So Today was the day....
I started my day early enough--got the kiddo ready for his first day of kindergarten--packed the lunch, made turkey bacon and eggs for breakfast, checked my email. I sold the mummy ornament yesterday and today was "mailing day" so I had to wrap up that package to take to the post office later. Then I got dressed, walked the dog, poured a cup of tea and made my own breakfast. Compiled a list of ingredients hidden in foods that are actually milk and emailed it to the school and then, yes, then, I was ready to sit at my desk. It was 12 noon already.
Cleared a space on my cluttered desk, sharpened my pencil, made another cup of tea. Actually, this wouldn't exactly be a first draft...
I've tossed this concept around in my head for the last few years, under many different incarnations--there are four mini book dummies sitting here. So I read them all over and tried to make some sense out of it all once more time.
And then I went to the library to get a book for research. I was thinking about two books I know in the same vein as the concept I might be using. They didn't have one of them so I had to order it through the library system. Should get here in a week. It's the same book I looked at when I came up with the first draft. Some things don't change I guess. The other book I have here at home. So I went in the kiddo's room to find it in his library--still there luckily--not in the garage waiting for the next garage sale. Good... I leafed through that for about two seconds and just started filling up the white legal pad--with words and pictures. Good, on my way! Didn't change a whole lot from some of the early drafts--just trying to take the best of all of them and string them together in some coherent way.
Fine. Enough of that.
I'm a visual person and a film type. Had to start making a dummy book so I could flip through the words to feel the rhythm of the book. Decided to go full size. I like the square format. I use Strathmore Drawing Paper--medium weight--400 series. It's quite sturdy and can take a lot of erasures. Next I go to the computer and start typing up the text--finding the brakes for the pictures. Then I do a cut & paste job in the dummy book using removable tape so I can still fiddle with it. After I do that, I edit some more. Back into the computer--print out more text--finalizing it a bit more--making the font more the right size and choosing one that seems best for the story. And hey, I created my own cut-paper font, so I printed it out with that. Looking good.
And so it begins...
Not very surprising, is it?
Then it was about time to quit for a late lunch and head on over to the school to pick up the kiddo and go to the post office and the grocery store.
Tomorrow is another day to sit and fiddle with it.
