Visiting with Chris Barton
by Claire Guyton, Art + Life Editor
What’s your best “This is how I got that idea” anecdote?
One day I was chit-chatting with a friend at the office—he’s a writer himself, and as a father of two he knows his way around children’s books—and he casually observed that it takes less time to write a picture book than it does to write something longer, like a novel. By this time, I had been laboring for years to get my picture book—The Day-Glo Brothers—out into the world, and I felt the need to set him straight about just how long it can take, how much work goes into word choice and revisions, how challenging it can be even to come up with a concept for a book that appeals to young children, and so on.
That evening I went for a run, and the idea for Shark Vs. Train came to me from out of nowhere. Well, not entirely from out of nowhere—I’d spent several years listening to my older son rhapsodize about trains and (separately) sharks and watching him play with his younger brother. But those strands coming together as a story was sudden, and completely surprising. I left the house with no story in mind, and when I returned 30 minutes later, I sat down at the computer and began writing before I’d even cooled off. I had Shark and Train and the basic premise in mind, along with several scenarios that made it into the final book, and I was afraid I’d lose all of it if I took the time to catch my breath first.
I should chit-chat with that friend more often.
Tell us about your usual writing process.
I don’t have one. I get up at 5:00 a.m. pretty much every day, but that’s where the “usual” part stops. Sometimes I do actual writing, sometimes I do research, sometimes I do correspondence, sometimes I just noodle around. Sometimes I write at my desktop, sometimes at my laptop, sometimes in a spiral notebook or a journal, if I need to be away from anything electronic, and sometimes just on index cards. I outline, unless I don’t. I set daily or weekly or monthly writing goals for myself, which I’m most likely to stick to only if I’m on deadline. I work on only one writing project at a time—unless there’s another one or two or three that I just can’t leave alone.
What books have had the most impact on your work?
The two books I cite in my school-visit presentations are William Henry Harrison: Young Tippecanoe and The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins. The former was one of the Childhood of Famous Americans biographies that I devoured when I was in second grade, but it’s really pretty odd when you think about it. William Henry Harrison’s main claim to fame is that he was president for one month before he died, and 135 years later I was reading a biography of this guy who wasn’t really relevant to me or my life or my interests. It’s no surprise to me that not long after, I began favoring books about Hollywood movie monsters and the Bermuda Triangle.
Aside from biographies of people I was especially interested in—I probably read Ray Coleman’s Lennon a dozen times in my teens and early 20s—I didn’t give biographies much serious thought again until I was in my late 20s and I got the idea that I wanted to write books for young readers. The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins had just been published, and it was a revelation to me. I’d never heard of Hawkins—he wasn’t a former president or Founding Father or famous inventor—yet here was this thrilling, completely engaging and appealing account of his life and accomplishments lavishly produced in a format that was pitched perfectly for children. What kid wouldn’t want to read a book that shows a bunch of adults having a dinner party inside a life-sized dinosaur model? I wanted in on the work of creating those sorts of books, and Waterhouse Hawkins in particular made me realize that this oddball story I remembered about the invention of Day-Glo might make a pretty good picture book.
What does your writing space look like?
Filey
*Contact Claire with any questions or suggestions for Hunger Mountain’s Art + Life section at hungermtnal@gmail.com.
