Prompt to Page

For our twelfth episode, we talk to Shawn Pryor, author of the graphic novel series Cash and Carrie and a guest at this year's Comic Surge. Shawn describes the collaborative process of writing graphic novels and shares three of his favorite prompts. He explains how he uses writing prompts both when he's working on books and when he just wants to have fun.

Show Notes

For our twelfth episode, we talk to Shawn Pryor, author of the graphic novel series Cash and Carrie and a guest at this year’s Comic Surge. Shawn describes the collaborative process of writing graphic novels and shares three of his favorite prompts. He explains how he uses writing prompts both when he’s working on books and when he just wants to have fun.

Shawn believes that too many writers are under the impression that “if it’s not perfect off the jump, then it’s not going to work.” He says, “There is no such thing as perfection. None…. And you limit yourself if you think that perfection is the only way that you’re gonna be able to tell your story.”

About Shawn Pryor
Shawn Pryor’s (he/him) work includes the middle-grade graphic novel series Cash and Carrie, the 2019 Glyph Nominated sports graphic novel F.O.R.C.E., and several books for Capstone’s Jake Maddox Sports and Adventure prose series, and Kids Sports Stories children’s books. Currently, he’s the writer of the hi-lo reader series The Gamer with illustrator Francesca Ficorilli and the upcoming middle-grade graphic novel Fast Break with illustrator Courtney Hahn.

In his free time, he enjoys reading, cooking, listening to streaming music playlists, and talking about why Zack from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is the greatest Black superhero of all time.

He is represented by Kelly Sonnack of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency.

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What is Prompt to Page?

A JCPL librarian interviews published writers about their favorite writing prompts—exercises that can help inspire, focus, and improve your creative writing. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, a novelist, essayist, or poet, you’ll find ideas and advice to motivate you to keep writing. A partnership with the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.

Prompt to Page Ep 12 Pryor
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[00:00:00] Carrie: Welcome to the Prompt to Page podcast, a partnership between the Jessamine County Public Library and the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. I'm your host, librarian and poet, Carrie Green. Each episode, we interview a published writer who shares their favorite writing prompt. Submit your response to the prompt for a chance to have it read on a future episode of the podcast.

Our guest today is Shawn Pryor. Shawn Pryor's work includes the middle grade graphic novel series Cash and Carrie, the 2019 Glyph-nominated sports graphic novel F.O.R.C.E., and several books for Capstone's Jake Maddox sports and adventure pro series and Kids Sports stories children's books. Currently he's the writer of the hi lo reader series The Gamer with illustrator Francesca Ficorrilli, and the upcoming middle grade graphic novel Fast Break with illustrator Courtney Hahn.

In his free time, he enjoys reading, cooking, listening to streaming music playlists and talking about why Zack from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is the greatest Black superhero of all time. He is represented by Kelly Sonnack of the Andrea Brown literary agency. Welcome Shawn, and thanks for joining us.

[00:01:23] Shawn: Oh, thank you, Carrie.

Thank you for having me.

[00:01:26] Carrie: So we are especially excited that you could be with us today because we are gearing up for Comic Surge here at the Jessamine County Public Library on October 8th. And it's our free annual comic con. And I think you've visited before.

[00:01:46] Shawn: Yes. Yes. I I've done a Comic Surge. It was a few years ago.

And it was a lot of fun. It was busy and to see people interested in comics and art and, all this stuff and reading in general, it was incredible. And for me, the, the thing that blew me away is, is that yes, I, you know, I love libraries. I've been to libraries my entire life growing up as a child, my mom, my mom and my dad would take me to the library once a week.

And I would always get books. You know, you name it. I was gonna grab it. I was gonna read it. But the vision of a library is like, it still stuck on my head head of that as a child. But when I went to, I went to the Jessamine County Public Library a couple years ago for Comic Surge, I'm like, oh, wow.

This is amazing. You have comp, you have computers. You can do like, you can work on like graphic design. There's a 3d printer over here. Look, there's there's musical instruments. There's there are like all different types of things that, that folks can get into and learn for free mm-hmm and I was completely blown away by that.

