Make an appointment to have a happy accident

This week I interviewed Jeff Mack, a writer and illustrator of children's books. Aside from the fact that it's always interesting to peak into the life of someone who is out there living the life that so many writers and illustrators dream of, one of his answers struck me as particularly interesting.

He said that while he's working on the first phase of his illustrations, he creates quick sketches of the layouts and characters. While he's doing these scribbly drawings, "accidents" sometimes suggest forms that he had not thought of before. These lead to more sketches, and as he allows the process of trial and error to continue, he eventually comes to up with his final art.

This struck me as somewhat profound, primarily because it applies to writers just as well as illustrators. As writers, we strive for the perfect word and the perfect story. Some times we muddle around in the middle, afraid to go forward because we want everything to be just right when we write our story for the first time. However, first drafts are not meant to be perfect. They are just like an illustrator's early scribbles. If we just allow the creative process to take it's natural course when we show up to write each day, eventually, we'll see something more finished and more beautiful than we first imagined. It will have more facets than the original plan called for. Hopefully, it will have more depth.

My challenge to you this week is to break out of any perfectionist mentality that you harbor as you write your first drafts. Instead, let yourself enjoy the happy accidents that result from quickly moving through your plot. In the end, they might take you in directions you didn't plan to go, which might turn out to be a good thing.

If this is something you've struggled with (as I have), leave a comment after you have permitted yourself to let go more in your writing. How did it work out? Did you have some happy accidents that actually produced something you were glad of in the end?

If you'd like to read my interview with Jeff Mack, click on this link and enjoy!

Interview with the talented Jeff Mack!

If you're just stopping by, please follow the link to read my interview with children's book illustrator Jeff Mack.

: ) Beth

Should you judge a book by its cover?

I recently made an acquaintance through an online critique site. After the initial hello's were over, she invited me to check out her book at her website. When I clicked on the link, I realized that I'd been there before, because I recognized the cover of her book.

Now, to be honest, I didn't like the cover. In addition to this, I could tell several things right away from it.

• The author had self-published.

• The artist who had created her cover was not a professional artist.

The unfortunate result? I had no desire to open the book and find out what was inside, because I'm a visual person and the cover was an immediate turn-off.

I would suppose that this is one of the hazards of self-publishing. Almost no writers who self-publish are also professional artists. Also, if they are self-publishing, it's not likely they know any professional artists or illustrators who work in the publishing industry who can offer either help or advice when it comes to a cover. Because of this, self-publishing writers have to either create a cover themselves, get one from the vanity press/independent publisher they're working with (I don't like some of their covers, either), or rely on artistic friends who are willing to help out.

The truth is, even though the book might have been a great one, I wasn't likely to go past the cover in order to find out. Since the cover looked unprofessional, something in me wondered if the writing in the book was going to turn out that way too.

Today I read that 70 percent of books published don't earn back their advance. Wow. That's a lot of money that publishers, even with their marketers, distributors, editors, proofreaders, and professional designers, aren't getting much of a return on. Yikes. If you're self-publishing, you're competing against people like this. Can you afford to come up with a cover that doesn't give a potential purchaser any reason to pick up your book?

How about you? Do you judge a book by its cover?