Episode #123: What do you do first, writing or drawing, and why? -with Cece Bell
Welcome back! We are pleased to welcome Cece Bell alongside Grace Lin to answer another great kid question!
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 am here with Cece Bell, the author and illustrator of many books, including the graphic novel, El Deafo, and the Rabbit & Robot books, as well as the Chick and Brain books. You can see some of Cece's childhood art next to her adult professional work online today at the virtual Art Exhibit Now & Then. Hi, Cece.
Cece Bell: Hi Grace, how are you?
Grace Lin: Good. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Cece Bell: Absolutely, thanks for having me.
Grace Lin: I'm so excited. Are you ready for today's kid question?
Cece Bell: I am very ready, thank you.
Grace Lin: Okay. Today's kid question is from a person named Isabella. And Isabella-
Isabella: What do you do first, writing or drawing, and why?
Grace Lin: What do you do first, writing or drawing, and why?
Cece Bell: Okay. Well, Isabella, this is a great question. And, most of the time I do the writing first. And the reason that I do the writing first is because there are many things that I don't really like to draw, because I am intimidated by them. And if I start drawing first, then I end up avoiding some of the things that might be really important to the story. So, I try to get the story right and the writing just right, before I do the drawing. And, there's a lot of back and forth eventually, but I really like to get that story pretty much perfect before I jump in with anything else. It just gives me a lot more confidence to do the writing first in the end.
Grace Lin: Do you ever change the story when you start doing the drawings? Like, I am guilty of doing that. I'll be like, "Oh, maybe instead of 100 cars, I only need 10 cars."
Cece Bell: Right. It's funny that you say cars, because cars is a big one. I don't like to draw cars, and I'm terrible at drawing adults, grownup people. I do not like to draw grownups. So, I don't think, I might cheat a little bit. I think we all do that. We realize what our limitations are, and try to push against them and try to push ourselves to go farther. But, there are just some times, often because of a deadline, where you just have to say, "All right, there's only three cars," like you were saying, and I'll change the word 10 to three, but it's very rarely. I try to make sure that I go with what I wrote.
Grace Lin: Yeah. I'm very similar because I always do the story first as well. I write the story and then I do the illustration. But every once in a while, I will draw a picture that inspires the story. Like, "Oh, I want to do a book with this in it." I know with, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, the cover illustration was actually pretty similar to a cover illustration I did for Cricket Magazine. And I remember I did the cover for Cricket Magazine and I said, "Oh, I need to do a book with this in it," and so it inspired the story. Has that ever happened to you?
Cece Bell: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. I'll make a little doodle and I think, "Oh, that would be such a great character." But then I put that drawing away and go straight to the writing. And, this is true in mostly picture books and the early reader books. But I will say that working on the graphic novel type genre is a little different, and I've done a lot more back and forth writing, drawing, writing, drawing, just because the form is so much more organic. It's just so much more... You don't have to be quite so faithful to this story. You can let it develop sometimes, if that makes sense.
Grace Lin: Yeah, I think-
Cece Bell: Oh, good. The looser way of working for me when I'm doing graphic novel comic type stuff.
Grace Lin: I could do that.
Cece Bell: Yeah. Yeah.
Grace Lin: They call it like, and when they talk about writing novels, they talk about plotting or pantsing, and I think graphic novels, you could probably be a bit more of a pantser.
Cece Bell: Yes, right, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, yeah, but it's mostly, I mostly just don't want to lock myself in about what I feel like I have trouble drawing. And what I should be doing is practicing the things that I have trouble with, and then just using that practice.
Grace Lin: I don't know, I feel like people's styles, their styles of art, is all based on what they don't like to draw. All their shortcuts and all their clever way of getting out of drawing things I don't like to draw.
Cece Bell: Absolutely. Absolutely. There's a reason why in El Deafo, the hands look like mittens. There's no fingers on the hands of the characters in El Deafo, and it was, I'm okay with drawing hands, but I know for me, it's very time-consuming to get the hand shape. There's certain things, like gripping a pencil. I have not mastered the hand shape of how to grip a pencil. And I have tried and tried and tried, and so I would just give everybody mitten hands. Yay. [crosstalk 00:05:34].
Grace Lin: But that's part of the charm of the style of the book, so that's kind of cool. That's really neat.
Cece Bell: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's fun to think that your style is based on what you're avoiding.
Grace Lin: Your weakness is your strength, right?
Cece Bell: Right. Where'd you get it? [crosstalk 00:05:53]. Absolutely.
Grace Lin: Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Cece, for answering Isabella's question. And Isabella, thank you so much for asking such a great one.
Cece Bell: It was a great question, Isabella. Thank you.
Today’s KID BOOK REVIEW: Iris is reviewing El Deafo by Cece Bell!
Hi! I’m Iris. The book I would like to talk about is El Deafo, written and illustrated by Cece Bell. This book is about Cece, a young girl who was recently diagnosed with being deaf. She gets a special device called the Phonic Ear to help her hear. Not everyone accepts her, and the path in school is a rocky one. I liked this book because as soon as I met Cece, I fell in love with her. It was fascinating to follow her heartwarming adventures through this book. Can Cece finally be accepted, not bullied... and find a true friend?
Wonderful review! Thank you Iris!
More about today’s authors:
Cece Bell lives in an old church in Virginia and works in a new-ish barn right next door. She met her husband, writer Tom Angleberger, at the College of William and Mary, where they were both art majors. Cece went on to get a graduate degree in illustration and design at Kent State University. Cece became a full-time author and illustrator after many years working as a freelance illustrator and designer for all kinds of nutty projects. Her books include the Newbery Honor and Eisner-winning graphic novel El Deafo, the Geisel Honor-winning Rabbit & Robot: The Sleepover, Rabbit & Robot and Ribbit, I Yam a Donkey, Bee-Wigged, Itty Bitty, and the Sock Monkey series. She has also created books with Tom, including Crankee Doodle and the Inspector Flytrap series.
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.
Thank you so much for tuning into to Kids Ask Authors! We would appreciate your continued support on our Patreon page! Please consider becoming a member for all kinds of exclusive perks. https://www.patreon.com/kidasaskauthorspodcast
Order the 2022 WTMMTM CALENDAR: https://shop.carlemuseum.org/category/books/autographed-books/grace-lin
Sign up for Grace's author newsletter: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/kEmJMT3/newsletter