Superheroes and authors have a surprising number of things in common, according to Marty Kelley.

On Thursday, he visited Rochester Memorial School to impart his knowledge to students.

Kelley is the author and illustrator of 10 children's books and has illustrated several others. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and kids and travels to schools throughout the year to share his books, upcoming projects and, of course, to make kids laugh.

“I’m going to keep you away from your class for as long as possible,” said Kelley.

Kelley, a “recovering second grade teacher,” held the attention of his young audience throughout his explanation of the six steps required to get superpowers, which he eventually turned into a super sneaky lesson on writing and revision or  “how to write a super story.”

First you have to figure out what kind of super hero you are (or what kind of story you want to write) and then what you’re going to do with your powers (or what happens in the book). Then comes the hard part. Step 3: “Practice using your super powers.”

“When Superman learned to fly, do you think he probably landed in some trash cans?” said Kelley.

When it comes to writing and drawing, he emphasized the need to start with a “sloppy copy” and then edit and revise multiple times, even though it’s not the most fun part.

“So much of what I do is really messy at the beginning,” said Kelley. “It takes almost two years to get one book made.”

He emphasized the process by showing kids how he created his book, “A Cape!,” about a little boy who finds a makeshift cape and pretends to be a superhero.

Afterwards, Kelley gave several kids the opportunity to share the super power they would like to have and their superhero name. The favorite had the opportunity to get a drawing done by him on the spot.

There were some good names – Death Stroke, Lila and Super Bummiest Awesomest – but teachers chose first grader Olivia Kinney’s superhero name, Spikler, as the favorite.

Once he had finished a quick drawing of Olivia, Kelley was done with his presentation, but he likely inspired some kids to focus more on perfecting their writing and drawing.

After all, said Kelley, “I get to spend my whole day drawing pictures. How cool is that?”

The visit was sponsored by the RMS PTO Cultural Committee.