I'm like, wow, why blown away? This is amazing.

[00:02:50] Carrie: Well, thank you. We're always glad to hear that. And yes, we, we do have lots of great equipment for creating and for creating your own comics if that's what you wanna do or creating your own cosplay, if, if that's what you wanna do too. And we're excited that you're gonna be back visiting with us at Comic Surge again, this year.

[00:03:14] Shawn: Yes. Yeah, I can't wait. I'm looking forward to it. It's been a long time and I definitely have a lot of different books now. So I I'm excited. I'm excited.

I, I can't wait.

[00:03:22] Carrie: Excellent.

So I think you're the first writer of graphic novels that we've had on the podcast.

[00:03:30] Shawn: Oh.

[00:03:30] Carrie: So I. I read graphic novels, but I'm very curious about the process and how it works.

[00:03:38] Shawn: Yes.

[00:03:39] Carrie: Especially when it's a team effort, as it seems to be with most of your books. Can you describe what a typical project is like in the writing process?

[00:03:50] Shawn: Yes. As a matter of fact I've done like a few graphic novels for Capstone in like, in, in like various levels, over like the last, like two or three years, like say for instance, there's one line that's called the Scary Graphics line and they're kind of like goosebumps type stories, but the graphic novels one and done stories and they'll say, okay, well, and they always release them in batches of four.

So, what they normally will do is say, they'll say, okay, well, we've got these four books and we've hired writers for these three. And Sean, we want you to write this fourth one. Pitch us an idea. I'm like, okay, cool. So I pitch, 'em an idea. So say for instance the book that I did is called The Deadliest Race, where um, you have a kid by, I said some ideas, this there's a kid by the name of Aaron.

He loves BMX racing. But he's terrible at like, you know, doing stunts and jumping hills. And I said, okay, he damages his bike, trying to do a stunt. And he takes it to the bike shop. And the bike owner says, I will fix this for free, but you gotta ride in this race. If you ride in this race, I'll sponsor you.

No worries. And I'll fix your bike. And the kid just doesn't know what he's getting into. He's like, yeah, sure. I'll do it. Great. And come to find out that this race sends them to another dimension called the deadliest race, where all these, you have all these kids trying to basically race and escape from their fears.

And so I sent that out. Like I saw, I put like the little it's like two paragraph idea and I sent it to the editor and the editor's like, huh. Okay, fantastic. Send me an outline. Okay. So now we go into the outline process. So now the way their graphic novels work, they do everything by double page spreads.

So they'll just so with exception of like page one and the final page, everything, they just like, they'll just say, this is a spread. This is a spread. This is a spread. This is a spread now. So what that means is so six, so say for instance, you have page one and then it's 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 such and such and such such.

And so they'll tell me. You can only have so many panels per single page. So many panels per spread. So say for instance, they're like no more than like, say for instance, we say pages two and three, they're like a max six, seven panels overall, period, because you know, that, that gives the artist room to do their thing.

It also doesn't overload the, the reader, the readers with too much text. And so it's this like nice blend of visuals and text. And so that's the, that's the rule. Those are the rules. Those are the rules. We try not to overdo it on the panels. And so I send the outline and I step by step process of what I'm, what I'm going to do throughout the story.

Basically break it down into three acts, give that back to the editor, editor makes some comments, you know, notes possible changes if need be. Okay. Here you go. Write the first draft. And so we do the first draft. We, you know, I got the outline here, so I should be able to like, work this out.

No sweat, you know how like, here are my additional characters. Here's my main character. Here's their motivations. Here's their fears. Okay. Let's go. So we write the first draft. We get that done. I, I mean, I get that done. I send that to the editor. Editor's like, well, this is really good, but you know, you need to change this because it's for this age.

It's for this age level. Okay. We need, we might need to pull back on some of these words. You know, you know, let's, you know, cuz like the Atos level, which is a read, which is a reading level, they have a calculator, they have like, there's a website where you can literally just throw a manuscript in and it will tell you what the reading level is.

