Episode 16 – Category Shift with Guest Tanja Bauerle
In this episode, Sharon and Christy talk with author/illustrator Tanja Bauerle about the joys and challenges of making a category shift from picture books to middle grade, how book coaching helped her level up her novel writing game, and what it’s like working on a Revise & Resubmit request from an agent.
Books Mentioned:
Mary’s Monster by Lita Judge
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Boat of Dreams by Rogério Coelho
Resources Mentioned:
https://tanjabauerle.com/resources/
https://bookcoachingbysharon.com/start-here-book-coaching-qa/
https://christyyaros.com/writer-resources
Listen
Coaching KidLit Transcript – Category Shift with Guest Tanja Bauerle
[00:00:41] Christy Yaros: Hey, Sharon.
[00:00:42] Sharon Skinner: Hey, Christy. How are you this morning?
[00:00:44] Christy Yaros: I am great. I am even better because you have brought us a guest and I love when we have guests on the podcast.
[00:00:51] Sharon Skinner: I am so excited to bring to our audience a fabulous author-illustrator who I have known for a long time. Her name is Tanja Bauerle, and she is also very involved in SCBWI, which everyone knows that you and I are both very involved in, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. And Tanja has a really interesting journey that she’s going to share with us today.
So I’m really excited to get started. Hey Tanja.
[00:01:19] Tanja Bauerle: Hello, how are you today?
[00:01:21] Sharon Skinner: We’re great, but we’d like to hear from you, really a little bit about you. Give us some of your background, and then let’s talk about your journey.
[00:01:31] Tanja Bauerle: Okay. My name’s Tanja Bauerle. I’m originally from Germany, but I moved to Australia when I was 11 years old, which is why I sound the way I do. I’ve always been an artist my entire life, and so I came into KidLit from the illustration end, I always wanted to illustrate children’s books. I didn’t really know how to do that.
It’s not as common of a n occupation as maybe, being a teacher or a doctor, so I did have some struggles on how to figure out how to do that. But, also being German, I grew up knowing that you draw when you’re little and when you grow up, you get a real job. You know, struggling with that aspect of it.
But I found my way into it, via design. I ended up doing graphic design. I also have a degree in computer animation, and I’ve been working as a freelance branding specialist and graphic designer for many years, but I’ve been working, on my illustration. I’ve illustrated three picture books and a chapter book series.
But I got to the point where I was really interested in exploring my own ideas and stories, and that’s how I got into writing, and I’ve been kind of of journeying down that way for a while.
[00:02:36] Sharon Skinner: And let me just pop in and say that, if you do need any kind of branding or logo development, Tanja is a great resource for that. She’s the person who did my rebranding and co-branding of both my author work and my coaching when I started my coaching business. And she did my extraordinary logos.
You can’t go wrong if you need somebody to do graphic art, with Tanja, but Tanja, so you touched a little bit about, you moved into writing from doing the KidLit book illustration, and so tell us a little bit about that. I know you’ve got a couple of picture books that you’ve written and talk a little bit about making that shift from illustration to both writing and illustrating and or writing.
[00:03:24] Tanja Bauerle: I wanna first off, elaborate on the idea that it, writing for children is easy, which is a misnomer that’s out there. It can’t be that hard. It’s just for kids, but, writing for kids is not easy, especially with picture books. Picture books are very short. They have to have all the elements that a full novel has from character development to conflict, to escalating conflict to story arc.
All those different elements are all part of it. I started journeying down trying to learn that craft, for quite some time. But I stumbled across an idea that, that I really wanted to make a wordless picture book because I am an illustrator. However, as I’ve been working on that project, it has now developed into a middle grade, illustrated novel.
[00:04:12] Christy Yaros: Wow. that, that’s a big change.
[00:04:14] Tanja Bauerle: It is, but you. the thing is that sometimes the story, or the project you’re working on will dictate the format that it needs to be in. No matter how much I tried to beat it into a wordless picture book subject matter just wasn’t a picture book subject matter. I’ve journeyed through this going to conferences and workshops, studying online and reading books. So it’s quite, quite an , quite a journey trying to figure it all out and, learning picture, book writing and then figuring out, oh, it’s actually a middle grade novel was quite a journey,
[00:04:47] Sharon Skinner: Yeah, so you go to a lot of conferences. We just did an episode on workshops and conferences, and you attend a lot of workshops and conferences, but you don’t just go to the picture book or just the illustrator sessions at those. You have really attended a lot of a variety of things. So you wanna talk a little bit about how that informed your journey?
