Tammi Sauer is a full time children's book author has sold twenty-nine picture books to major publishing houses including Disney*Hyperion, HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Penguin Random House, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, and Sterling. In addition to winning awards and garnering starred reviews, Tammi's books have gone on to do great things. Chicken Dance has been made into a musical and is currently on a national tour, Nugget & Fang was a featured book at the 2015 Scholastic Book Fair, and Your Alien, an NPR Best Book of 2015, was recently released in Italian, Spanish, Korean, and French which makes her feel extra fancy. Visit www.tammisauer.com.
During the Picture Book Panel (brilliantly moderated by Laurent Linn), Tammi Sauer shared her formula for creating characters her readers will care about: ARF
- Active: her character is doing something!
- Relatable: she wants readers to be able to empathize and think "I know what that feels like"
- Flawed: Nobody wants to read about Little Miss Perfect
When asked how she maintains freshness and spontaneity in her writing through all the drafts and revisions, Tammi suggested:
- Show it to someone who has never seen it before.
- Consider using a different font just to see your words differently.
- Try working in a new location (Tammi shouts out to Panera Bread!)
Comment below and let us know what you do to keep your work from becoming overworked!
