Illustrators are too cool and other random thoughts

First off, I wanted to take a moment to thank Peggy for commenting on that last blog entry. Thank you, Peggy. You are part of an elite group now – of, I think, maybe three people. Thank you, Peggy!

Now, to the actual thought of the day. Why must illustrators be so awesome?

Case in point: Word Disco blog  A friend (and librarian extraordinaire) directed me to this new blog (thank you, Kim F.). She thought I might enjoy it. Holy Mac. Do I ever. But the thing that strikes me is that, while I recently wrote a blog post with a similar topic, without the illustrations showing how I change characters, setting, angles, etc… it’s just not as cool. I also try to tack down a story by introducing new characters, removing characters etc… (for years, in fact — just like Stephen Shaskan), but I do not have the awesome illustrations to share with you. No, no I don’t. I have sheet after sheet of paper with scribbles. Not nearly as interesting to look at. Stephen has ILLUSTRATIONS which is just so cool.

In fact (now this might make you shake your head and judge me harshly) it never even occurred to me until I saw some illustration revisions on my first two books that illustrators even revised in this way. I KNOW – silly right? But somehow, I never thought about it. Text revisions, heck yes! But even though I knew how much work I put into a story and how many times I revised — I just made this terrible assumption that illustrators didn’t need to revise like that. Like they were just born all-knowing and amazing and talented beyond belief.  I am so relieved to learn that illustrators revise too. For years. Just like me.

As I continue on this journey, I’m learning that everyone on the planet revises all the time — even if you’re not a writer. Even if you’re not an illustrator. We are all allowed to make changes for the better in any area that we want to. How cool is that?

Thank you, Stephen for sharing your work — I look forward to reading more of your blog!

-Jamie