[00:05:11] Tanja Bauerle: I come to it from the illustration side, so my initial lens is through that. However, I’ve always been a proponent of the more you know about craft, regardless of genre or format, the better your. writing is going to become because it all interrelates.
when I talk to, some of our members, new members of S C B W I and they are just getting started, I always encourage writers to learn about illustration or illustrators to learn about the craft of writing because they are so interconnected, especially in picture books that It’s a disservice to yourself if you aren’t familiar with all the different aspects.
It’s not to say that you need to be an expert in all of these, but I think what happens is, you start seeing connections that you might not have if you just focused on the one. If you’re a picture book writer and you’re only focusing on picture book text, I think you’re doing yourself a disservice because if you understand how illustrations how illustrators think. It’s only gonna help your writing, especially in picture books, because in picture books it’s a marriage of 50-50 words the imagery, now learning about the craft of novel writing, I think definitely helps with, even for picture book writers, because even though it’s a lot more involved, it’s a lot more deep.
You go into it into a much greater level than picture book artists. You still have that understanding. So I’ve gone to poetry classes, I’ve gone to rhyming classes. I’m not a rhymer by all means. And that is one of the things that I learned in, attending rhyming classes, because rhyming is so sophisticated and, it’s a craft onto itself. But I do not write in rhyme because it is so challenging. I don’t think I’ve ever taken a class that I didn’t find helpful in some way. Because the other thing that I’ve noticed, if you hear things multiple times, sometimes it takes two or three times hearing it before it actually sinks in and you can start implementing it in your own writing and illustrating.
I love learning. I love taking workshops. I love learning about the craft. I’m a big craft proponent, it doesn’t take much for me to take a class in one.
[00:07:19] Sharon Skinner: And to that point, I know that when you got ready to take on this novel, and it was the first time that you’d ever written a novel, and I know you were struggling a little bit with it at first, and when we talked and you decided that you might need a little help with it, and we decided that we would work together, I think that it made a lot of difference because you were getting the education on the fly.
Because the way that we work together, I was helping you to not only gather your thoughts and put them on the page, but cl think in terms of novel structure and all of the components of craft that you’d heard about but hadn’t implemented yet. Because there’s a difference between theory and application as we know in everything.
So do you wanna talk a little bit about how we worked together and how that helped?
[00:08:12] Tanja Bauerle: I have major imposter syndrome when it comes to referring to myself as a novel writer, because my experience doesn’t lie in this area, but I think that’s why it’s so important to find those resources and, those experts that are able to help you, hone the craft that you need.
For whatever given project you’re working on, and knowing that I was out of my depths and knowing that you were a novel writer and a book coach, I was very excited when we started working together because I had ideas of what I needed to do, but there’s no way I had no concept on how to put all of this together.
There are so many things you hear about show versus tell about active writing and about plot structure and about through lines and all these different nuances of, I had no idea how to do any of that. The one thing that was so exciting to me is, working with you, you really changed the way I think about writing and it, to some degree has actually impacted how I read books because I now analyze books completely differently. It’s ooh, she’s telling there, she’s not showing, and it’s, you become a much more discerning reader when you start understanding the craft better. But I loved working with you because first off you made me realize that okay, there is a story there and I’m not just blowing smoke, when it comes to trying to develop what I was working on, but you did it in such a way that was attainable for me, especially when I was lacking that confidence, and to this day, I’m so forever grateful for you because you really changed with how you changed my thinking and how I look at writing. And I’m at a point where I miss not being with my characters. So I actually look forward to my revision time because , it’s, it’s a different way of writing and to write long format as opposed to picture book. It was so freeing.
[00:09:56] Sharon Skinner: Getting you to put your characters on a bigger stage and move them around and let them do more and be more is for me that’s when I realized novels was where my joy was. Yeah, absolutely.
