I had this illustration done for quite some time, drawn and painted. Instead of posting, I’ve been working on my book. Which is not a bad thing, that’s really the priority. It has been weighing heavily on me to get something written. Right when I was about to post earlier, I added in the photo and the text deleted. Of course.

Anyway, here’s what new.

When initially writing, it was easier to put everything into a notebook. I could jot additional ideas, make notes, draw arrows, cross things out. I’m old-fashioned and love paper, so this might not be the ideal route for everyone. Then, I typed it all into InDesign spreads so I could pick a font, lay it all out and see what I had. It was fun to upload an illustration and see the pages side by side. Decidedly, this wasn’t the best idea though, since I had to keep reformatting. Picture books are supposed to be 32 pages long and from that, only 28 pages are usable after title page and copyright. I planned on half of those being used for illustrations, which left me with 14. It wasn’t looking good.

The pages appeared crowded the more I typed. I inwardly cringed and decided to switch over to a Word doc so I could check the amount that I had, as only 1000-1500 words were allotted. The rules used to be a bit more flexible, but for new books that was the current guideline. I checked on the Society of Writer’s and Illustrators site, for clarification on the amount. It stated that if I wanted an editor to take my manuscript seriously, keep it at 1000. (Which obviously, I did want.) So once I finished typing and pasted it in, I crossed my fingers and hit the word count key.

The result wasn’t even close. At 2051 words, I was going to have to cut out over half of my storybook. The process lasted a couple weeks. I would read through, cut and re-write. By the time I was done, I wasn’t even sure it was good anymore. You know when you write a word and it looks weird and you begin to wonder if it’s actually a word? That’s where I was at, except more was on the line than a misspelling. The task of stripping away extraneous words was tedious and daunting. I had taken so much care to craft this story and it felt like a loss as I dissected it.

I was at a word count of 1032, when I stopped. What emerged actually looked like a picture book. It was fluid, without getting bogged down by too many details. I’m still a little sad, but excited to have gotten through all the revising. (At least until it gets picked up and they ask for inevitable changes.)

With that done, I’m back to searching for the right editor. More on that soon.