Children's Books

Welcome back to Taylor Talks!

​Yesterday, I mentioned the fact that I was starting a new children's picture book. I had jotted down a few ideas, thought about the overall direction of the story, and that was about it. Today, I actually accomplished quite a lot for the book.

Surprisingly, I didn't spend a whole lot of time writing today, but the time that I did spend was very productive. I went from a few pages of scribbled out nonsense in this little notebook that I always keep with me, and turned it into words that would go on five pages of the book. I even started working on some illustrations!

So part of me felt like I shouldn't bother with the drawings yet, because the story wasn't anywhere close to being finished. But I wanted to be able to visualize my characters and see the start of them coming to life. I figured, hey, I'll draw the basic outline of the first page and just see what happens. I wasn't going to color it in, and I wasn't even sure that it would actually be the final illustration that made it into the book, but I just felt like I needed to do something.

I started working on a couple of the characters and then sent a picture to my best friend and asked him for some advice. I couldn't make a decision on one part of the illustration, and I needed an outside opinion. It was a somewhat ridiculous question, but I just needed to figure it out before I went any further with the drawing. Sure enough, I knew that my best friend would come through for me. No matter how dumb or silly the question may be, he always knows how to help me out. He gave me his opinion, complete with the reasoning behind it, and suddenly it made perfect sense to me.

I still have ideas floating around for the other children's book I had started working on, but I don't have specific plans on which book I'd like to focus on or finish first. I mean, who knows, maybe I'll end up starting a third children's book before finishing any of them... You just never know! I keep both files open on my computer and look at them every once in a while, and whenever an idea comes to me, I make sure to jot it down. But I can't predict how quickly my mind will work or how good (or bad) any ideas will be. I just have to work on whatever is calling to me at any given time, and hopefully I'll make progress with both books.

I've written a couple of other children's books in the past, and they didn't take very long compared to my YA novel. Still, I know that they won't be finished in a week. I'm just going to continue to keep my little notebook with me wherever I go in case inspiration strikes, and I'll be sure to capture any great ideas that come my way. I'll bounce back and forth between writing projects, and work on illustrations when I come down with a case of writer's block. I'll probably have conversations with myself about what I'm working on, and argue with myself about whether an idea will work. But in the end, I know that I won't stop working until I'm completely happy with the end product. And whenever that day comes, I'll look forward to publishing another book to share with everyone.

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Thanks!
Taylor

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