Episode #116: What happens if you don’t like what an editor says about your writing? -with Mark Oshiro
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 Mooncake for Little Star. Today, I'm here with Mark Oshiro, the author of many middle grade novels such as The Insiders. Hi Mark.
Mark Oshiro: Hi. Hello. It's so good to be here.
Grace Lin: Thank you so much for coming on today's podcast. Are you ready for today's kid question?
Mark Oshiro: I'm very ready. I was born ready.
Grace Lin: All right. Well today's kid question is from a kid named Dorothy and Dorothy asks, "What happens if you don't like what your editor says about your writing?"
Mark Oshiro: Dorothy, what a question. What a great question that I think actually gets to the heart of what it means to be a writer. One of the cool things that I have learned since becoming an author is that writing is a very collaborative process, meaning that you are writing, even though you may be doing all of the writing yourself, you have people who are helping you so it is not a very lonely project. You get to have someone who reads the thing that you wrote and created and then gives you feedback and that feedback often is stuff that they don't like or they don't think makes sense or they think can be better. So I actually do two things. When I get my letter from my editor that says, "Here are the things I think you should fix," the first thing I actually do is nothing. Nothing at all.
Mark Oshiro: I don't like to react immediately because my writing is very precious and the stories that I write tend to be very autobiographical and deal with things that I have dealt with in life and so, I feel that my first reaction is going to be very defensive and I don't think that's the best mindset for me to be in to create the best stories. So I will actually just do nothing. I will just sit on it and think about it usually for anywhere from three days to up to a week or two. So the second thing that I do is I look at the bit of feedback that editor gave me and I think, "Does this make this story better? Does this get to the point that I was trying to get to faster, in a more efficient way?" I am very lucky. I have two editors that I am currently working with for my books and 95% of the time, I ultimately agree with what they say because the other thing that I like about them is they know what kind of stories I want to tell.
Mark Oshiro: So they're not trying to make me write a different book. They're trying to make me write the book I want to write but better, but there is the chance, every once in a while, that my editor will say something about my writing that they don't like and I disagree with them. And I'm going to give you a wonderful secret, Dorothy, which is that if you were interested in writing and you are a creator, if you're an artist of any type, you get to say what your art is and I am very lucky that I learned from other authors that you can actually disagree with your editor and not do what they want you to do. I also feel lucky that my editors don't frame it as, "You have to change this thing or your book isn't being published." It's more like they give suggestions, but I have disagreed with my editors before and they have come around to see my point so the beautiful thing is that you should feel empowered to say, "No," sometimes. It is okay to say, "No, I want to do things this way because I think it's better."
Grace Lin: Yes. That's such a great answer, Mark. I love how you talked about how the writing is collaborative because I think so many times kids see the author's name on the book and they think that because our name is on the cover, we did it all by ourself and that's not-
Mark Oshiro: Exactly.
Grace Lin: ... true at all. We have lots of editors and friends and copy editors and probably even more kind of editors reading our work and helping us make it better. I think what's really important that you said that I love so much was how you said that they work with you. I think a lot of times people might think that we work against the editor and that's not true. The editor is helping us. Sometimes when I think kids write things and they have their teachers correct it, they think they're writing against your teacher but that's not true. Your teachers actually trying to help you make a better story and that's the same thing with the editors.
Mark Oshiro: I often think of it like a sports coach as opposed to a teacher necessarily, where you might turn in a project to a teacher and then you get a grade. You got 84% out of something or whatnot. But then I think about a sports coach. I did cross country and track in junior high and in high school and while there were times that the coach was like, "You have to do this thing and it's going to be very hard and you're probably going to hate me at the end," it was very obvious that the goal was, "I'm just trying to make you better and I'm here alongside you and I might be yelling at you and I might be trying to encourage you or whatnot, but we're actually working together to make you better," and so I like to think of the relationship more like that.
Grace Lin: Yes. That's a great way of putting it. Yes. I think that is a better way because teachers, because of our grading system, it does seem more conflicting because of the grading system whereas coaches, it's less about grades and more about just trying to make you the best you can be.
Mark Oshiro: Exactly.
Grace Lin: So that's a great way of thinking about it and I hope, kids, when you think the people that help you make your stories better, think of them as coaches as well. All right. Well, thanks so much, Mark, for answering today's kid question and thank you, Dorothy, for asking such a great one.
Mark Oshiro: Thank you, Dorothy. Thank you so much. It was a fantastic question.
Grace Lin: Bye Mark.
Mark Oshiro: Bye.
Today’s Kid Book Review: Domenica is reviewing The Insiders by Mark Oshiro.
The book I would like to talk about is The Insiders, by Mark Oshiro. This book is about a boy named Hector that is bullied for being different from everyone else. He finds a magical room he can be himself in, and makes 2 new friends. I really liked this book because Hector and all his friends help each other with big problems and work together to get revenge on a bully for Hector and his whole school.
Thank you so much Domenica!
More about today’s authors:
Mark Oshiro is the award-winning author of the young adult books ANGER IS A GIFT (2019 Schneider Family Book Award) and EACH OF US A DESERT, both with Tor Teen, as well as their middle grade books THE INSIDERS and YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE, DAVID BRAVO with Harper Collins. They are also the co-author (with Rick Riordan) of the upcoming PERCY JACKSON novel centered on Nico di Angelo and Will Solace. When not writing, they are trying to pet every dog in the world.
Mark is based in Atlanta, GA.
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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