Picture Book Brewing

 

Story building

It started with a theme, and it meandered through several storylines, characters jumping in and making it their own, but what was needed was something different, a different viewpoint. And so now I have the words, characters talking to each other, a beginning, a middle and an end.

So what now…? Colour! Literally – paint, brushes, water, and lots of paper, because the first picture, much like the first paragraph written, is not likely to make it as far as the finished book… let the magic commence!  

My work in progress is based around sleep and bedtime stories

My work in progress is based around sleep and bedtime stories, and all this talk about sleep and being tired is definitely making me sleepy, which is the desired effect after all. A bedtime story needs to tell a story but also lead towards a drowsy state of mind. So not only am I yawning doing my rewrites, but now I’m blogging about all things sleepy and drowsy related, the yawns are definitely brewing…

I’ll keep it brief here, because in reality I seem to be writing into an abyss, so if you’re reading this, welcome! Please have a wander around my website, bring your friends and pop along to my website bookshop where my books are gathered in the hope of finding new homes.

Self Publishing is all about being stubborn!

 Self Publishing is all about being stubborn… why?

·        As a self publisher you’ve likely already come up against some sort of barrier in traditional publishing: not securing an agent, not finding a publisher to publish your work, or simply decided not to send any more work out to squelch about in a slush pile.

·        Finding out that writing the story is not the end of the process, there are more skills to learn: editing, formatting, illustrating and making all of this stick into a memory stick to send to a printer.

·        Then there’s the promotions and marketing, and generally getting the word out there, about the amazing new book that you now have to sell.

·        There are websites, and blogs and a whole host of ways to get a book noticed online.

·        And pretty soon you realise that writing the book is just the beginning, and learning curves keep hitting you, sharper and steeper than you thought possible. The sense of achievement at rising to each new challenge is amazing, but also exhausting.

So what keeps a self publisher going? Sheer stubbornness and an unshakable belief in the book or books, that have to find their way out of the boxes and into the hands of readers…

So that’s where I’m at, feeling exhausted but stubbornly carrying on…

Author, pouring words into the abyss

 

Lost in a Book

Little Bookshop with big ideas

Rummage4words.co.uk

 

Dear Abyss,

                   I’m pouring more words today, into who knows where for who knows who to read, because… who knows why at this point. I have a bag of words to use up, and I need some of them for the rewrites of my work in progress, because there’s a picture book brewing and it needs a few more words adding, taking away and generally shuffling until they are just right, and just where they were meant to be.

                             Bye for now

AMS

 

Rewrites

 Rewrites:

How many rewrites does it take to make a book? I’ll let you know when it’s finished… maybe.

Because I’d have to count the number of times I save new changes, not just the number of new starts and new versions of the story; a little tweak here, a name change there… Probably the hardest part is knowing when to stop, because it can feel as if a story is never perfect, and something could always be added or taken away, or told from a different viewpoint… unless of course there is that eureka moment when everything slots into place, the characters saying just the right thing, at just the right moment, with illustrations working in perfect harmony. Sometimes words have to compromise, keeping quiet while pictures have their say, because in a picture book some of the story is told by the pictures.

Anyway, I’m currently working on a rewrite of my work in progress, making sure I’m showing not telling, without getting too many words to squeeze into a picture book. And because it’s a picture book, I’m also working on the illustrations, filling up sketchbooks and playing with paint. The characters are causing me more than a few problems because some of them are more of a concept than an actual being… and no, I’m not going to explain that at this point, you’ll just have to wait and see.

Of course as well as working on rewrites, I’m also creating content for my website, which often feels like writing into the abyss! There must be so many words bobbing about the internet at this point, that it’s a wonder they don’t all stick together and start making up their own stories, like a giant imagination.

So I’m going to head off now to have a chat with the characters of the book, see if we can come to some sort of an agreement about building this book, so that we can finally get it over the finish line.