Rhonda DeChambeau: Writing Heart Moments
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 Rhonda DeChambeau.
In my second semester workshop at VCFA, I was lucky enough to be in a group with Rhonda DeChambeau. I got to see the very first poems from Top Heavy, Rhonda’s debut–a YA novel in verse. Her language, rhythm, and story shone through those poems, and that first energetic spirit is what animates the published book, too. Even more, Rhonda is a kind soul, an encourager, a person who cares deeply about others and their stories. –Anne-Marie
Welcome, Rhonda!
Question 1: What's your writing superpower?
While I was getting my MFA, one of my first critical essays explored what I call heart moments in KidLit. I think of heart moments as those scenes in novels where there’s an outpouring of love between characters, a tender moment, or a meaningful conversation. Often, these are scenes that underscore the heart of the novel and are the pay-off scene that connects to an earlier plot point, a redemption from an earlier failure or a release of tension from conflict. Sometimes, they restore our faith in humanity.
Heart moments. I am a sucker for them. In movies and TV shows, and in novels. Think: Katniss volunteering as tribute to save her sister. Or the preacher telling India Opal ten things about her mama.
These are the scenes that make readers pause, to sigh or take a breath. They are the scenes that make the reader say “Aww. . . .” or shed a tear.
I like to think that my superpower is creating those heart moments in my stories. Sometimes, I worry that my scenes are over the top. Too melodramatic. Too maudlin. Too much sap. But I’ll take that chance. These scenes are gold.
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’m currently in revisions for a middle grade novel-in-verse, and in this last round, my editor pushed me to inject more humor. The funny thing is (pun intended), I thought I’d already injected lots of humor. So, take-away number one is I don’t think you can overdo humor, especially in middle grade. And if the humor is too subtle, it might just get lost.
I worked hard at injecting more humor into this manuscript. For mentor texts, I studied Erin Bow’s Simon Sort of Says, and also Lupe Wong Won’t Dance, by Donna Barba Higuera, both fabulous and funny middle grade texts.
Two things that I noted were done to great effect in these stories was using humor at a character’s low point to release tension and also using humor through unexpected or oddball events, sometimes involving pets or animals. For my revisions, I focused on the tense and painful scenes and looked for ways to inject humor, even if only in a small dose. And I also brainstormed some wacky things that might happen in my story world and tried to work those occurrences into the story so that the humor was more consistent throughout the manuscript. My goal was to be sure I didn’t go more than four or five pages without something that would make the reader crack up or at least crack a smile.
Question 3: If you could travel back in time, what advice would you give yourself as a new author?
Get comfortable with being out there. Being an author is the public side of the writer card. I love staying at home in my jammies and writing in the early morning before anyone else in the house is even awake. Just me, alone with my thoughts and time to just ponder and write. That’s a very writerly fantasy, very personal and cozy.
But the reality of being an author is about headshots and social media and websites and marketing. It’s the public facing side to that cozy, internal side. Not to mention that your book becomes available to anyone who reads it. They may love it. Or not. And you just have to make peace with that. I think I would tell myself to just be authentic and worry less about how your hair looks in your author photo.
Question 4: What inspires you as a writer?
I once heard Jane Yolen say that ideas are all around us, that they are like leaves, and we just have to notice them. They are like leaves; you step on them, or you look up, or out your window and they’re just – there. I love that.
I find when I’m tuned in to being creative, paying attention, or being mindful, when I’m taking things slow and not just rushing through my day to check off my to-do list, I notice the ideas around me.
I draw a lot of inspiration from my personal life, a lot from my own childhood and teenage years. Sometimes, I try to pause and make a conscious decision about what I want to write about.
For my debut novel, Top Heavy, about a fifteen-year-old girl with a large chest, I knew I wanted to write a story about boobs. I started brainstorming by thinking about comments said to me or things that happened when I was a teen related to my chest. There was a lot to draw from! I remembered what it felt like to be ogled by older men and hearing plenty of comments from family members and classmates about my chest. Those experiences stayed with me. When I brainstormed a list of them, they seemed ripe for coming together to form a story.
Question 5: What’s one book you think every kidlit author should read?
Oh my gosh- this is such a tough question! But I’m going way back, to one of the first craft books I ever read. Even now, I listen to the audio version about once a year: Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (published in 2000).
I can’t read horror (it gives me nightmares), but two of my all-time favorite movies are Stand by Me and The Shawshank Redemption, both based on King novellas. Talk about the heart moments in those stories! And I love almost everything about his book about writing.
I often find myself calling up some King-isms when I’m thinking about writing (and since King narrates the audio book himself, I hear his Maine-accented voice in my head):
“Life isn’t a support system for art. It’s the other way around.”
“You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair—the sense that you can never completely put on the page what’s in your mind and heart. . .Come to it any way but lightly.”
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all else: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.”
“When I’m writing, it’s all the playground, and the worst three hours I ever spent there were still pretty damned good.”
“The scariest moment is just before you start.”
King’s book provides timeless, practical lessons on what you should have in your writer’s toolbox, as well as a glimpse into this prolific writer’s daily regimen. Personally, I’ve adopted a version of King’s own schedule, using my mornings for “whatever is new—the current composition,” afternoons for emails, marketing, and social media, and evenings for reading and family.
Lastly, for a long time, before I signed my book deal with Holiday House, I dreamt of my fairy tale moment, like the one King describes when he got the phone call telling him he sold the paperback rights to Carrie for a sum of money that meant, finally, he could become a full-time writer and leave behind the near-poverty he’d been living in with his family. That scene gave me hope that maybe, if I worked as hard as King (or, let’s be honest, half as hard?), I would be published. That scene, and also, his “On Living: A Post Script” that describes his hard-won return to writing after being hit by a car while taking his daily walk, inspired me. They still inspire me.
Bonus Question: What can fans look forward to next?
My next novel, tentatively titled Stained, is expected to be published in the fall of 2026 by Holiday House. This is the funny (hopefully) middle grade novel-in-verse I described above.
Beyond that, I am back to Young Adult, working on what I hope will be a Book 3, a multi-POV story. Right now, most of the story is in prose, but one POV is in verse. But who knows, that may change!
Rhonda DeChambeau is a writer and poet who grew up in a small town in Massachusetts, where she benefited from many generous teachers who encouraged her love of words and passion for writing. She holds a Master’s in Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. A lover of libraries, Rhonda was honored to serve as the 2022-2023 Associates of the Boston Public Library Writer-in-Residence, during which time she wrote and sold her debut novel.
She lives outside of Boston with her family. Her first readers are always her two kids, who, even though they’re practically grown-ups, are still her biggest fans.
You can find her online on her website and on Instagram @rhondadechambeau
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