Interview with Jarrett Lerner, Author and Illustrator of A Work in Progress

I always like to start with the short and sweet: Give usthe elevator pitch for A Work in Progress.

Here it is, straight from my publisher:

Will is the only round kid in a school full ofthin ones. So he hides…in baggy jeans and oversized hoodies, in the back rowduring class, and anywhere but the cafeteria during lunch. But shame isn’t theonly feeling that dominates Will’s life. He’s also got a crush on a girl namedJules who knows he doesn’t have a chance with—string beans only date stringbeans—but he can’t help wondering what if?

Will’s best shot at attracting Jules’s attentionis by slaying the Will Monster inside him by changing his eating habits andgetting more exercise. But the results are either frustratingly slow orinfuriatingly unsuccessful, and Will’s shame begins to morph intoself-loathing.

As he resorts to increasingly drastic measuresto transform his appearance, Will meets skateboarder Markus, who helps him seehis body and all it contains as an ever-evolving work in progress.

 

Confession: Art is a lifelong love, and I just startedtackling digital art. I love your IG videos that break drawing down into simpleshapes (often the shapes of letters). They’re helping me to see basic shapes inmy own projects! What's one thing about drawing you wish all kids knew? 

I wish all kids – and ADULTS – knew that drawing is a skilllike any other. The only way to get good at it is to practice. There’s thiswidespread myth that you are either born able to draw or not. But that couldn’tbe further from the truth. One of the missions of my work is to get EVERYONEdrawing more. The visual language is the very first one we learn, and I thinkevery human being contains a natural urge to express themselves in it. It’s anincredibly powerful thing. But I think the thing that blocks so many people –kids and adults – is that they think they have to get it “right” on the firsttry. I have never, ever, EVER gotten a drawing “right” on the first try. Noillustrator has. The only things I can draw well are the things I’ve practiceddrawing over and over. At my school visits, I spend a lot of time on this. Itear back the curtain, so to speak, letting kids know that creativity is ALWAYSa process. Every drawing in one of my books – and every sentence or line or verse,as well – is the product of dozens, even hundreds of revisions. The more we canaccept and embrace the process over the product – the more we can focus on thevalue and joy of the work in and of itself – the more fun and productive itwill all be.

 

I love the scribbles and the sketches throughout.Sometimes, it's the imperfect that's interesting. That has personality. Is thatpart of your message?

In this book, for sure. Perfection is impossible. I have tolearn that as a creator with every single book I make, and it was one of themost important lessons I learned as a human being. I wanted to make sure yousaw Will learning this lesson, processing things as the story went along, andthe scribbles and the fonts and the variety of types of art included all serve,I hope, to give the book an illusion of looseness. In reality, though, thisbook was the most painstaking I’ve ever made. In addition to every other bit ofthe book, the size and shape and placement of every one of those scribbles wasvery intentional.

 

What was the process like? Did the illustrations comefirst, or the text? Or did they both come together?

I always start my projects longhand, usually in acomposition notebook. What I put in those notebooks, especially at thebeginning of a project, resemble “sketchnotes” – a jumbled up mix of words andpictures. I see both writing and drawing as tools, and whichever one can moreefficiently and effectively get an idea out of my head and onto the page at anygiven moment is the one I’ll use. Once I’ve got a draft (or, more often, acollection of notes and lists and doodles and drawings that feel somewhatcohesive), I’ll try to figure out what form best suits this story. Will it bemost powerfully, excitingly, enjoyable told using just words? Or words andoccasionally spot illustrations? Or should it be told using comics? Or shouldit be something else – what my editor and I have come to call a “hybrid” –something that borrows from a variety of forms, employing whatever best suitsthe story at any given moment, so you never know what you’re going to get fromone page to another. Once I’ve reached this point, once I’ve got a sense of thebest form for a project, I’ll put together a new draft, sticking to the rulesof the form (unless, of course, the story dictates that I break them!).

 

I'm also intrigued by the placement of words on the page,the way the word FAT shows up in big thick letters. The word itself is fat.Often, here, the text works like an illustration. The placement of the text onthe paper, and the repetition really does an incredible job of portraying thatidea of becoming one’s own worst bully. How did you come to decide on thelayout? (Notebook paper lines, etc.?)

I’ve been trying to tell this story for years – over adecade, actually. I first started in college. And I tried EVERYTHING. Everytense. Every point of view. All sorts of formats. But nothing ever feltauthentic enough. Nothing ever felt complete. Nothing ever felt “right.” Notuntil I finally landed on the idea of framing the story as it were being told“incidentally” in the private notebook of the main character. Once I landed onthat, the story finally started coming out in a way that felt accurate andfull.

Regarding the use of words as illustrations – that’s certainlypurposeful, as a theme of the book is the power of words, and the role ourwords can play in the shaping of our identities and the state of ourself-esteem. I’m also a longtime lover of lettering, and work hand-letteringinto my projects as much as possible.  

 

Did you keep a journal growing up? Do you still have it?I'd think it'd be a goldmine for this project.

I did! And I actually hope the format of this bookencourages kids to keep notebooks of their own, whether they call them journalsor diaries or sketchbooks or whatever. I recently saw a study, and it foundthat writing things down that are weighing heavily on a person’s mind actuallyreduces their stress and improves their mood. I don’t think I have any of myold journal’s too, and even if I did, I’m not sure I would’ve looked at them. Ithink it could be risky, and could’ve kept me from feeling fully free to dowhat I needed to do for the sake of the story. However, I still remember whatthose journals looked like – and they looked a great deal like Will’s notebook.And as I said above, framing the book as a notebook like the ones I used tokeep was the breakthrough I needed to get this story out of me.

 

How did your own middle grade experience factor into thispiece? Did you often feel like a Work in Progress yourself? Struggle to keepthe balance on the skateboard (metaphorically speaking)?

This book is mostly autobiographical. The only things thatare really different are the timeline and the cast of characters. My story tookplace over a much longer period of time, and instead of having just one Markus,I had a whole group of friends. But compressing Will’s crisis and reducing thesize of the cast of characters made for, I think, a much more powerful story.

 

What's the one thing you want readers to take from thebook?

There are LOTS of things I hope they take away, but I guessif I had to pick just one, it’d be for them to know that they are worthy –worthy of kindness, consideration, compassion, understanding, love, and respect– and to know it with so much certainty that, should they encounter anyone whotries to make them feel like they are NOT worthy, they will be able to overcomeit.

 

What's next for you?

 

I’ve always got a lot of projects going on. I’ve got a slewof new early readers in the works, as well as two new chapter book serieslaunching in the next year or two. Beyond that, I’ve got a pair of excitingMiddle Grade projects in the earlier stages of development.

~

 Author-illustrator Jarrett Lerner is the award-winning creator of the EngiNerds series of Middle Grade novels, the Geeger the Robot series of early chapter books, the activity books Give This Book a Title and Give This Book a Cover, The Hunger Heroes series of graphic novel chapter books, and the Nat the Cat series of early readers. Jarrett is also the creator of the illustrated novel in verse A Work in Progress, as well as several as-yet-unannounced projects. All of Jarrett’s books are published by Simon & Schuster. In addition to writing, drawing, and visiting schools and libraries across the country, Jarrett co-founded and co-organizes the #KidsNeedBooks and #KidsNeedMentors projects, and regularly spearheads fundraisers for various reading- and book-related causes. He is also the founder and operator of Jarrett Lerner’s Creator Club. He can be found at jarrettlerner.com and on Twitter and Instagram at @Jarrett_Lerner. He lives with his wife and daughters in Massachusetts.