[00:10:07] Christy Yaros: So how long did it take the two of you to get through what you would consider, your draft?
[00:10:13] Tanja Bauerle: Covid. Yeah,
[00:10:15] Sharon Skinner: Yeah, almost a full year. Yeah. We worked together for close to a full year to get it into, and it was in good shape at that point, cuz we also, part of that year was drafting it and getting it worked. And then we also spent some time on doing, we went through and did more of a developmental edit on it afterwards to clean it up so that it was worthy of being submitted.
[00:10:43] Tanja Bauerle: Yeah, it, it took quite a while and, it was such an eye-opening education because, novels are a lot of work, but understanding the different stages that you go through, when it comes to crafting a whole fully realized project is pretty immense to some degree, in 2020 when we were working through this I literally drafted with Sharon’s help an entire novel in that year. So the fact that the world shut down that was my saving grace is to try and keep sane during that time because I had something to really focus my creative energy on and yeah, so that took a while and it’s not done yet, so we’re working on it still.
[00:11:22] Sharon Skinner: Let’s talk a little bit about why, how it’s not done. You’re actually on what we call an R&R, which is a revise and resubmit with an agent.
[00:11:33] Tanja Bauerle: Yes.
[00:11:33] Sharon Skinner: So you wanna talk a little bit about that?
[00:11:35] Tanja Bauerle: Yes. One of the benefits of SCBWI is we have conferences and workshops and we pull different faculty members from industry, into, to teach our members and talk about their expertise. And one year we had an agent come in and we just really connected, on a personal level, not just on a writing level.
And, it was just one of those serendipitous type of scenarios. so we really connected and, I’d been keeping in contact with this agent. And, at one point I actually went to California where she’s from, and we ended up having lunch and it was so funny because it was like a three-hour lunch and we never talked about writing. And I think that is one thing that a lot of people don’t understand when it comes to looking for agents or I wasn’t going there to say, Buy my book or sell my book for me, it was just a personal connection and people forget that agents and editors are actual human beings, and they wanna be treated like a human being.
And we had a lot in common coming from Europe and growing up bilingual. It was just a really interesting, fun lunch. As we said goodbye, she says, oh, by the way, what are you working on? I said, oh, I never even thought about it.
So I was telling her about the project I’m working on, which at that time was a wordless picture book. She says, send it to me. I’ll work with you on it. And I thought, oh, yeah, great. She really liked the concept. She really liked the idea. But at that point in time, she says, she was the only one that said that, but I had been to different workshops I had people say, if this project was a graphic novel, I’d buy it right now. And graphic novels to me are, I’m not a comic book artist, so it’s foreign to me that the panels and, that’s not my aesthetic. That’s not how I create art. So I was fighting that whole idea of it, but we started working together and I had started drafting things and, sent it to her and she really liked the idea and she says, okay, now work on this. And then I said, okay, I’ll work on that. And so when I finally sent her the version that Sharon and I worked on, she said, oh, she was very excited and I got a long email from her and it had all this positive stuff. It’s, you’ve got plot, you’ve got escalating conflict, you’ve got great characters.
You have this great world that’s happening And I’m like, oh, I did it. I got it right. But then, but came right, but now you need to work on this. And so I started working on that and the last iteration that I had sent to her, she really liked it. And she says, okay, now do this. So it’s an ongoing back and forth.
So I am not officially signed with her, but, I think one of the things you’ve gotta realize, if an agent. And agents don’t have a lot of time. They don’t make any money until they sell a project. So when you are working with somebody that is so generous with their time and so forthcoming with help and suggestions, I think that in itself is worth its weight in gold and I would take that over anything because to it’s still a relationship and I value that above, above all else.
[00:14:37] Christy Yaros: So with the revise and resubmit, Had to make sure that the changes that this agent was requesting resonated with you. How did you balance what your vision was for the book versus what you feel like the agent’s vision for the book is?
[00:14:51] Tanja Bauerle: One of the big things that she said, that was one of the things that I was working on. I hit a lot of the points, but one of the things that she felt was missing is there was a lot of distance even though it was telling the story of this one girl, she felt that she was too far removed from it.
