Misa Sugiura: Taking It One Scene at a Time
KidLit Craft is back with another Snack-Sized Author Interview. In this series, we ask authors five quick questions that give us insight into their craft and process. Today we’re talking with author Misa Sugiura.
Misa Sugiura is the author of many books or children and young adults. Her acclaimed YA novels It’s Not Like It’s A Secret and This Time Will Be Different made the Best of 2019 lists of YALSA, Kirkus Reviews, the New York Public Library, and the Chicago Public Library. Her most recent work is Momo Arashima Breaks the Mirror of the Sun, the latest in her middle grade fantasy series, with the third installment, Momo Arashima Duels the Queen of Death, due out in February 2025.
Welcome, Misa!
Question 1: What's your writing superpower?
I love writing dialogue. It comes quickly and easily to me, and I think I have a good ear for speech patterns and quirks that fit the different voices and personalities of my characters. I think it's because I've always paid close attention to the way people sound when they talk. I've been caught mimicking people (unintentionally)—repeating their verbal tics or accents to myself to see if I can reproduce them.
Movies and television are a great resource, too—I've unwittingly borrowed the voices of my more colorful/archetypal characters from movies and TV shows. For example, I've been told that Niko the talking fox (in my Momo Arashima books) reminds people of C3PO, and I think Tsukiyomi, the moon god in Momo Arashima Breaks the Mirror of the Sun, sounds a lot like Loki in the Marvel movies.
Question 2: What’s an element of craft you explored in your latest project and what tips can you share with other authors for growing in their use of that particular element?
I really struggled with the character arcs for Momo Arashima Duels the Queen of Death. Usually character development is a strength for me, but for a variety of reasons, I just couldn't nail anyone down this time—not even my protagonist! I had to do two rounds of developmental revisions and have two long Zoom conversations with my brilliant and very patient editor (Liesa Abrams) and her assistant (Emily Shapiro) before I got it right.
In our second conversation, Liesa suggested I break down the entire book, scene by scene. For each scene, I had to write a 1-sentence summary and then note how it served the plot, the theme(s) and/or the characters. Of course, not every scene has to do all three things, but this exercise helped me see very clearly where the holes (or, more optimistically, the opportunities) were.
Then I had to write how I was going to fill the gaps: add some interior monologue that showed the character questioning her beliefs? Have the character take some action that showed their growth? Insert a couple lines of dialogue that touched on the themes I wanted to highlight?
I was familiar with this exercise (Cheryl Klein recommends it as part of the revision process in her book The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults) but had never tried it because it felt like too much work. But Liesa wanted me to do it, so I did. And lo and behold, it worked! And it turned out to be a lot of fun because the opportunities for improvement were so clear.
Question 3: If you could travel back in time, what advice would you give yourself as a new author?
This is advice that I read as a new author, but it is evergreen and it starts with a truth about publishing (or maybe life in general):
It is very easy to feel like what you've accomplished isn't enough: Yes, I wrote and published a novel, but it isn't a bestseller/didn't win an award/didn't get translated/didn't get chosen for Reese Witherspoon's book club/didn't get optioned for film etc. I thought this feeling wouldn't happen to me, but it did.
The solution (it's not easy): Enjoy the ride you're on. Let go of the stuff that's out of your control (other author's experiences, marketing budgets, all that other stuff I listed) and control what you can, like writing your next book.
Question 4: What inspires you as a writer?
Three things:
1) I get so much joy and energy from school visits. Meeting kids makes me grateful to be an author.
2) I am part of an amazing author community. We have writing dates, we read each other's manuscripts, brainstorm ideas together, sympathize over industry gripes, give each other career advice, and celebrate each other's successes. It really keeps me going.
3) Beautifully told stories—in books, on the screen, and on the stage—make me aspire to write more and better stories myself.
Question 5: What’s one book you think every kidlit author should read?
There are so many amazing books for kids out there that do so many different things well, I can't choose just one. So instead, I am going to recommend the book I mentioned earlier: The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults by Cheryl Klein. She's currently the editorial director at Algonquin Young Readers, and her book is full of great advice, guidance, and practical exercises for aspiring (and current) kidlit authors.
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Misa Sugiura’s ancestors include a poet, a priestess, a samurai, and a stowaway. Her first novel It’s Not Like It’s A Secret, won the Asian Pacific Islander American Librarians’ Association’s Award for Young Adult Literature; her highly acclaimed second novel, This Time Will Be Different, made the Best of 2019 lists of YALSA, Kirkus Reviews, the New York Public Library, and the Chicago Public Library. Her short story, “Where I’m From” appears in Come On In, a young adult anthology of stories about immigration. Her novel Love & Other Natural Disasters has been praised by the American Library Association as “hilariously awkward” and “honestly poignant.” Her most recent work is, Momo Arashima Breaks the Mirror of the Sun, the latest installment in her middle grade fantasy series.
You can find her online at misasugiura.comandon Instagram @misallaneous1
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