This entry is part 7 of 10 in the series My Storybook Process

Last week I was facing procrastination mode, so rather than write around that and explain what I had already finished up to that point, I chose to divulge how it really was – and got into some detail about how I handle procrastination, or what I call the pit moment.

If you’ve ever hit a wall with a project and found yourself starting to back away from it, this can really help you push through that phase.

This is a first go at illustrating PAGE 5. I made a few changes to emphasize certain emotions. (See below.)

That phase in a project isn’t inevitable, but it is usual, so it’s good to be prepared for that when it does hit.

This week, I’ll show you some of the newest images I’ve created for Bunny and Witch – because that’s where I am with the project. But I’ll also be breaking down the story content and how I made certain decisions about the second half of the manuscript. These are the pages that build-up to a happy ending. (See earlier articles in this series to find out what happened with pages 1-19 of the story and why.)

Not sure what a formal manuscript for an illustrated storybook should look like? Sign up for my newsletter and I’ll send you my storybook manuscript guide, what the industry professionals expect from a writer and what an illustrator will need from you.

In this version, I decided to try showing heightened emotions through their clothes and dolls. Witch’s socks are pulled all the way up and her hair-things are more dominant. Bunny’s doll is more visibly unhappy and her bunny ears are vibrating with anger. On a real storybook page, the characters won’t be quite so close to each other.

Let’s get to it!

Pages 18 and 19 left off at a suspenseful moment, because we don’t know what Witch is going to try next. This is why I put the page turn there, to create some tension.

Remember that a story without any tension at all isn’t much of a story – even for little kids. It can’t all be rainbows and blue birds all the time. That’s just boring.

Here’s what happens on the following pages.

PAGES: 20-21 (Spread)

Please?

This time, Witch really meant the word.
This magic word worked a wonder.
It worked on Witch and made her see
what to do. It hit like thunder.

<PANEL 1: Witch is asking now for the robot. Bunny is skeptical, but considering.>

This is an important turning point in the story, because Witch is at last being sincere. The problem for Witch now is that Bunny isn’t quite sure what to think about it.

Rising Tension… and then the Pay-off

There’s no reason to simply resolve the conflict because one character has delivered the right words. In a story as in life, words are often not enough. Our actions have to mean something too.

PAGES: 22-23 (Spread)

<PANEL 1 (across spread, on top.): Witch is gone from the panel. Bunny quietly plays with the three toys, but is also waiting for Witch to return.>

<PANEL 2 (across spread, along the bottom.): Witch brings a dinosaur toy and offers to play with Bunny, together.>

Please?

Now the girls can play together.
With the magic word of “please”
both Witch and Bunny found the keys
to be friends forever!

This is the moment when Witch and Bunny win. Next comes the pay-off.

PAGES: 24-25 (Spread, tilted 90°)

Thank you.

<PANEL 1: The girls hug.>

I want this to be a wonderful, happy moment. To underscore the importance of what’s happening on these two pages, I’m forcing the reader to turn the entire book to the side, so that the image is a tall spread (rather than the usual wide spread).

This is my second take at the illustration for PAGE 3. (The first one is lost – I must have deleted it.) I wasn’t quite happy with this, so did some more work. (See below.)

The Ending Cometh

Is the story finished? Not quite. This is the pay-off, but it isn’t The End. To really make this a story that feels complete and satisfying, we need a little more.

PAGE: 26 (Left)

<PANEL 1: Now the two girls are playing together, both smiling.>

PAGE: 27 (Right)

The End.

<PANEL 1: The girls are hand in hand, walking away from us “towards the sunset.” Witch has the robot and Bunny has the dolly.>

The first page here (page 26) shows that the girls can now play together. Ultimately, this is the true happy ending, because they can finally meeting eye to eye. They’re able to “work together” – or in this case, play together, which is what needs to happen between them.