And they're like if this reading level is above X, that means that it's not for our age group. So you need to bring it down. So we make the corrections, we make our edits, we send it back to the editor and then the editor approves it. And then it goes directly to the artist and the artist is working on concept sketches for the characters.

And then that gets approval. And then they do their layouts where they basically, it's not a full rendered drawing, but it's basically layout. Like this is how page one is gonna look. This is how page two is gonna look 3, 4, 5. It's not fully detailed, but it's enough for you to see if the story is vibing and it makes sense and then that gets approval.

And then it's, you know, the, the artists will do pencils, possibly inks, and then those pages are approved. And if those pages are approved, then there are no changes that need to be made. Then we go to the coloring process and then the lettering process and then it gets one or two more passes just to make sure everything is good.

And then once that's done. The additional material is put in, is put in the book and it goes to press and then it's, then it's set for its release date and it hits the shelves.

[00:08:34] Carrie: Yeah. And we're all glad for that. And it it's interesting because it sounds like. I mean, I know, like as a poet, I, I like often the constraints of, you know, a form or a genre.

And it sounds very much like that in some ways.

[00:08:56] Shawn: Oh yeah. Definitely. Definitely. Like, and that's the whole thing, the cool thing about, you know, being a writer you know, and it being such a cool craft is that not every assignment is the same. Not everything that you write is the same. You know, and so like you, you get to, you're able to change your flows or you're able to change your, you know, your diction, your, you know, or environment and all these other things, because the way I write a scary graphic story for Capstone for their graphic novel series might, might be different for the Jake Maddox graphic novel sports series graphic novels.

It it's a completely different environment because those are printed in a different size whereas the scary graphics are oversized. Jake Maddox graphic, sports, graphic novels are smaller. So on those double page spreads, guess what? We're doing less panels. Probably maxing out at five instead of seven you know?

And so like it's a completely different, it's a completely different dynamic over there than it is with the other series. And so like, and so like you're constantly being a writer you're always on your toes and you're always trying to make sure, especially when you're doing comics graphic novels is that you're also respecting your artist

that you're collaborating with because this is a team effort. Mm-hmm and you never want to put them in a situation where you are overloading them. I'm I can be very descriptive. But the one thing I learned from when I started like writing eons ago is that like, you can't put the whole universe in one panel.

You know, you know, cuz some people are so immensely, descriptive, like, okay, in the background, there's a library, there's two, two statues of lions in the back. On those lions they're both wearing a hat and that hat come to the, they get so descriptive when I'm like, if that isn't truly part of the scene mm-hmm or part of what, the story that you're trying to tell let's ease up on that, you know, where are your characters?

What are they doing? You know, give your artists a reason to not hate you. That's what I'm saying. you know, it's so it's, it's all, it's all the process. And there are times where I'll write something and in my head I'm like, okay, that's gonna look awesome. Cause it's gonna look like this. And then the artist comes back with something like, oh, well that's even better than what I than what I imagined.

And it's it's it's it's wonderful. It, it's, it's wonderful. So, yeah, like you are absolutely right. Comics is a col, comics graphic novels is such a collaborative effort collaborative effort. And, and I don't think people under a lot of people understand the amount of work that goes into making them.

[00:11:34] Carrie: Mm-hmm it kind, it also kind of sounds like

writing prompts are sort of automatically built into the process of, you know, pitching ideas and things. Do you use writing prompts in addition to those prompts that are sort of worked into the process? Have you used them in the past?

[00:11:55] Shawn: Mm-hmm yeah. Oh yeah, definitely. It is perfect example, like a prompt.

Sometimes I'm just given a title. Like, say for instance, outside of like projects that like I create and collaborate with. Collaborate on like, let's go back to Capstone. Here's a perfect example. I, I write a hi/lo reader series with spot illustrations, it's called The Gamer. It's a superhero series.

