School Visits & Presentations - Part 2 - How You Work

In a previous post - Part 1 -  Your Personal Story, I shared questions to answer for dynamic school visits and presentations.

Today we'll discuss  Part 2 - How You Work

I can pretty much guarantee that your audience, whether senior citizens, PTA parents or children in schools, will all want to know how you as an author or illustrator work. So here are some questions to consider answering to beef up the quality of your presentation:

Part 2 - How You Work As A Writer or Illustrator:

Writer:
Where do your ideas come from?
Do you outline first?
Do you have anyone check your story before you send it to a publisher?
How do you know you're idea is good enough to publish?
How do you decide what kind of book to write?
Do you work in a quite atmosphere or do you need music in the background? a crowd in a coffee shop?
What do you use for inspiration?
Have you ever had writer's block? If so, how did you get out of it?
Do you write every day?
How many hours a day do you write?
Have you ever had a story rejected?
How does it feel to get rejected?
How many rejections have you received?
Have you ever won any awards?
What is the hardest part about writing for you?
What is the easiest?
How many books have you had published?
How do you/did you find a publisher?
Did you have to choose your own illustrator?
What advice can you give to an inspiring writer?

Illustrator:
Where do your ideas come from?
What medium do you use most often?
What is your favorite medium to use?
Do you sketch things first in pencil or marker?
What size drawing do you do to illustrate a book?
How many sketches do you do before you decide which one will be in the book?
What kind of research do you have to do to illustrate a book?
Do you work with the author when you illustrate a book?
How do you know how many illustrations are needed for a book?
Do you get to choose how many illustrations to do or does someone tell you how many?
What medium do you use with a finished illustration?
Do you get to keep the illustrations after they are put in a book?
Where do you work?
What does your office look like?
Do you work in a quiet atmosphere or do you have music playing in the background?
If you listen to music at work, what kind of music inspires your images?
Have your illustrations ever won any awards?
What happens if the author doesn't like your illustrations?
Has that ever happend to you?

Answers to all or some of these questions mixed with anecdotes and personal stories will enhance your presentation immensely.

Stay tuned for Part 3 - Your Published Work - on Monday