First, a
culmination of steps and processes must be done in order to reach the desired
and finished point. These steps include a combination of researching in my own
time using pre-existing children’s books and also going out and interviewing
children with a small set of questions to gage an idea of what the child likes
to see in a book and what their favourite book is.
Once the
interviews have been conducted and finished, I will then go into further
research looking up the favourite books the children listed. What this does is
help me get a brighter and even bigger idea to what a child would like to see.
It also gives an insight to the style of illustration used and if its simple or
complex, on top of this, the language and way things are written will also be
taken into account.
I will do
this because its important to make sure that your children’s book is readable
by a young audience and connects to them on a level they can understand. Larger
and more complex words will be replaced with simpler and easier to say and
understand words. An example of this would be using the word ‘And’ instead of
‘Therefore’ or ‘hence’.
The illustrations
and way the art has done in existing children’s books also matters to the same
degree as the language used. A child probably wont be able to understand a
super detailed and big piece of work. Not only that, the detailed piece of work
wont get my point across as easily as perhaps a simple illustration of a
character performing an action would. In the case of children, making things
simpler and easier for the child reader to understand is key, both in the words
and language you use as well as the illustrations.
After
researching existing books and finding out the children’s opinions on what
makes a good children’s book, I can begin to finalise and develop my final idea
for creating a children’s book. This includes character design and creation, a
story and something to base my story around. Is it linear or non-linear? What
happens and is it easy for the child to understand the events that take place?
Once an
idea has been finalised and my characters have been made and story completed
it’d then be time to go through and make a page layout. Certain questions I
have to ask myself and overcome include; What will happen on each page? What
illustrations will be presented? Where does the text go? A mock up of the
children book should be created with rough illustrations and the text starting
to be put into place, then when this is done I can begin to move on to start
creating my final and finished product.
Each page
will take into account the planning as well as other steps done before earlier
in the research process, my original plan is to produce a page fully
illustrated and produced on a day by day basis until the book is done. This
plan is flexible if time becomes an issue where I am able to produce two or
more pages per day, this also determines on the length of the children book
though, this is also something I will need to take into account.
When every
page is completed and finished, they will be compiled together using InDesign
from Adobe and put into the format of a book and then produced and put together
as if the book was a real product that could be sold.
To
conclude, I will be using multiple different techniques I order to create my
children’s book, this includes the use of researching and looking into existing
children’s books and also interviewing children to get an idea and create a
basis on which I can work around that also appeals to children. From here I can
then begin to plan out and create my book until its ready for print.
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