Saira suggested to storyboard to help the creative process. What is storyboarding? At the time, I had no idea. Saira had to explain,
"You come up with how many pages you would like in your book. Draw them out. 2 pages side by side. Then you can either bullet point what you want on each page or draw and write them out. Drawing and writing them out might be easier to do, so you have an idea on what the book will look like."
We decided on 20 pages. Maybe a little over. I was nervous but I didn't understand why. I had my story. I know how it happened. All I had to do was write it out. Then I noticed, it wasn't the writing that had me feeling uneasy. While I was storyboarding, I noticed that I did my writing portion first. Once I completed the writing, I felt stuck. The drawings were haunting me. What if the audience doesn't like them? I scribbled down some stick figures and objects with color. Feelings of being disappointed overwhelmed me. This wasn't what other authors had in their picture books. I was definitely not Picasso. Saira noticed,
"You can't compare your book to others. This is your story. You get to decide how you want it to look. This is practice. Let go of society's idea of perfection and enjoy what you do."
At first, that was so hard for me. I wanted my book to be something I could be proud of. Then I realized, this IS something I can be proud of! I stepped outside my comfort zone in order to deliver a message to the next generation and discover something about myself. I can be creative, and so can you!
"You come up with how many pages you would like in your book. Draw them out. 2 pages side by side. Then you can either bullet point what you want on each page or draw and write them out. Drawing and writing them out might be easier to do, so you have an idea on what the book will look like."
We decided on 20 pages. Maybe a little over. I was nervous but I didn't understand why. I had my story. I know how it happened. All I had to do was write it out. Then I noticed, it wasn't the writing that had me feeling uneasy. While I was storyboarding, I noticed that I did my writing portion first. Once I completed the writing, I felt stuck. The drawings were haunting me. What if the audience doesn't like them? I scribbled down some stick figures and objects with color. Feelings of being disappointed overwhelmed me. This wasn't what other authors had in their picture books. I was definitely not Picasso. Saira noticed,
"You can't compare your book to others. This is your story. You get to decide how you want it to look. This is practice. Let go of society's idea of perfection and enjoy what you do."
At first, that was so hard for me. I wanted my book to be something I could be proud of. Then I realized, this IS something I can be proud of! I stepped outside my comfort zone in order to deliver a message to the next generation and discover something about myself. I can be creative, and so can you!