A Peek Inside: Sophie’s Stories, Part 1/2
“Sophie’s Stories” is out in the world and I’m very happy to share behind the scenes insights with you!
“Sophie’s Stories” started as a personal challenge to create a story I could work on while making final art for my debut book, “Found You”. Tapping into that energy made it easier to feel open to fresh ideas. I like to make time for “thinking walks” knowing at some point I’ll have story ideas. That’s exactly what happened with Sophie’s Stories.
I was at the top of a hill and admittedly I was thinking about my kids and some of the annoying things they do, but in endearing ways ;) Every night it was such a struggle to get them to go to sleep, because all they wanted to do was enjoy their books. And while I wanted them to get their needed sleep hours, I totally understood how hard it was to put the books down. I was the same as a kid and spent so much time reading and imagining and getting lost in narratives I’d create, intermingled with stories that were read to me. It was like I lived in the stories and they’d become part of my world.
And so with those thoughts (and the magic of the walk), the story of Sophie unfurled quickly in my mind, and I went home and wrote it down directly!
The original cover of my dummy book and the first spread (which changed nearly completely!).
After revising the text, I separated the story into pages then started on the visuals. I tend to start with really messy scribbles, and then cheer myself on, eraser handy. Lately I’ve been using the iPad to do these first drawings, which after some adjustment, is pretty amazing.
Some early work from Sophie’s Stories - dummy book pages, sketches, and color ideas for spreads.
I find speed and determination key when in the dummy book trenches. Once I have something down on paper I can revise and I’m past the initial wall of insecurity and confusion on what fits where in the story. For this dummy, I printed my rough sketches on A4 and folded them into a little book. From there I could read and flip through and add sticky notes with thoughts on what to fix. I went through a couple rounds of dummy book progress before late night sewing the binding of the final dummy book, then zipping it into my bag for a trip to the Bologna Book Fair the next day!
A scene from the dummy book…the left spread changed to a single page and the right hand spread we took out completely and replaced with a spread referencing “Thumbelina”.
Finally meeting my lovely editor Alison Green at the Bologna Book Fair.
A big highlight of the fair for me was finally meeting my editor, Alison Green. We chatted a little about “Found You” and I showed her “Sophie’s Stories”. I was more than delighted when she said they would like to publish it! This meant the real work was about to get started ;)
The original endpapers from my dummy book…yes, I made endpapers for a dummy which isn’t typical, but they’re one of the most fun parts in designing a book! I also wanted it to be a place to showcase some of the many characters and supporting details that pop up in the story.
That’s it for part one of a peek into the book with “Sophie’s Stories”…come back next week for part two!