So what happened was, was that editor, I believe it was Julie Gasman, reached out to me and said, well, we have these hi/lo reader books where, you know, short sentences, it's descriptive. But like the text level is like on the Atos level of two point. So it's easy for people to get into it, read it, know what's going on.

And um, it's always in present tense. Okay, great. Fantastic. And then we're like, well, we want you to do one. They sent me some examples of some of their hi/lo readers here. I'm like, well, this is really adventurous stuff. It's a lot of fun. Yeah. I'd love to. And they're like, okay, great. We have a superhero.

Their name is The Gamer. That's all we got. We don't have anything else. so we want you to come up with the concept, come up with the character. Come up with the characters mode, all the stuff and, and give us an outline or synopsis for four books. Go. I'm like, ah, oh, okay, great. Okay, cool. Let's go. So you've given me a title mm-hmm and you say superhero I'm like, okay.

Okay. So the title's The Gamer I'm like, okay. Gamer. That's great. Okay. So now the first thing I do when I get that prompt of you're given a title, the gamer, and I'm like, well, I don't want to do a superhero that like people have already seen, like, I, you know, I'm like, oh, I, you know so I was like, okay, well, we we've read comics our entire life.

We know all about superheroes. It's like, but let's do something different. As a child, I loved anime. And I still love anime to this day. And I love. What they call overseas Toku Satsu, which means like live action, special effects shows Super Sentai which in America some Super Sentai has been translated and has, has become Power Rangers, which has been here for almost 30 years, which is still wild to me because I'm like, I got, that reminds me that I'm old.

I don't like that. But but I was, like I said, okay, you know what? I want to do a Toku Satsu inspired hero for the Gamer. Okay, great. How are we gonna do this? Okay, so so I said, okay, let's take some of our favorite Taku Satsu superheroes that we like. I was like, okay, great. I was like, well, I'm a big fan of Ultraman.

I'm a big fan of common writer. I'm a big fan of the Japanese versions of the Super Sentai shows that were translated over into the states and became Power Rangers. I said, okay, cool. We've got that. Let's look at those things. Let's highlight the things that we like outta all that stuff. Okay. Great.

What is their costume going look like? I was like, well, it's the Gamer. They like video games. Well, how about what's? What's like the coolest looking gaming system right now. I said, well, I was like, the Nintendo Switch is really cool. You know, it's, you know, you got the, you got the red, you got the blue and got, you know, I'm like, oh my that's that's actually really cool.

Red, red, blue, and black. I was like, we can make that work. I was like, okay. So now we have an Nintendo Switch over here in another little box. And so then I was like, okay, well, okay, we've got that. I was like, what about the character? Who is the Gamer? I said, well, we can make 'em a 13 year. I was like, okay, cool.

13 year old boy. I said, okay, what's his name? So now I'm looking through names. So now we have another prompt, names. So now mm-hmm, trying to figure out a name. And I was like, okay, Tyler, Tyler's a cool name. And I was like, well, he needs a last name. And so I love basketball, John Morant. I was like one of my favorite basketball players and he also played for college in Kentucky.

So I was like, okay, that works for me. . And so his name was Tyler, Tyler Morant. And so which then also. I thought of Miles Morales. I was like Miles Morales is also a big inspiration. So there's a little bit of American superhero into that too. So we just like mixed all that together. Wow. and that's how the Gamer, you know, came to life.

And from there coming up with like ideas, ideas for books that next prompt was what are the adventures? What are the adventures? Who is the villain? Will the villain create other villains. You, you know, and so it's like, is, do all stories take place in the real world or is there also an alternative world where these adventures take place too?

And the Gamer and from all of that, like I've written now eight books, eight Gamer books, mm-hmm and and the Gamer is something that's very, very close to me and I, and, and the thing is like, normally I'm, I'll be the first person to tell you, like, I love, you know, creator owned. I've always been a big, you know, proponent of that.