I’ve made some changes to the boy doll, based on tweaks on another page. I’ve enlarged the girl doll’s eyes so that it’s clearer she’s happy. I’ve opened Bunny’s eyes, but I’m still not happy with it. I’ve also changed her nose a little and her mouth. I think I need to change the eyes back to what they were. (See below.)

The Buddy Team Dynamic

This shows beyond a doubt now that Bunny and Witch are a buddy team. That’s the dynamic, one that will need to continue through any other stories I tell about them. Each story will be about the girls reconciling their differences. What will change from book to book is how that happens. How it happens will depend on the specific lesson I want to convey in that story.

IMPORTANT NOTE: the point of your storybook might not be to reconcile differences – that is entirely up to you! Because I’ve chosen a buddy team dynamic for Bunny and Witch, I know going into the story writing process that the books will involve their learning to reconcile. That’s what buddy teams do.

On the last page of the story (but not of the book), I like to include the words, “The End,” because an illustrated storybook just doesn’t feel right without it. Whenever I read books to kids, I always say, “The End,” even if the words aren’t there. It’s a necessity for them. It signals that the story really is at an end.

Just playing around, I wanted to see what Bunny would look like with dark skin and slightly kinky hair. (See below for more.)

With this particular story, I want the characters to walk away from us (the viewers), “towards the sunset,” as I’ve noted in my manuscript. I have this in quotes because I want to do something else that represents a sunset somehow. The exact image I want to create? I don’t know. I do know what I want the image to mean.

Will kids get this metaphor? No, probably not. But I’m not creating this just for the kids. I’m also not creating it for any adults who might read it. Ultimately, I’m creating the story for myself.

Is this a story I would want to read? If it’s my story, it better be! I want to enjoy it, want to enjoy reading it and looking at the pictures.

How Many Pages???

You might have noticed that I’ve ended this story at page 27. The storybook should be 32 pages long. I paced the story to end here on purpose; I have other special pages that I feel are necessary to this book.

Because this book is for early education, pages 28 through 31 have after-reading questions and activities. Page 32 is my personal note to the adult reader. What I have in mind here is a focus on the types of questions and activities someone might be able to use in a daycare center, kindergarten or library setting.

I changed Bunny’s eyes back, made a slight change to the mouth again. I outlined the dolly’s boots in white so you can see them better. I like the yellow circle, but I’m not sure I’ll keep it. That will depend on how things start to look when I’m getting the panels onto their pages. Now that I’ve seen Bunny as a black girl, I might go with that in the end. I’m not sure – it’s all very spontaneous and not part of my original concept or plan. But I do like it… any thoughts or feedback here would be greatly appreciated!

Does this mean the book isn’t meant for private, family use? No, of course not. What it does mean though is that Mom or Dad can read this to their child before bed, or they can read it during the daytime and actually have a special chat about the story afterward. This gives parents a great opportunity to understand their child on a level that is generally reserved for teachers.

Next week, I’ll detail the decisions I made about the after reading questions and activities, along with the other non-story pages of the book that are actually necessary. Do I include all this information in my manuscript? Sure. Check here next week for that, or just sign up for my newsletter and I’ll send it right to you.

Have you put an illustrated storybook on the market yourself? Write below and let me know – or just send me an email. I’m always interested in hearing about what people are doing.

Keep creating, no matter what.

--Download My Storybook Process (Part 7): creating an ending as PDF --

This entry is part of the series
My Storybook Process
Be sure to check out the other posts:<< My Storybook Process (Part 6): um… now I’m a procrastinating writer *ahemHow to Stay Motivated to Finish Your Story: 7 ways >>

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K.C. Hill

Due to health issues, K.C. Hill isn‘t currently able to manage GreatStorybook, but there‘s plenty of good stuff here to mine. Have at it!

K.C. most recently fought breast cancer - and won. Now? She‘s writing a novel. Come visit her at KC-Hill.com.

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6 Comments

Anita on June 11, 2015 at 3:10 pm

Great to see some of your artwork for the book 🙂
Looking forward to the next part of this series of posts.

