Seasons change and I'm finding my creative footing again

Eel Report

We’ve had our first snow of the season, but making that first snow more shocking is how the weather shifted from beautiful, sunny autumn, practically no sweater or jacket necessary to almost winter in the span of a few days.

I know my plants and trees with their leaves still attached and heavy were not ready for that first snow. I saw it in the ways the branches bent over to touch the ground, or the maples in the park who lost entire limbs, their leaves just beginning to shift to yellow. I know that the trees changing and the season shifting doesn’t have to do with eels, but it made me wonder what happens to eels when it snows. Where do they go when the temperature drops? 

Dear friends, I’m excited to tell you that the eels, they burrow when it snows. They burrow and hibernate in the mucky mud mud. It is not nearly as romantic as a little bear cave with leaves and picture book story coziness, but still good and as you might expect from eels, shrouded in a bit mystery. Some eels will burrow deep, like dig your grave twice levels of deep. How do they do that? While the eels are hibernating, they shift into a state of torpor, or complete inactivity. Isn’t torpor a great word? Latin with Middle English origins: lethargy, listlessness, to be numb, inactive.

That first shock of snow also has this effect on me. Minus the mucky mud mud. 

Reading

You would think that a little newsletter hiatus might mean that I have a wealth of books and reading to share, but the reality is that between work, parenting, and all the things the past few months, I didn’t have too much time for reading or writing. In a normal year, I usually read somewhere around 100 books, usually more if I’m counting all my picture book reads. This year, I’m not even to that halfway mark, and my reading list is still mostly picture books! *cries*

Stepping away from book world and working outside of book related industries affected my reading for sure. It’s the first time in over a decade I haven’t worked in a library or a bookstore. To be fair, the drop off in my reading probably has more to do with lack of time than daily proximity to books, but it’s the first year in a long long time where I’m not quite sure if I have a good pulse on what books are new or having a moment. As CJ McCollum put it perfectly, “I’m trying, Jennifer!” I’m trying.

Here’s a little round up of what I’ve read and really liked over the past six months. 

Creative Life & Writing

Whenever I’m lost or the creative well has run dry, visual art has been able to lift me out of that funk. Experiencing art is always a reminder to pay attention, to look at the details, notice textures, to walk through the world with a sense of wonder and curiosity. 

I’m lucky to live in a place with a great arts community. I’ve seen some really inspiring art shows in the past month and was reminded at an event that joy leads to play which leads to art. I’m forever on a quest to remember to play and find joy in my writing for children— I think that’s where my best stories live.

I recently attended a solo art exhibit of Pamela Caughey’s work. It’s abstract and textural, often each piece a mixed media exploration— the kind of work you wish you could touch and feel how each stroke, each shape was made. At the exhibit, there was a video showing Caughey’s artistic process that really resonated with me as I was preparing to teach a picture book writing workshop at the 6th Annual Spokane Writers Conference. 

The wonderful thing about preparing an informative session is all the ways that it can reinforce my own understanding of how to write picture books. For me, sometimes writing can become a bit tunnel-y, and I have to give myself permission to play with the tools that I have. 

While being filmed in her studio, Pamela Caughey described playing, just making marks and adding color. Then she paused and described a phase, a moment when the marks and the color combination made an ugly image, an ugly composition. And that was just part of the process. She said, “oh, this is ugly,” but then she kept going. 

Caughey described those initial marks as play and then a necessary shift to thinking, and how when you’re thinking about the marks you’re making, the colors you’re using, the composition you’re building, you’ve gone from playing to exploring, and that shift in the creative process towards building a composition.

I loved watching Pamela Caughey paint, and how she took a moment to recognize the ugliness in the process, but that she kept making marks. She shared that it’s the fundamentals of design that are the foundation to get you out of the weeds. When you get stuck, when you get challenged, the main thing is to keep going. You can watch Pamela Caughey talk about art and see her paint on her youtube channel.

As I taught this picture book class, I shared Pamela Caughey’s wisdom. It’s the fundamentals, it’s the tools of the craft of writing that can help get a story unstuck. Whether that’s exploring a new structure, or reimagining what a shift in point of view might do for your story, it was a reinforcement of the craft of writing. A reminder to lean into the tools that are already there just waiting for the writer to play, to explore, to make new marks.

Thank you for reading this little Eel Report & Other Things Newsletter and joining me on this eel-obsessed and creative journey. Happy writing and making and exploring the world. I’ve got a holiday gift guide— eel and crocodile themed—coming up later this month!

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