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Part journal, part hilarious graphic novel—you can think of Ellie McDoodle as Diary of a Wimpy Kid for the tween girl set. But while Wimpy Kid was born online, author/illustrator Ruth McNally Barshaw's popular series about budding pre-teen artist Ellie actually grew from a marriage of a sketchjournal she kept at a writers' conference and an essay on childhood memories. Conceived as a stand-alone title, the success of the first book, Ellie McDoodle: Have Pen, Will Travel (Bloomsbury, 2007)—and her publisher's request for more—came as a fabulous surprise to Barshaw.
The series' fourth installment, the newly released Most Valuable Player (Bloomsbury, 2012), follows Ellie as she joins two teams—soccer, coached by her dad, and the creative problem-solving Journey of the Mind. Ellie's no great athlete and much prefers brain-teasers to muddy cleats, but she ultimately finds a way to make the most of both experiences. As with the other Ellie adventures, this one's loaded with fun games and crafty how-tos for readers to try themselves.
“It was a huge shock that the editor wanted more books.” —BARSHAW
AUTHORLINK: Big congratulations on Ellie McDoodle, book four! Did you conceive of Ellie as a series? How did she come about in the first place?
BARSHAW: Thank you! I think the fourth book is the best, so far. I didn’t imagine Ellie as a series at all, at first! It was a huge shock that the editor wanted more books. And the way she broke the news was memorable: she had a list of requested revisions, and one thing on the list was to make the little boy in the book, Ben-Ben, Ellie’s brother instead of her cousin, so he could be in future books. Of course, I was delighted to comply.
Ellie McDoodle came into being at exactly the right time for this sort of book (a month after the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid). I’d written a few years earlier about my dad as a summertime soldier (he was in the National Guard) and how it affected me as a kid, but I didn’t know how to use the essay. It didn’t fit the picture book work I was pursuing. When some brilliant SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) Michigan authors tagged it as the funny start to a middle grade novel, I shelved it because I knew nothing about novel writing. In February 2005, I’d just returned with a full sketchjournal of images and ideas from the national SCBWI conference in NYC, and I put one hundred fifty pages on my website (it’s still there: http://ruthexpress.com/sketch/sk07.html). The link went viral—I got a thousand emails. Author friends encouraged—no, pushed—me (thank you, Mary Siddals!) to do a kids' book in that sketchjournal style instead of picture books.
In sitting down to write it, I went back to a time and place when life was good: family camp at the state park, 1971. I used inspiration from the essay and some stuff from when my husband and I camped with our kids, and some from when I was a Girl Scout leader, camping with and playing pranks on my troop. And some ideas just drifted in with the snow. I suspected the book was good when the first one hundred pages just rolled out of my pen in less than two weeks. An impressive literary agent found me in mid-February. She submitted it to an editor, who penned the most fantastic and encouraging notes about it. It sold quickly. Suddenly life was golden.
AUTHORLINK: My nine-year-old daughter and her BFFs are huge Ellie fans, they even keep their own sketchjournals. They love the humor and the realistic details—for instance, my daughter's part of a Destination Imagination team, so was delighted to read about Ellie's Journey of the Mind experience in Most Valuable Player. How do you make Ellie so relatable, so spot-on contemporary tween? What's the secret to creating such an adored character?
“I try to listen to kids when they talk. I try to find out what’s important to them. I work hard on the books.” —BARSHAW
BARSHAW: I love that your daughter found a connection in the Journey of the Mind academic games in that book, and I really love that she and her friends are keeping sketchjournals! They’ll be miles ahead of me, in all the important things in life. If Ellie is relatable and adored, I’m lucky. My childhood was creative and chaotic, my teen years were sometimes scary, my kids’ tween years were immensely enjoyable for me; I don’t have any more grasp on it than that. I try to listen to kids when they talk. I try to find out what’s important to them. I work hard on the books. Really hard—up-into-the-wee-hours-of-the-night-hard. But I’m also just lucky; I’m surrounded by brilliant people who share special insight.
AUTHORLINK: What are the challenges of writing a series, in terms of character development, plots, and so forth. Obviously, you need some consistency, but you can't repeat the same story again and again. How do you approach each new Ellie installment? What were you thinking as you dove into Most Valuable Player, what did you want to achieve with it?
