I've had three picture books traditionally published and
with fingers crossed a new one will be published in the next year or so. With
each of these projects I've never worked with the illustrator. I've had a chance
to comment, highlight things that are missing or point out the odd element that
doesn't correspond to my text but that's all. So when my niece asked if I could
be her sounding board for her final major project (a picture book) at
University I jumped at the chance.
Rather than simply illustrate a well known story my niece decided to write and illustrate her picture
book. So our first step was for me to read her manuscript. I made a few suggestions for editing and tweaking. Note: never send a manuscript to a creative writing teacher if you don't want them to grab the red pen!
Her main character Tumo the baby elephant
We then set aside an afternoon to meet up and she arrived
with several large sketchbooks. She had so many ideas we knew some hard decisions had to be made, what to keep and what to 'kill.' It was decided the best course of action was to start to pick the ideas that worked and stitch these together. Basically she started with page one and worked a page at a time.
When
spreads 11 and 12 were reached that light bulb moment happened. She had come up
with such a lovely image for spread 11 that it cried out to become the final
spread. So with a tweak in the wording version one was complete with its new
ending. Another version was also needed so the process was repeated.
Just one of my nieces quick sketches
The story is still a work in progress, so I haven't seen the
completed story yet. But I know the deadline is extremely close (I know that
feeling) and I'm eagerly waiting to see the end result. I have to admit I
really enjoyed the experience of seeing words marry images and hope sometime I'll get the opportunity to do so again. And next time perhaps those words will be mine!
Lynne Garner
I also blog on The Picture Book Den, Authors Electric, Fuelled By Hot Chocolate and
The Hedgehog Shed
P.S. Editors: If you're looking for a new voice with
some great ideas please contact me at lynne@lynnegarner.com and I'll put you in
contact with my niece. It would be lovely to have another writer in the
family!
3 comments:
Lovely art-work! All power to your niece, Lynne! And I recognise that realisation that events are going to have to be shuffled round, to put the best scene last. It happens in all sorts of writing, not only picture books!
That elephant is just gorgeous! What a fresh and distinctive style. I wish her luck.
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