So one of the things she suggested is, to play with that connection and, explore, turn it into first person as opposed to third person, which is what it was in. And I’m one of these people, I hate first person. I hate first person. First person seemed so self-indulgent. I said I hated it.
I hated it. But I tried a chapter or two and I really fell in love with first person. And it’s so funny because, As is, things that I thought I’d never would be interested in or things I thought I didn’t like. Once you start trying them, you start realizing, oh, hang on. It’s not really what I thought it was.
The fact that it now became first person I was able to get much more interiority into the character that I was missing on a third person run through on the novel. it was eye-opening to me and now I really like it, which I never would have dreamt, that I would and so even though I was reluctant to that change, once I started exploring it, I really liked it.
[00:16:06] Sharon Skinner: And I think you just said a key word, exploring. So you know, you can take the guidance that you’re getting from an editor or an agent or a book coach, and give it a try, even if you’re not sure that it’s going to work for you, and see if it does resonate and see if it does work for you. And in this case, it worked for you because it sounds like you were able to close that narrative distance that, or that emotional distance that she was feeling in the story, and you were able to close that gap and it’s working for you and you’re enjoying it.
And it doesn’t always work. it doesn’t always work. We need to be open to trying new things and trying different applications of craft in order to determine if it’s right for the story or not. Just as you realized that, I’m not really a graphic novel person, but now you’re doing this project and it’s got a lot of illustrations in it, so it’s more of an illustrated novel.
[00:17:00] Tanja Bauerle: And that part has been interesting because when everybody kept saying graphic novel, my gut reaction is not me. not me. Again, I was exploring, I started researching about what type of novels that have been published, that were more of a freeform type of illustration. That kind of more what my aesthetic is. And I actually found quite a few. Lita Judge, Mary’s Monster, It’s a nonfiction novel, written in verse, which is, Two things that I don’t do . my novel is a historical fiction novel, but the format of it fits almost exactly what I’m looking for.
And then if you look at Brian Selznick, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, he integrated a lot of illustrations into his storytelling. And it became a huge aspect of how that book is supposed to be read. He was trying to emulate the silent movie area, and movie shots, of how he integrated that.
So I thought that was, that was a good, direction. And I actually found a wordless graphic novel, that was a, it’s by Rogério Coelho. He’s a Brazilian illustrator and I thought, Ooh, that’s one of my first directions that I found, and it’s got a lot of freeform, breaking free of the panel type of illustration.
When somebody says graphic novel, especially nowadays, it’s so much more open to the interpretation of the creatives as to how that can be formatted. So I, I could have just said, no, no and dug my heels in, but I thought, if people, I mean I believe in my story and I think it really should be out there.
And if that is what multiple industry professionals were telling me, I thought I need to at least look at that, as a potential area for me to explore. And I’m glad I did because I’m able to integrate what I do into a novel format that I hope is going to set it a little bit apart from other ones that are out there.
[00:18:45] Christy Yaros: The illustration part, how has that been working with the R&R?
[00:18:48] Tanja Bauerle: It’s really interesting because it actually started with me sending her character sketches. I had sent her an illustrated first chapter and she says, I really want you to work on the character somewhat. Because this agent does both, represents both illustrators and writers.
She has, expertise in that area. and she gave me some really good suggestions, on resources and things and how to explore. And so I did that first. and every time I resent it to her, it was, okay, that’s great. Now do this. That’s great. And I’ll do that. And I know it’s not ready yet, but it’s so much closer than what it ever has been in the past.
I’m now leaning to what’s possibly pulling back some more of my illustrations and having it be fully illustrated, but not to the extent that I had it. I don’t know. I’m still exploring with. And, I stopped, I had done a lot of the illustrations, but because the writing, the story has changed and there’s no point in continuously illustrating it until the story is completely concrete.
Because you could literally spend, you could spend years working on just the illustrations, but it makes no sense to continually illustrate it when the story is not yet set. So I’ve put a hold on the illustration until the story is 100% done.
[00:19:59] Sharon Skinner: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So that’s a heck of a journey, to go from Illustrator to picture book author/illustrator, to now working on this novel, and I love that you brought up the idea that it’s about the relationships that we build with people. It’s not about shoving something in somebody’s face and say, oh, here’s what I’m writing.
