Jennifer Mary G

The spark for this story came from a prompt that another writer friend gave me: to try writing a story involving a machine. (I don’t usually like writing to prompts, but this was different because it came from a friend.) At first I felt a little stuck, because I’m not super into machines. But then I thought, the one kind of machine I wish I had was a time machine! I’m often thinking to myself, oh, if only I could go back 10 minutes and get a re-do on whatever embarrassing slip-up I just made! And then I started thinking, what’s a situation where a kid would want to build a time machine? What would they want to go back in time for? That’s where the first few lines of the story came from.

As for rewrites, yes, it does take many revisions to get the story just right! One of the major revisions had to do with slowing down the part of the story before Bailey gets the idea to build the time machine, to really explore how she feels, what she tries in terms of apologizing, and why those attempts don’t work.

Well, I’ve been working on a picture book manuscript that features a pigeon, so I did a lot of research about pigeons. I learned how homing pigeons have an amazing ability to find their way back to their homes, but scientists aren’t exactly sure how they do it!  Also, did you know that pigeons were used to carry the results of the early Greek Olympics? (I could go on and on about fascinating pigeon facts, but for now I’ll leave it at that!)

3) You are also an accomplished playwright. How does writing a play differ from sitting down to write a children’s story? Or is the approach similar in certain ways?

I love to do research (as you can tell from those pigeon facts!) and many of the ideas I get for my plays are historically based, which means I spend a lot of time with source material before writing a first draft. But for children’s books it’s been different. Even though I did do research (in the form of interviews) for Everything in Its Place, the information I gathered ended up influencing the theme of the book (belonging) but not the story arc itself. The idea of writing about a kid who hides out in the library during recess came from my own experiences as a kid and my imagination. And for The Time Machine the only “research” I did was spending time thinking about my own experiences with apologizing (or wanting to and having trouble). 

4) What does a typical writing day look like for you? Do you have a dedicated writing space?

I do have a writing space: a small office crammed with books and notebooks! I have a desk and also a comfy chair, and I tend to go back and forth between the two as I work. Dreamy first-draft writing often is easier in the comfy chair, but sitting at my desk is good for revisions!

In terms of time of day, I’m not one of those people who can wake up really early or stay up really late to write! But I try to sit down and do my most creative work first thing in the morning, after breakfast and school drop-off. Later in the day is when I’m more likely to work on revisions. In the middle of the day I try to get outside for a walk to clear my brain. I’m lucky to live near Prospect Park in Brooklyn, so that’s often where I go for a break.

Thanks so much for chatting with me, Pauline! 🙂