This post was originally sent through my author newsletter on August 25th, 2023. To subscribe to my newsletter and receive up-to-date news, musings, and more, click HERE.
In my standard school visit presentation, there's a portion where I talk for a bit and then a portion where I ask the students to do an activity with me. When we're transitioning—when their teachers are handing out paper and clipboards and pencils and everyone's shifting gears from listening to participating—I always offer two important pieces of information for what's about to happen:
Students can write in response to my prompts and questions, or they can draw, or they can do both. There is no wrong way to participate!
I am not expecting them to complete an entire story in the next 15-20 minutes.
I usually have to repeat that second one: We are not trying to write a story today. We're just gathering our ingredients. (My school visit is called "Recipe for a Story," so I use a lot of cooking metaphors!)
Why do I stress this second point?
Because a lot of kids get anxious when they're asked (or when they think they're being asked) to produce something on the spot. Also, because each child will respond in a different way to what I'm asking them to do. I've had kids cover a whole page with writing during my activity. I've had kids draw elaborate pictures, filling every corner of the paper with tiny details. I've had kids jot down a bare-bones list of ideas, or a series of one-word answers to the questions I'm asking. And I've had kids get stuck on question one ("If you could turn into an animal for a day, what animal would you choose?").
The goal, I keep telling them as I circle the room, isn't to finish something today. It's to get ideas on the page that you can come back to later. Gathering your ingredients is the starting point. It takes time to cook up a whole story.
This is not just true for kids.
One of the reasons I've found drafting my write-for-hire project this summer to be a relative breeze is that when I sat down to work on the draft, I had all my ingredients gathered and organized. I'd brainstormed and outlined. I'd created a document that was already broken down by chapter, including a brief synopsis of what each chapter was meant to do. I'd jotted down important notes to myself and questions my editor and the client posed.
As I've shared before, this is not my strategy every single time I write a book. What is consistent is that I've learned to make ingredient-gathering a key part of the process. Sometimes, that looks like brainstorming over a period of weeks or months before actually diving in. Sometimes, that looks like creating a beat-sheet to see how the story might flow from one scene, or beat, to the next. Sometimes, that looks like outlining key story arcs. Sometimes, though not as much anymore, that looks like free-writing—like play (like I talked about last week)—to see what ingredients emerge organically on the page.
In the food industry, this is called mise en place: the setup required before you actually begin to cook. It's setting out your tools. Chopping your vegetables. Arranging your herbs and spices. By preparing ahead of time, you streamline the cooking process.
By preparing ahead of time—in whatever way makes sense to you, for the specific book you're working on—you can ease the writing process, as well.
This year, I have had a new story idea brewing in my mind. I'm not sure exactly when I'll have time to write it. But I have already begun gathering my ingredients. I have a Word doc with bullet-pointed ideas that I add to from time to time, when something new occurs to me. When I'm truly ready to dive in, I may do a bit more prep work: character sketches, story beats, etc. Then I won't be starting from a total blank. Then, the actual cooking process can begin.
What are some ways you gather your ingredients before you begin to create?
~Kathryn
What I'm:
Reading: I shared on my Instagram this week that I read The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith, ostensibly for my summer reading challenge ("book set in a bucket-list destination"). This wonderful book is about a musician who goes on an Alaskan cruise with her dad after her mom's death. The two haven't gotten along in years—but this cruise might help them mend some fences. I really enjoyed this read...but I later realized that the actual square on the reading challenge grid is for "book set in a country on your bucket list"—and Alaska is not a country! Alas.
Watching: "Ahsoka" on Disney+! This one is interesting, because I didn't watch either of the Star Wars cartoon series, and thus I'm going into this new show with some major gaps in my knowledge. That said, so far I'm enjoying it a lot. (Is my husband enjoying all the questions I'm asking about characters and their backstories? Remains to be seen...)
Enjoying: Some slightly cooler summer weather in NYC this week. I love a good 80-degrees-and-breezy summer day!
Loving: This purse my daughter made in her week of sewing camp!