Go look at, look at what I’m doing or sell what I’m doing. It’s about making that human connection, which you’ve been able to do, and look at the, what you’re getting out of it is all of this amazing support and guidance. And of course, I’m sure she hopes that when it’s done, you’ll want to sign with her and she’ll be able to sell it. But in the meantime, you’re both creating something.
[00:20:42] Tanja Bauerle: I don’t know how common it is for an agent to work with a non-client this intently, but if you think about it, it makes sense because an agent needs to know that you are able to revise and that you are able to take suggestions that are presented to you and that you can implement them, and implement them in a way that is gonna resonate with you as opposed to just, okay, I changed these words, now sell it type of scenario.
So my goal is to show her Yes, I see what you’re saying. I hear what you’re saying. I’m implementing those revisions and how about this version of it? And to hopefully get to a point that, that we, when the story is ready, that she will sell it. She’s, she seems very excited about it, so I’m very thrilled about that.
[00:21:24] Christy Yaros: I’m gonna say it’s not as common as it used to be. And that is a very special relationship that you’ve cultivated there.
[00:21:30] Tanja Bauerle: That’s my thinking, and just to, just to find somebody that kind of has a very similar background and upbringing. And to find somebody else that has some semblances of, of connection there, I’m embracing that wholeheartedly,
[00:21:43] Sharon Skinner: Again, you met at an SCBWI function. We were talking about the other day. Finding your people and being with your people and going to conferences can allow us to do that. And so there’s a lot to be said for that and you didn’t shove something in her face when you met her. You made a connection.
You, you made a human connection. And I think that is, I love hearing that story because we were, again, we were just talking about that last episode about how it’s not about, just buy my book, it’s about making that connection. So thank you for being the, model of that.
[00:22:24] Tanja Bauerle: Oh, you’re welcome. Yeah, it’s interesting because I think a lot of, new writers and illustrators when they decide they really wanna try this. They think about, okay, I have this perfect project and everybody’s gonna wanna sell it. And so they have that type of scenario where they just stick it under here, sell this but they forget that there’s so much more to it. And I’ve always been a big believer in having a personal and relationship with somebody before it gets to that point.
[00:22:49] Sharon Skinner: And especially if it’s an agent you’re going to be working with, you definitely want that to be a relationship where you have enough commonality that you get along, that you understand and communicate well together. Because even if they’re, you’re not on say an R&R like you are with this agent, once you sign with an agent. You’re a team and it becomes a very important team in your world and you really want it to be one where you get along and eye to eye and you can work together and you can have those conversations and you can take feedback and they can give you valuable feedback and you can work with it, so.
And that human element, oh, we’re all people. And I think sometimes writers forget that, and illustrators forget that. they get very excited. We get very, we do, we get very excited about what we’re doing, and we get very passionate about what we wanna do. And we forget that’s a person too. So we wanna make sure that we remind our listeners that this is about relationships. It’s about making sure that you remember everybody, we’re all people, and we wanna be kind to one another.
[00:23:57] Tanja Bauerle: That, and I mean it is relationship based, but it’s also ultimately a product that needs to sell. So get used to those revision aspects, right? ? If you’re going to get revision requests and suggestions, I think it’s only gonna benefit you and your project to at least embrace those and see if they resonate with you, because ultimately it’s a product that needs to sell.
So that’s why I’ve always been somebody who really tries to love the process, or I actually like revising better than drafting from scratch because, I just know every iteration it gets closer to that finished product.
[00:24:32] Sharon Skinner: The same thing happens when you’re working with a book coach too. You want someone that you can work with whose style is similar. I really enjoyed our work together. I thought we worked really well together that you were able to internalize and grab hold of those things that we were talking about and take them from theory to implementation when the time came to do that. And so you were really a joyful client to work with.
[00:25:01] Tanja Bauerle: Thank you. Ditto.
[00:25:03] Christy Yaros: the two of you were friends. And here, Tanja, you’ve made that personal connection with the agent first. So how important do you feel that has been on your journey of first having these personal connections to where you trust someone? So while you’re working with Sharon, Sharon has your best interests at heart because she knows what you’re trying to do and she’s helping you try to get there the best way that you can.
