Process Talk: Wah Chen on Escape
The first thing that struck me about Escape: One Day We Had to Run by Ming and Wah was the table of contents: it reads like a list poem. I love how the verbs as titles on each spread put the power of movement into the hands of people who don’t have power in that moment. Here’s my conversation with these twin sisters who are also coauthors of this informative and engaging picture book.
[Uma] What was the role of wordplay have in the development of this book?
[Wah and Ming] We have loved words since we were young; we were real squidworms (aka nerds) who loved poring over a dictionary to look up SAT test words! There are so many underutilized verbs and benignly neglected adjectives; we hope our own kids will revive and retrieve and delight in unusual, off-the -beaten-track words. One of our dearest childhood friends and National Book Award fiction finalist Sarah Shun-lien Bynum always keeps index cards of interesting words: one of her favorites is kerfuffle…isn’t that marvelous?!
Photo courtesy of Ming and Wah
[Uma] As marvelous as—squidworms!
[Ming and Wah] One day, we were sitting at lunch in NYC with a publisher and pitched her a picture book book about the lady who raised us who literally swam from Mainland China to British Hong Kong. Like many spontaneous moments of creative brainstorming, we quickly refined the idea beginning with “what if”...”What if we used different verbs to tell multiple stories of escape, not just “swim?” Like “raft” (Cuba to Florida); like “cling” (Syria to Turkey).…” The volley of possible verbs came quickly as we walked home from lunch that day. We immediately went to our home-away-from-home office, the splendidly comfortable Millburn Public Library in New Jersey and within a week had a rough draft of the manuscript. We were able to quickly produce that draft because our original template we created, of each action verb and story told over each double page spread, was an easy structure to place individual stories in.
[Uma] That leads right to my next question about collaboration. I know how writing and revising work when I have only one mind to work with – mine. But how does your collaborative writing work? Do you write together? Trade drafts? Hold revision conferences? Talk about your process, in general or with this book.
[Wah and Ming] We both have very busy non-writing lives, so when we do write we have to be laser focused and productive, i.e. not precious and not overly critical with ourselves. Ming is Chief Culture Officer at EF, the largest private education company, and Wah is an affordable housing real estate developer in Los Angeles. Between us, we have six active kids and two supportive husbands. If we are working on a chapter book, we do a detailed outline and then divide each chapter. Ming is generally in charge of our chapter book production and Wah takes the lead on picture books. We have written more than we have placed with publishers, but one of many great things about being a writing team is that when one of our energy or motivation or inspiration inevitably falters, the other person can pick up the slack or stay the course to finish and persist. Also we should acknowledge we have an incredible team of trusted editors and patient friends including Sukey Garcetti, Wyeth Renwick, Catherine Sustana, Kate Jack, Eric Tung, and other unsung heroes who gave us ideas and edits all the time.
[Uma] Your text works at three separate levels—the verbs that title each poem, the line of urgent directions that almost serve as a subtitle to each page. And the story itself, written in tight, spare prose. It’s almost as if those parts of each spread are dancing with each other. How did you arrive at this structure?
[Ming and Wah] Uma thank you for picking up on this, you are very astute. We want the book to appeal to a wide range of ages. We did craft Escape for both kids and grown-ups: for younger kids to read or be read aloud to with each verb and the short lyrical three sentence subtext and to be able to just thumb thru the pictures. For older kids, teachers, and librarians, we envision they can read and discuss and reflect upon each double page spread as a standalone story. Paired with an atlas, Escape is a geography and history lesson combined. Also, our Publisher Alice Curry at Lantana suggested we include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to emphasize our themes.
[Uma] A picture book is a small container, and this one packs quite a few powerful stories. Were there other stories you came across that didn't make it into the book? If so can you speak to what got left out and how you made those decisions?
[Wah and Ming] Among the verbs we did not include in the final manuscript: HOODWINK: Iran, 1979-1981 which tells the story of the North Americans who pretended to be filmmakers in order to escape Tehran during the hostage crisis in the early 1980s. This story was the basis of the Oscar winning movie Argo. Other omitted verbs include FORD: North Korea to China, 1990s, HIDE: Rwanda, April-July 1994, and THRASH: Cambodia to Thailand, 1970s. Our publisher pointed out that as a children’s book we should highlight positive and uplifting stories, so we ultimately landed on the final 12 verbs, highlighting positive, uplifting stories of escape.
[Uma] We seem to share some of the same nostalgic affinities—Foyle’s War, Brideshead Revisited!—and I too cut my reading teeth on Agatha Christie. Yet those stories didn’t reflect my lived experience, and I’m betting they didn’t reflect yours. So what do you think made you become writers?
[Ming and Wah] Our dad, Tom Chen, and his brother Peter Chen, are both Harvard educated Chinese American doctors who both Anglophiles and cowrote three medical books, including an epic tomb called The History of The Liver. We were inspired by them and their ISBN Library of Congress numbers, even though we could only understand the dedication pages!
[Uma] Anything else I should know about this book or about you?
[Wah] Ming and I are very excited that Illinois just announced that learning about Asian American history will be part of the state curriculum. We would love to do a kids book that helps fill this need. Both of us concentrated in East Asian history at Harvard and Columbia and it would be nice to creatively contribute something in this way. We are both also avid runners, running helps clear the mind and allows each of us to catch up with our closest friends on the trails.
[Uma] Thanks so much, Ming and Wah! Much luck with all your creative endeavors.
