Pam Muñoz Ryan has written over forty books for young people that include picture books for the very young, picture books for older readers, and the middle grade and young adult novels, Mañanaland, RIDING FREEDOM, ESPERANZA RISING, BECOMING NAOMI LEÓN, PAINT THE WIND, THE DREAMER, and the Newbery Honor book, ECHO (Feb. 2015.)
Pam earned masters degree with the plan to teach child literature at a college. But didn’t end up doing that, instead she started writing for kids. Her first books were picture books.
RIDING FREEDOM, her first novel, started as a picture book and her editor encouraged her to instead write it as a novel. (This is not uncommon that writers start a story as a picture book but there’s more story there to tell.)
A treat: Pam gives a peek into her working world. So much fun to see her office (all tidied up for the photo). To see her bulletin board and calendar. She also gives us a peek into some of her pages, with editorial notes handwrittn on the pages. Pam shares that her editor is often asking many questions of her and her story.
Pam will share her confessions (truths about Pam and her writing, which might not be true about you). Here is a sampling?
- As a kid, Pam didn’t know being a writer was a job you could have. She thought writers were dead.
- She was a late bloomer in the writing world.
- As a child, Pam never questioned why she didn’t see herself in books, for many reasons, including the time in which she grew (there were few choices and she didn’t know otherwise)
- Pam does wonder what it would have been like if she would have read even one book where she could see herself in its pages
- Pam has been able to live vicariously through readers who have found themselves her in her books
- Pam wishes writers would ask less about how to get published (the successes) and instead about the failures. A few things she'd share about: Setting aside a manuscript that I had over-shopped; Getting published and discovering I could still fail. Rewriting. And rewriting. And rewriting.
- Pam shares this profession is often frustrating and test your patience. "If you’re not trying and failing, you are going nowhere."
- Pam doesn’t track drafts, or her daily word count. She can’t separate the writing from the rewriting. It’s all rewriting. Reading and rewriting and inching the story forward. “For me writing is all revision.” She says it's a very messy evolution.
- When it comes to writers block, Pam doesn’t have time. This is a job. She says, “I go to work, whether I want to or not.”
- Pam doesn’t have a muse!
- If there’s one thing Pam wants us all to know: Momentum is far more important than inspiration.