BARSHAW: Ah, there are definitely challenges to writing a series. When I found out Ellie couldn’t soon visit France because she’d already experienced travel in the first book, I was dumbfounded. Who do you know that would choose to write a book on family camp instead of traveling to France to research a book there? No sane person, right? But aside from repeating storylines, there are little things like how to introduce the characters in such a way that they’re still fresh, and how to ensure that each subsequent book improves on the previous. I approach each book now with as exhaustive a list of ideas as I can possibly compile, so that when the book comes out I don’t hang my head in embarrassment at missing a major theme that would have been perfect for that book. I might still miss the theme, but I can console myself that I worked hard, and some good ideas are beyond me. With Most Valuable Player, I wanted to explore competition widely—friendly, aggressive, cooperative, charitable. I wanted to make a place for every child in that book, sports lover or not.
AUTHORLINK: When you start work on a new book, what's your creative process? Outline first? Write? Sketch? How much editorial input do you receive? How long does the typical Ellie book take, concept to submission? What does a manuscript look like—all words with notes indicating which illustration goes where?
“Now I write the manuscript first, leaving most of the art for a later stage.”
—BARSHAW
BARSHAW: My process has changed. The first ever, first draft, first page looks remarkably like the finished book first page, with art in place. Now I write the manuscript first, leaving most of the art for a later stage. It’s faster, and the art evolves to a higher level. (This method was suggested by my editor. I resisted it at first.) I include brief illustrator notes in the manuscript, mostly so I’ll remember what I was thinking when it’s time to do the art. I’m starting book five right now, and it needs to be completely done by October. I think I need nine months of full-time work to do a good job.
This is my process:
1. Pitch an idea for an Ellie book to my agent and editor. Get approval. Start brainstorming and researching.
2. Refine the pitch—shrink and expand it until I think I know what will happen in the book (there are always surprises). This is where I am right now with book five.
3. Write a summary of each page. Get approval (usually there are a few changes). This is what I am working toward for early April.
4. Write the first draft. Get approval (usually there are lots of changes). This is due in a couple months. Write the second draft. Get approval. (Lots more changes) Write the next draft (lots of little changes). Add the art pencil sketches. Get approval/changes. Write the final draft and do final art.
I get a lot of editorial input and it’s all brilliant. I’m a better writer because I had such a fabulous editor at Bloomsbury, Melanie Cecka, who left the business last month. Now I’m working with the awesome Caroline Abbey, and I’m excited to see what happens.
AUTHORLINK: What advice do you have for aspiring author/illustrators?
“Hone your craft. Make it irresistible, and keep trying to improve.”
—BARSHAW
BARSHAW:Join SCBWI and attend the conferences. Hone your craft. Make it irresistible, and keep trying to improve. There’s an awfully high level of competition out there these days, but there’s always room for innovators and for great work. When it’s ready to submit, research to find the best home for your work. Don’t work with crummy publishers, and don’t settle for insulting contract terms or incompetent marketing plans. This might mean it will take a few extra years to get published. It’s worth the wait. And read Susan’s blog. Boy, there’s a lot of great stuff there!
AUTHORLINK: What are you working on next?
BARSHAW: I have two new Ellie McDoodle books in the works. The first is about theater and it will come out next year. The next one starts as soon as I’m done with the first one, and if I manage the deadlines well it’ll come out in 2014. While waiting to hear if a contract offer was coming, I started working on a graphic novel. It’s in the beginning stages so I can’t say much—ideas are so fragile early on— but it’s aimed at 9–12 year old readers. It’s a challenging topic, but I’m very excited and hope to develop it more during little breaks from the Ellie books.
Susan VanHecke is an author and editor of books for adults and children. Her titles for young people include Raggin' Jazzin' Rockin': A History of American Musical Instrument Makers (Boyds Mills, 2011), Rock 'N' Roll Soldier (HarperCollins, 2009), and An Apple Pie For Dinner (Cavendish, 2009). To find out more about Susan and her books, visit www.susanvanhecke.com and www.susanvanheckeeditorial.com.