Same as the agent, as opposed to imposing maybe a vision that they have themselves for your book onto you.
[00:25:31] Tanja Bauerle: I think one of the things. That’s gonna make having a relationship with somebody easier is. It’s very, when you’re working on, regardless of what you’re working on, it’s very personal to the creator. And to get feedback that potentially isn’t what you wanna hear can be. people sometimes get very defensive and, oh, what this?
And they make excuses and they say, no. And I think I’m at a point in my career where I value any feedback and I prefer the constructive feedback that is gonna help push me in the right direction because, just hearing, oh, it’s great. Oh, it’s wonderful. Oh, it’s not gonna push you, it’s not gonna make your product better.
Okay, that hurt. Yeah, it does. But you get past it and you make it better. And so I think a lot of new writers and illustrators, get very defensive if somebody doesn’t only have glowing things to say, but I’ve learned along the lines that, you need that. You need that feedback.
And I think having a relationship with somebody makes that easier to take but I’ve had plenty of critiques with people that I’ve never met prior that have been pretty harsh. I had my very first, portfolio critique and my portfolio was not an illustrator portfolio.
It was an out of school artist, animator with, had all sorts of, and I couldn’t draw for six months after that. That critique. But once I started to really marinate in what he was saying, he was 100% correct. It wasn’t an illustrator’s portfolio. and so I think it’s one of those things where you have to learn to hear what people are saying and not take it personal and just apply it to your work.
[00:27:10] Sharon Skinner: That’s a great point. That’s a great point. So is there anything else that you’d like to share with us about your journey and about maybe where you’re at and what you’re thinking your timeline might be or any of that?
[00:27:23] Tanja Bauerle: I, first of all, I don’t know how people do this without a book Coach. I know that we worked really solidly and rapidly, For that year, and I don’t think I would be where I am if it wasn’t for that. you can paddle by yourself, through all of these things that you have to incorporate.
That in itself has been an eye-opener. I don’t think I will ever do a novel without a book coach because it’s daunting. I’m kind of working predominantly on pacing right now, pacing and adding more world. Because my original versions, it was very fast paced and I think need some breathing space, especially in the beginning cuz I, so I’m working through that and my timeline is to get something solid finalized by May, which is, yeah, it’s gonna be tough, but, I’m gonna do it.
The one thing that I have learned is if you don’t do it, nobody’s gonna do it for you, . And, it’s one of those things where, it can be a very lonely little job to write and illustrate, but you have to believe in yourself and you have to set goals, and you have to give yourself the time and opportunity to actually fulfill those.
because if you don’t do it, nobody else will. so you have to be an advocate for your projects.
[00:28:43] Sharon Skinner: That’s a great point. yeah. So yeah, we hear all the time about people who’ve spent years working on a novel and sometimes it’s because, working solo, it can be harder. So, you know me, I’m a book coach and I’m an advocate for that, and Christy too. we wanna help people do it, faster, smarter, better,
[00:29:03] Christy Yaros: The 6 million dollar book
[00:29:05] Tanja Bauerle: Oh, there you go.
[00:29:07] Christy Yaros: Yes. like the $6 million Man or woman, her too.
[00:29:13] Sharon Skinner: We want our clients to succeed. And, that is why we do this. We do this because we want to help people be successful. And so I’m so excited about where you are in your journey and May is exciting. I can’t wait to hear back cuz I know you’re gonna let me know what happens.
[00:29:32] Tanja Bauerle:
It’s interesting though because I’m at a point where I can’t wait to get to revisions, so I like sitting and getting lost in the characters and making those revisions. I can’t wait. I never expected that. I never thought of myself as a writer. I never thought I would be one of these writers that looks forward to talking to her characters, but I am so I want to thank you for that, Sharon.
[00:29:54] Sharon Skinner: You’re so welcome. I put the voices in your head from mine, so there you go.
[00:30:00] Christy Yaros: But that’s so wonderful though, because we’ll talk about it all the time. How this job is hard. It’s hard. It’s always hard, whether you’ve written one book, 10 books, 20 books, every time you sit down, it’s a new experience. You are a different person. And being able to embrace that process and not only say, this is what I need to be successful, but going and getting that, hiring a book coach, doing the Revise and Resubmit, doing what’s best for you.