I love creator-owned properties and things of that nature example, like Fast Break. And I'm working on with Courtney Hahn, that's our original idea. That's coming out next year through FSG MacMillan. I I'm beyond excited, but the, but the Gamer though, even though we don't own, I don't own it, me and Francesca don't own it.

It's resonated with kids in such a way, especially young Black kids that actually see themselves as the hero, and like, it just touches my heart. It touches my heart. Like I, I email Capstone like every other week. I'm like, can we write more of these? Can we write more of these please? You know?

So from that one little prompt of a title we just got this, like, Shawn has just went over over the time limit and explained it all.

[00:17:18] Carrie: No, that's great. So, so what prompt or prompts did you want to share today?

[00:17:26] Shawn: Let's see. Well, like one prompt is like I said titles.

Titles are like, sometimes I know, like, as, as writers we struggle, it's like, okay, what's our idea going be like, what are we go, what are we going to do? and one thing that I normally will do is is that like just for writing exercises, cuz sometimes I just have to just do some silly stuff and just have some fun this isn't for this isn't for a job, let's just have some fun and let's just flex our writing muscles and it end up being something, something that we might use later so I'll just make up titles and I'll just I'll sit there, like like as perfect example, three days ago, I said, okay, well.

Let's let let's do a superhero. Okay. I was like, what are we gonna call that superhero? I said, okay, uh, we'll call us. And it's the first words to come off the top of my head. It doesn't have to make sense. It doesn't have to be perfect. So I said, Bright Night, I was like Bright Night. I was like, well, what does Bright Night do?

And so, and then we just break, we break down character motivations, you know, and like story ideas and things like that. Put it away. Okay. Let's do something different. And then like, I'll go grab a book and like, I won't look and I'll just like flip through the pages and I'll put my finger down, whatever word that it pops on.

That's the title. What's the idea? And these are just exercise. These aren't exercises as ways to pitch things. It's just more of open up your mind.

[00:18:45] Carrie: Right.

[00:18:46] Shawn: Just open up your mind, allow yourself to have fun with it. Don't take it seriously. And that's the one thing sometimes as, as you know, as writers, is that we, some too many of us are under, under the thing of, if it's not perfect off the jump, then it's not going to work.

There is no, there is no such thing as perfection. None. If anything, you are limiting yourself and you're stopping yourself from, from being able to get to where you want to go. Just put it all out there because the thing is, like I said, that's just a practice exercise. When you get that gig, when you find that story, when you find that story that you wanna wanna write, do it, cuz remember it's never perfect because we always have to go back and edit anyway.

And that, and this is coming from someone who can't stand edits , but I understand the importance of them and I know how valuable they are, you know? And so I'm like, yeah, we gotta do edits again. That's that's how we make the story better. You know? Because we're never no such thing as perfection, never has been, never will be.

And you limit yourself if you think that perfection is the only way that you're gonna be able to tell your story.

[00:19:54] Carrie: Mm-hmm .Yeah. That's great advice. And it sounds like, you know, you're having fun too, by doing those exercises.

[00:20:04] Shawn: Yes. Yes. Like, and that's, that's the thing, you know, like, cause a lot, a lot of us, a lot of us writing professionals, we have full-time jobs on top of writing full time.

You know, we haven't written the, the, the, the million dollar book yet, or the New York Times best seller yet. So, you know, we have to maintain, you know, we have to maintain our jobs to make sure we can pay the bills, keep the lights on, have healthcare and things of that nature. And so the nine to five can be grueling.

So you gotta allow yourself to have fun. It's, it's such a great escape from, from your, from your everyday troubles, from like a world that is just a complete hot mess of a hot mess of a hot mess. You have to allow yourself to have fun. You know, and, and for me, writing is how I have fun. Even, even on the books that sometimes I take on I'm like, what did I just give myself into per example of that is I'm currently writing a, you choose book.

It's kinda like you, one, those, one of those type of choose your adventure type stories. And I was like, yeah, I can do this. This sounds like a good idea. Let's go. And then they're like, yeah, we'll send us a thorough outline. And I'm like, oh. Because I looked at one of the books and it's like, well, you know, your story goes here and then you have two choices here, and then you gotta turn one of these two pages.

