebox, who would be the right person to find this jukebox in an attic and what would make them find it? If I think of maybe the kind of main element... In Jukebox, my recent graphic novel, they are two cousins who find a magical jukebox in an attic in San Francisco. I asked myself that question. I love this idea of a magical jukebox that takes you back in time. I got my main kind of plot point, but then unfolding it is thinking about those characters, kind of like how you said.
Grace Lin: That's so neat. Where did you get the idea for the Jukebox?
Nidhi Chanani: The idea for the Jukebox actually came from a conversation with my husband who is a vinyl collector. We have I think... I always say it's 2,000 records in our house, but it might be 2,500 records. We listen to a lot of vinyl around here. At some point, he made a comment about how jukeboxes only play singles. I didn't know that because I was just talking about how when you're in a place with a jukebox, you just hit the song you want to hear, but what if you want to hear the whole album, like how we listened to vinyl at home. He just made a casual comment, "Well, they're just singles. If you had a jukebox that played an into higher album, it would be humongous because you would need the size of a 12-inch record to be able to flip onto the other side." That one comment just got me thinking, "Oh, a humongous jukebox." That just immediately felt magical to me. Then I just got writing.
Grace Lin: Oh, that's so interesting. When I asked you this question, I was curious if you were going to say something about objects because both your books, Pashmina and Jukebox, kind of have these magical objects. I was wondering if certain objects were the inspiration for your imaginative plots.
Nidhi Chanani:
Yeah. I definitely see that link between Pashmina and Jukebox as both having... Magical Pashmina, Magical Jukebox. I don't think that I intended to do that. It just happened. My next book has magic in it as well that I'm working on now, and it's breaking away from that. It's not necessarily a problem, but it is definitely something that I notice as kind of what I think as an entry point. What is your entry point into this magical world? I do think that objects often seem not necessarily easy, but to me, I think that our natural world, our physical world, in and of itself... The fact that it exists, that these particles come together to exist as a table, as a computer as anything, to me, feels magical in it of itself. I think that I bring that to my stories.
Grace Lin: Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Nidhi, for answering today's question. Thank you, Nor, for asking such a great one.
Nidhi Chanani: Thanks for having me.
Grace Lin: Bye.
Nidhi Chanani: Bye.
Today’s Kid Book Review: Our kid book review comes from Domenica! Domenica is reviewing Juxebox by Nidhi Chanani.
Jukebox By: Nidhi Chanani
Reviewed by: Domenica Figueroa
The book I am going to talk about is Jukebox by Nidhi Chanani. It is about two girls named Shahi and Naz trying to find Shahi's dad by time traveling in a magical jukebox. After they time travel through lots of albums, Naz can't continue, and Shahi is determined to find her father in the music.
I liked this book because in the beginning Shahi is worried about time traveling in the mysterious machine, but in the end, she is so worried about her dad and Naz she goes anyway.
Thank you Domenica!
More about today’s authors:
Nidhi Chanani is a freelance illustrator, cartoonist and writer. After completing her undergrad literature degree at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Nidhi pursued a career in non-profits. The desire to draw kept pulling her away and in 2008 she enrolled in art school (only to drop out a year later). In 2009 she began completing one illustration every day of the week. She called this Every Day Love and developed her narrative style and voice with three years of daily practice. This launched her art career and business. Born in Calcutta and raised in suburban southern California, Nidhi creates because it makes her happy – with the hope that it can make others happy, too. In April of 2012 she was honored by the Obama Administration as a Champion of Change. Her debut graphic novel, Pashmina (First Second/Macmillan), released in fall 2017. Her second original graphic novel, Jukebox, released in June 2021 with a starred review in Booklist and glowing reviews in Kirkus and Publishers Weekly.
In 2018, Jasmine’s New Pet, which she wrote and drew released through Dark Horse Comics. Her bilingual board book, Shubh Raatri Dost/Good Night Friend released in 2019. Her debut picture book, written by Bea Birdsong, I will be fierce, released in April 2019. Her next picture book, Binny’s Diwali, written by Thrity Umrigar, released in September 2020. Kong and Me, written by Kiki Thorpe released in March 2021. Her author/illustrator debut What will my story be? releases in November 2021. She is currently working on her next original graphic novel, Super Boba Café as well as unannounced picture books and graphic novels. She is an instructor in the Master of Fine Arts, Comics program at the California College of Arts. Nidhi draws and dreams every day with her husband, kid and their kittens in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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.
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