Episode #128: What are the biggest changes you’ve made from first draft to published book?-with Vincent Chen
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 Vincent Chen, the author and illustrator of Hot Pop Night! Hi Vincent.
Vincent Chen: Hi Grace.
Grace Lin: Thank you so much for joining me today.
Vincent Chen: Thank you for having me.
Grace Lin: Are you ready for today's kid question?
Vincent Chen: Yes, let's go.
Grace Lin: All right. Today's kid question is from a young person named Eunice and they ask, what are the biggest changes you've made from first draft to published book?
Vincent Chen: Oh, that's a really great question, Eunice. There have been a lot of changes to my books since the rough draft. Believe it or not, this book started off as a project for school. I was taking a children's book making class at the time and the final project, we were assigned to make a book mock up. And at the end of the semester, we had to present the book to editors and publishers. I was very lucky enough that my book resonated with one of them and they decided to publish it. And that happened in December, 2017 and my book is coming out next week, actually. And so three years is a lot of time for a book to change. And so a little bit of everything has changed. The writing has changed. The art has changed. But I would say the biggest change would be the addition of a new character in my book.
Vincent Chen: When I first had the rough draft, it was just, the main character was the only child in the book and my wonderful editor suggested that I include another character for him to interact with. I thought that was a great idea so I added a little girl who is also a neighbor in the apartment complex they all live in and you can see her also on the cover with the main character along with his trustee sidekick dog on the cover of my book.
Grace Lin: Oh, that's so interesting. I was curious though, because you said that the art changed. How did the art change from what you showed them, showed the editor when they first came to end the school year?
Vincent Chen: So three years is a lot to improve in your art. So my art has improved a lot. The shapes I've gotten a lot more refined. My style has changed a little bit. The way I've drawn characters has changed a little bit. So yeah, it's all more polished now I would say.
Grace Lin: Do you think everything's smoother looking now, or how would you describe the change? Do you have any ideas?
Vincent Chen: I think smoother would be a good way to put it, like tighter shapes, more pronounced shapes. That's a good way to put it, yeah.
Grace Lin: Hmm. It's very interesting because I don't think I've ever done a book that hasn't had changes, and some much bigger than others, but all of my books have had some sort of change. I was trying to think what the biggest change of my, or some of my books were. And I think the one, when you talked about characters, it reminded me of my book. I did a early reader series called Ling and Ting and it's about these Chinese American twins. And the biggest change was that originally it was supposed to be triplets. It was supposed to be Ling, Ting and Sing. It was supposed to be three girls triplets because they were inspired by these really old, old, old books, these old Swedish books called Snip, Snap and Sner. And then they had the companion book called Flicka, Dicka and Ricka.
Grace Lin:
And so I really was trying to do the same thing with Asian American triplets, but it just became so tedious and tiring. For some reason it was charming when it was Snip, Snap and Sner and Flicka, Dicka, and Ricka. But actually, maybe it wasn't charming because those books are not in print anymore anyway. But then when I was trying to do Ling, Ting and Sing or Ling, Ting and Ming, it just got so cartoony and so annoying that I just, poor Sing, I just cut her out.
Vincent Chen: Oh no.
Grace Lin: And now it's just Ling and Ting, which is so much easier.
Vincent Chen: Yeah. Lots change in a book from it's rough stage.
Grace Lin: Yeah. Characters that come into... Maybe characters that come into being in some books and characters that get cut out.
Vincent Chen: Absolutely. Yeah.
Grace Lin: Those are like a lot of the big changes. Were there any changes that you made that you wish you didn't have to have made?
Vincent Chen: Mm. I'm pretty happy with all the changes. My team was really wonderful with all their great suggestions. The writing has changed a decent amount to make it more smoother and for the rhythm beats to make more sense. I would say I'm pretty happy with all the changes. Yeah.
Grace Lin: Oh, that's great. I feel like when I write novels, what's hard for me is cutting things out because sometimes just things become unwieldy and I don't need to put all these things in. I always end up cutting a lot of things. I know in my book When the Sea Turned to Silver, I had lots of little stories that I just had to cut out. It was so hard to see. And I know for many, I think because you're an author and an illustrator, it was probably a little easier for you because in terms of the writing of not having to cut too much out because you are already illustrating it. But I know for a lot of my author friends who are solo writing a picture book, they get very pained when so much of their words get cut out because the editor will say "Well, but we don't need that, the pictures are going to tell that part of the story."
Vincent Chen: Yeah. I understand that. Yeah, absolutely. So if they had asked me to change certain things, like be it the art or the writing, I could always just make a compromise with something else I enjoyed.
Grace Lin: Exactly. Whereas I think when you're doing one or the other, I think it must be painful. They'd be like, "They cut out all my description." And I was like, "Well, it is a picture book." They're going to see that the sky is blue, you don't need to write it.
Vincent Chen: Exactly. Yeah.
Grace Lin: So that's what's always so interesting. And that's kind of the advantage that we have as being authors and illustrators, I think.
Vincent Chen: Yeah. Yeah.
Grace Lin: We're lucky. So anyway, well thank you so much for answering today's kid question. And thank you, Eunice, for asking it.
Vincent Chen: Yes. Thank you, Eunice.
Grace Lin: Bye.
Vincent Chen: Bye.
Today’s KID BOOK REVIEW comes from Audrey! Audrey is reviewing, Hot Pot Night! by Vincent Chen.
Hi, my name is Audrey. The book I would like to talk about is Hot Pot Night! by Vincent Chen. This book is about a boy and his family who want hot pot for dinner. Then, the family's neighbors arrive with different ingredients for hot pot, including materials, too: the pot, broth, meat, greens, and mushrooms. The family and neighbors make the hot pot. I liked this book because it's sweet, fun, and makes my belly rumble! Hot Pot Night! is a great picture book for younger readers. It's also a great introduction to what hot pot is. It's an awesome story about sharing this delicious meal with diverse friends.
Thank you so much Audrey for that wonderful book review!
More about today’s authors:
Vincent Chen is a Taiwanese American illustrator from the humble state of New Jersey. With a BFA in illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design, Vincent has always loved putting pencil to paper. By day, he is a background painter in animation and by night, he illustrates children’s books.
Vincent loves to explore color, texture, and shapes in his work. He draws inspiration from nature, film, and animation. On weekends, he can be found working on his latest freelance projects and doing digital nature studies. When he’s not drawing, Vincent is binging the newest Netflix original show or rewatching his favorite superhero movies. His favorite hot pot ingredient is fatty pork belly.
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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