And then one of these two pages go to one of these two pages. And so now I'm sitting here putting a map together, trying a chart, trying to line up where all these pages are supposed to go. And, and for any of those, for any of you that ever seen, oh, there's a TV show, um, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

There is a meme with one of the characters, I believe his name is Charlie. And he has like, like a map of just photos and pictures and like lines and like things were tying into this and that, that was me last night trying to put this outline together. And so, but it's, you know, but it's a challenge and like, it became so super serious.

I'd pull myself back and say, but this is we're just have fun. And once that happened, it all started to fall into place and it became a lot easier. So that sounds

[00:22:07] Carrie: like it might be a, another fun prompt too, like maybe for a fiction writer is choose, you know, choose another adventure that this character could do, or...

[00:22:19] Shawn: yes, yes, no, that's perfect.

No, Carrie that's that's fantastic. Yeah. it, it all, it's, it always enables you to spark something else that even if you don't end up using it, now you will probably end up using it later because one thing writers always do. We always got plenty of material we always got material laid around somewhere. So I think it's great that we allow ourselves to do that because you never know when that one time he was just playing around with a little exercise.

Can become something that's part of something else. That's really big

[00:22:52] Carrie: mm-hmm . Well, were there any other prompts that you wanted to share with our listeners?

[00:22:59] Shawn: Hmm, I would say, I would say like those two, like a title and just, you know, like just being random, those types of types of writing prompts

like those are my favorite. Like, those are my f avs you know, fake titles and then like trying to come up with ideas for a fake title. And then and then the other one we had talked about, because I I've already had a brain fart. It's already gone but and, and things of that nature. No, like I, those are my two, those are my two favorite.

The other though, the other one, I take that back. Sometimes if I'm out and about, and and I'm not busy, I'm just running errands, but sometimes I'll just sit down for a few minutes, if I'm in an open area and you just, you kind of like people watch mm-hmm and like you just see like one person they're doing something.

And you're like, Hmm. I wonder where they're going. Where are they doing? And like, you just like, kinda like, and I'll, I'll like, I'll write a paragraph, like on my phone, I'll like, I'll just write a paragraph about this is the adventure that they're currently on. And like, they can have a bag of groceries.

Well, it may not be a bag of groceries. Maybe it's a bag of uranium and, you know, like, and then it just becomes something that's just adventurous or ridiculous, or it could be super serious or it could be dramatic. It could be funny. But, um, it allows you to use your imagination. And so that's a different kind of writing, prompt people watching is also an amazing writing prompt, but don't watch too heavily because then people think you're being creepy and that's never good, you know, so like, you know, keep your distance and have fun.

[00:24:26] Carrie: Yeah. That's, that's a great one too. Do you have any final writing tips or advice that you'd like to give our listeners?

[00:24:36] Shawn: Oh, yeah, definitely. Set manageable goals and you can overcome creative blocks and issues. And what I mean by that is, is that we all think when we're writing, doesn't matter, whether you're writing a poem, a novel, a haiku, a graphic novel, a comic, a mini comic story prose, whatever.

Just break it down into small chunks. Okay. You know, we all see the big, old thick tomes of some of these authors. We're like, I can never do that. Oh yes, you can. And granted, some of those, those tomes that people write, they don't need to be tomes they just, you know, they get to a certain level and they're just like, oh, let, let them write the tome.

The tome is fine. Yes, it's the size of five bricks stacked, stacked upon each other, but that's okay. Cause it'll make money, but that's not the point. The, the point, the point is is that if you break things down into chunks, smaller pieces, it's gonna make it easier for you to tell the story that you want to tell.

And then you're not stressed about the creative blocks. You're not stressed about the issues of getting something done because you you're getting it done. Yeah, it remember this is a marathon not a sprint. Done is better. And also done is better than perfect. because there's no such thing as perfection, but getting it done.