That’s a huge part of it. Advocating for yourself and saying, this is what I want and here’s how I’m gonna get here, and I know that I need this in order to get me there.
[00:30:34] Tanja Bauerle: Yeah. I think that’s a huge part of it, and I think. One disservice that new writers and illustrators do is they think, oh, I can do this by myself. I don’t need to do that. There’s plenty of stuff online. yeah, sure. There’s stuff everywhere that there’s lots of resources where you can find that, but I think it’s the, the one-on-one customized attention specific to you and your project that a good coach is gonna be able to give you and yeah. Yeah. I’m the first person to say definitely couldn’t do this without one.
[00:31:06] Sharon Skinner: Well, it’s been a great conversation, but I think that brings us to our action items. So Tanja, as our guest, what action item do you have for our listeners?
[00:31:16] Tanja Bauerle: I would 100% say embrace revision, embrace craft and do what you can to further your knowledge in both. It was a complete shock to me that I would love ever love revising, cuz it’s such a daunting project and I absolutely love it. And, to be able to find resources and books and things like that.
Especially if you’re not at a point maybe yet that you wanna hire a coach. If you’re brand new down this road, I invite you to visit my website. I have a resource page, that has both online resources and also books, that are specific to the craft of writing and illustrating for KidLit that I would, encourage you to look at because sometimes you need to see it in a book. Sometimes if you hear it on a podcast or if you see it on a website or a blog post. there’s so many different ways. but hone your craft, learn to love revision, and, get those resources that you can. there’s lots out there.
[00:32:18] Sharon Skinner: That’s great. And where can we find you? What is your.
[00:32:22] Tanja Bauerle: My website is my name. It is www.tanjabauerle.com t a n j a b A U e r l e.com and I have a resource tab that will list both online resources and books.
[00:32:43] Christy Yaros: And we will link that in the show notes for our listeners in case you weren’t able to grab that and thank you so much for sharing that. And Sharon, what is your action item for us?
[00:32:53] Sharon Skinner: I like the idea of resources and I actually have my own resource page on my website. I will send you to the bookcoachingbysharon.com. I have a resource page and an FAQ. And the FAQ is all about why you should hire a book coach, what you will get if you hire a book coach. So I wanna push it just a little bit further from just resources into the, take a look at what a book coach can do for you, Christy.
[00:33:25] Christy Yaros: Okay, I guess I will stick with the theme of resources pages and on my website, ChristyYaros.com. I do have a writer resource page, not so many links to other people’s, resources, but I am a worksheet nerd with my educational background, so I have a bunch of downloadable journal type things and worksheets and I would also encourage people to think about along these lines of a revise and resubmit, which I’m gonna say Tanja was something you had to think about was what things do I know are true about my story that I am holding onto regardless of what, someone else is gonna say for revision. So I just would be helpful I think to keep that in mind and have a list for yourself as you’re writing of this is the stuff that is my story. What I usually call my non-negotiables. This is what my story is about, and I’m not changing this and being open to things like changing from third person to first person, but this character, these are things that are not going to change.
[00:34:24] Tanja Bauerle: Yeah, I actually, I’ve been lucky because I don’t think the core of it has changed. But that’s a really important aspect to consider.
[00:34:32] Sharon Skinner: Thank you Tanja so much for coming on our podcast and sharing your journey with us. We so appreciate having had this conversation to talk to you. And I always enjoy our conversations. So there’s that. And with that, I think, we say goodbye
[00:34:47] Tanja Bauerle: Thank you very much. Thanks for the opportunity for joining you today.
[00:34:52] Christy Yaros: Thank you so much for being with us and we look forward to hearing an update from you and maybe we can have you come back and let our listeners know what happened. So good luck.
[00:35:00] Tanja Bauerle: Yeah. Yeah
[00:35:01] Christy Yaros: And keep revising!
[00:35:04] Tanja Bauerle: Thanks so much. I appreciate it.
[00:35:06] Christy Yaros: Thank you everybody.
[00:35:07] Sharon Skinner: Bye.
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