Jun
Creativity and the Writer- Jennifer Carson Interview
Posted in Critique partners, Fantasy, Writing | 1 Comment »
Today I am interviewing Jennifer Carson about her wonderful book To Find a Wonder asking her questions about her creative career in both writing and creature creation!
Q: Jen, you’ve written To Find a Wonder and have had it published. But how did you start your creative career?
I’ve always been a creative person. Art was my favorite class, as well as English and History. I started teaching younger kids how to draw when I was 16, my first summer job. Even when I started having children, I never lost the desire to create things and often these things would have a way bigger story in my head then what I could create with a pencil or out of craft materials. The summer before my second son went into first grade we were outside on the deck. The boys were playing and I was drawing dragons. He asked me how dragons learned to breathe fire and I couldn’t answer him. Being the technological age mom that I was (ha!) I went on the internet looking for an origin story. I didn’t find one, but I did find a desire to create a story about it. My son’s question was the beginning of a writing career. I was always good at writing, but I never really realized how much I enjoyed it until I started doing it every day.
Q: Some writers start out doing a million different creative hobbies and then realize they’re meant to write. Many writers continue to have other creative pursuits that they call hobbies when they aren’t writing, what are yours?
My hobbies still include drawing and painting and creating other bits and baubles. I like to sculpt with clay and make things from paper, and make things for my kids classrooms—posters and what not. I do those things for fun. I also like listening to music…esp. my boys playing the piano.
Q: Your soft sculpture creatures are gorgeous in detail and I know you write about most of them in your stories. Which ones have you created after you’ve written a story about them, and which ones did you create before the story?
I based the character patterns for To Find A Wonder from the illustrator’s (P.A. Lewis) images, but most of the time the creature comes before the story. There are a lot of creatures that whisper stories to me while they are being created—like my tattoo faeries for instance. It helps me to create their costumes and pick the right accessories. Great creatures are ones that tell me their name, but my favorite creatures are the ones that tell me their stories.
Q: When and how did you learn to sew/felt etc. What drew you to it, and how does it help your writing? I feel that for you one is integral with the other.
You are exactly right. They feed off of each other for sure…see above = ) I fought my mom tooth and nail over learning anything even remotely “domestic”, until I had kids of my own. I wanted to create things for them that were special and not the same old stuff Johnny down the block had. So, I taught myself how to sew and made them special bedding, curtains, painted murals in their rooms—the works! A couple of years later I started looking at some of my drawings and thinking, I wonder how I could make this 3-D. I started teaching myself how to design stuffed animals, starting with dragons. Then my high school art teacher taught me how to needle felt. That was the next piece of the puzzle I needed to get my art career moving. Creating creatures gets my imagination churning. It makes me ask myself questions about how things go together and what I want the outcome to be. (See any resemblance to writing a story? ; )
Q: You have a successful side business at www.thedragoncharmer.com and www.jennifercarson.etsy.com how do you juggle both soft sculpture and writing?
Sometimes it’s hard to juggle writing, creating, and family, but I try to take it just one day at a time and I try to use my time wisely. Like, I know on Tuesday I will be sitting at piano lessons for 90 minutes, so I sew on Tuesday while the boys are in school and I take my writing to piano lesson. Now, Saturday I’ll have some kind of sports game, so on Friday morning I’ll write, but in the afternoon I’ll sew some creatures together and I’ll take those creatures to the game and stuff him so that Saturday before the game I can write before everyone gets up and moving. So, it’s really just about good planning : )
I agree with having a plan. I have always felt that if you want to follow your dreams you need to plan for them.
That’s right. Luck and talent is only 10% of the plan. Perseverance, marketing, hard work, dedication, the willingness to start over or “re-vision” and making contacts make up the other 90% of any creative business. Put yourself out there, what’s the worst that could happen?
Q: Why do you feel it’s important to do other things that are creative besides writing?
It’s not enough to experience the world just through your writing. You have to experience the world with all our senses in order to be able to make your character’s unique world come alive on the page. Plus, while you are in the moment creating something, your subconscious is working out a plot problem, or putting together a scene for you. I don’t always know right away why my character is doing what she/he is doing at the moment—but I do trust that my subconscious will let me in on it…sooner or later. = )
Q: What do you have in the works right now that you’d like to share with our readers?
Well, I have a new story that is being read by two major house (fingers crossed!) and I scripted To Find A Wonder for a musical production this summer. To Find A Wonder, the musical will be performed on August 5th at the New London Barn Playhouse– New London, NH …get tickets if you are in the area! The most fun part of that is that my second oldest is part of the junior intern program and will be part of the performance and they are going to be puppets! Larger than life puppets! It’s going to be awesome = )
I also have a regular column starting in the September issue of Soft Dolls and Animals and I’ve started my own blog. I will have interviews with faerie artist Jessica Galbreth, our own SCBWI author Kat Black, Professor and writer Ari Berk and many more plus updates on my WIP’s and my musings on writing, marketing, inspiration, etc. Stay tuned!
If you would like to read Jennifer’s book To Find A Wonder for FREE check out Kris Asselin’s and Laura Pauling’s blogs for details on their multi-book contests!
To purchase To Find a Wonder please see Jennifer’s site: www.findawonder.com and enjoy this heartwarming story of a young knight and a wonderful dragon.