And while you’ve been working on your book, I have finished illustrating the book I was working on, and it’s been published to Kobo, Apple and Amazon. We also sell it direct from our website. Furthermore it’s available on Scribd. You can check out the cover and blurb here, if you’re curious: http://frogburps.com/TNC_sq

This is the first time we’re going wide, so we’re trying out lots of things. But first and foremost, we focus on creating a new book. And we’ll try to do what you’re doing here – we’ll be making a series next. Or at least we’ll be starting a series. I’m pretty excited about that 😀

It’s great to be following you on your journey here, while also creating something myself. Not sure how it’ll all end up, but we’re doing it. We’re following our dreams. And that’s awesome in itself. Very satisfying 🙂 I’m sure you feel the same thing.
Reply
- Chazda Albright on June 12, 2015 at 4:54 pm
  
  Thanks Anita! 🙂 Congratulations on your new book. The cover looks adorable.
  Reply
  - Anita on June 13, 2015 at 3:21 pm
    
    Thank you! 🙂
    I love how that ended up. We discussed a lot of thing we could do with it, but this was what worked the best for the content of the book.
    Reply
Christi on July 28, 2015 at 2:56 pm

Here’s a question: I notice you mentioned you are working on a number of projects, seemingly simultaneously. They seem to be quite different from one another, and for very different age groups. I.. myself, have a number of projects I am working on. I wonder how you warp your mind around and organize your thoughts, creative energy and time amongst your varying projects. For instance, my two main projects at this time are this illustrated storybook for children, which is quite lighthearted and innocent and a much more serious work for adults dealing with the consequences of addiction and mental illness. How do you organize limited time! Maybe that’s a lot to ask here?
Reply
- Christi on July 28, 2015 at 2:58 pm
  
  Ha! I said “warp your mind” an unintentional but apropos typo!
  Reply
  - Chazda Albright on July 29, 2015 at 9:44 am
    
    Hi Christi,
    
    You got it! Warp vs. Wrap. No kidding. Yes, I do work on several different writing projects at the same time – which means I work on a project for a bit and then switch to another one, as necessary/desired.
    
    It’s great you’re doing this, especially as the two projects are totally different from each other. That helps in keeping your mindset and the details straight.
    
    How do I do this? Well – it kind of depends on the context of the situation. There are times when I push a story ahead of the rest because of a deadline I’ve set. The deadlines are real ones, where I’m accountable to someone else.
    
    That pushes me forward. The trick is to keep pushing myself into creating these deadlines. (Pages to an actor in a play, manuscript to an illustrator or agent, etc.)
    
    Another reason I always work on several stories at once is because this helps me build my writing momentum. It’s amazing how much writing I can manage to NOT do when I’m only working on one story. If I work on several stories at once, it enables me to switch to something else when I hit a wall. So long as I don’t have a deadline for the story where I’ve hit the wall, I can just refocus my attention on something else.
    
    How I do this without confusing myself? It really gets down to keeping all your notes (every scrap) and then just flipping a toggle in your mind. When I sit down to work on any particular story, that’s my whole world right in that moment. I cannot multi-task.
    
    Here’s another tip: if you know that there is a writer’s event coming and it’s one you can attend, then this can be a major deadline for you. Deadlines are really important in helping you focus your efforts. This stuff has to get done. When you’re having fun creating, it’s easy to let it slip into “never being quite finished” because this means we have to stop working on it, and some part of us doesn’t want it to end. We do consciously, but unconsciously we want the process to be endless.
    
    My Big Deadline is the Book Fair in Frankfurt (Buchmesse). It’s an important event where I’m able to meet book distributors, editors and agents. I’m also able to meet writers, artists and cartoonists. It’s pretty amazing. If you can go to something like that, then it can be your annual boon.
    
    Writing competitions can also help this way, but going to an event is better because that’s where you’ll meet all sorts of interesting people.
    
    Warmly,
    Chazda
    Reply