Oh, that's amazing. It's one of the best feelings in the world. Oh, it makes me so happy. Every time I turn the manuscript, I'm like, oh, I got it down. Thank goodness. Okay. Edits are. Edits edits are easy compared to like, you know, everything else, like done is better than perfect. And don't let fear stand in your way.

Like there are a lot of times where we limit ourselves or we tell ourselves that like our talents and abilities only go so far or that we don't have any talent. No, we all have a special talent and ability. Some of us learn it at a early age. Some of it, some of us learn it when we get older, but you can't be scared of it.

Okay. You can't. You have to allow yourself to be yourself in order to go to where you want to go and be who you want to be. And like I said, I know like times right now, these are not the best of times. I understand that. And a lot of people can't be themselves right now because of the times that we live in and the times that we face, but don't let fear stand in the way of who you are and what you want to be.

And the stories that you want to tell. Because I would love to, I would love to see your stories. I wanna see your stories out there. Publishing world's a hot mess too. We, because you know, we're right now dealing with a, um, a possible, um, what's the word I'm looking for? Um, when two publishers are gonna join forces,

[00:27:13] Carrie: A merger?

[00:27:15] Shawn: Yeah. Merger. We're about to have a merger. I think, you know, a possible merger with a Penguin Random House and another publisher. Mm-hmm . and like, that's going to like really make it more difficult for people of color to get their works in. And so you know, like, just because things might not look good right now doesn't mean that like, you know, your story shouldn't be told and they shouldn't be heard.

They, they need to be heard. They need to be seen. So don't be afraid. You're going to fall. We all fall. I got the, I got skinned and scarred knees to prove it. We all fall, but we get back up. We learn from our mistakes and, and we keep doing it. Like we do it because I know people say, do it for the love is, is trite.

And what I mean, and then what I mean is yes, we do it because we love to do it. Yes. We want this to hopefully be a viable career, but if it's not, at least you will be able to touch someone and inspire someone to make them understand that, Hey, well, maybe I can do this. You might get somebody into reading.

You might get somebody in, into writing. You might get somebody into something that leads into another creative career, all because they saw something that you created. And that is a wonderful thing. We may not be millionaires, but the thing is, is that sometimes we, we are helping the current generation and the generation after that. We can leave our marks in different ways.

So don't let fear stand in the way. Okay.

[00:28:46] Carrie: Absolutely. Thank you so much I think that would be a good thing to listen to regularly as your, your pep talk

[00:28:55] Shawn:

Well, thank you.

[00:28:58] Carrie: So thank you for sharing that with us, and we do hope that people will submit their responses to your prompts. And that's another great way to get their writing out there and be part of a community of writing.

[00:29:14] Shawn: Yes, yes, indeed. Yes. I like, I, I would love, I would love to see these prompts.

I, I really would. So if, if you have them and you come to Comic Surge. I will be there. Um, I was originally, originally, I wasn't gonna be able to make it, but with this change of plans, I will be there.

So if you bring your prompts, I would love to

see them.

[00:29:30] Carrie: Great. Thank you so much.

[00:29:33] Shawn: Oh, you're welcome.

[00:29:39] Carrie: Thanks for listening to the Prompt to Page podcast. To submit your response to Shawn's prompt, visit us at jesspublib.org/prompt-to-page. We also welcome you to join the Jessamine County Public Library's Prompt to Page writing group, which will meet on Wednesday, September 28th at 6:00 PM.

Register on our website. And as we mentioned earlier, we hope you'll join us on Saturday, October 8th for the sixth annual Comic Surge. Comic Surge combines all the elements of a larger comic con-- vendor and artist's booths, professionally judged costume contest, live performances, gaming, and more--with the welcoming, thoughtful atmosphere of your public library.

To learn more about the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning visit Carnegiecenterlex.org. Our music is by Archipelago, an all instrumental musical collaboration between three Lexington based university professors. Find out more about Archipelago: Songs from Quarantine Volumes One and Two, at the links on our podcast website.