Storytime
We took the kids to storytime at the library today. They had a special guest author who read from her series of books. Every double-page spread had four lines of text (intended to be two rhyming couplets) over a picture. The pictures were drawn by an illustrator, so the author's contribution to the project was the text, on which she apparently collaborated with her brother.
The text was awful. She did not seem to have encountered the concept of metre. The overarching plot was passable, but she often introduced non sequiturs, nonsense words, and implausible dialogue just to get something approaching a rhyme.
I asked her afterwards how much input she had into the illustrations, and the answer seemed to be "not much". Sometimes she told him something she wanted to be in the picture. I mentioned having seen the manuscript of The House at Pooh Corner with Milne's original illustrations, and noted that they were interestingly different from Shepard's. She didn't seem to know whom I was talking about.
Both children seemed to like the stories and paid close attention. She claims that her books are the best-selling at the local Barnes and Noble. I wonder if I could be a successful children's author. How do you go about it? Do you just produce a few dozen lines of doggerel and ask an artist to do the rest?
The text was awful. She did not seem to have encountered the concept of metre. The overarching plot was passable, but she often introduced non sequiturs, nonsense words, and implausible dialogue just to get something approaching a rhyme.
I asked her afterwards how much input she had into the illustrations, and the answer seemed to be "not much". Sometimes she told him something she wanted to be in the picture. I mentioned having seen the manuscript of The House at Pooh Corner with Milne's original illustrations, and noted that they were interestingly different from Shepard's. She didn't seem to know whom I was talking about.
Both children seemed to like the stories and paid close attention. She claims that her books are the best-selling at the local Barnes and Noble. I wonder if I could be a successful children's author. How do you go about it? Do you just produce a few dozen lines of doggerel and ask an artist to do the rest?