Day 5: December 20th
Happy Hanukkah to all of my Jewish friends!
Today I made Christmas cookies with two of my grandkids. Sugar cookies never looked (or tasted) so great! And I probably wouldn’t have made them if it hadn’t been for my grandchildren being here.
Doing things with other people can give you a lift sometimes. It can be more fun. And the results are usually better. With the cookies, you can take a look at what someone else did and get ideas. The tiny brown chocolate chips in the gingerbread boy’s icing eyes were really cute. We put some on the buttons, too. I had cutters for bells and stars and trees, but the kids brought some for stockings and candy canes.
Writing can be better as a team effort, too. Some writers collaborate on a project. I’ve never done that, but I do have a wonderful critique group. Getting another person’s eyes and ears on something that you’re working on is a great help. A picture book is a kind of team work. It’s the combination of text and pictures that make a picture book. And even though the author and illustrator don’t work together, the end result comes from two different creative minds.
The text for a picture book comes before the illustrations. But a picture can inspire a story, too. Has a picture on a Christmas card ever really moved you? What if you took that picture and wrote a story or a poem to go with it? Maybe you could even write words to go with that picture for an original Christmas card.
Happy Hanukkah to all of my Jewish friends!
Today I made Christmas cookies with two of my grandkids. Sugar cookies never looked (or tasted) so great! And I probably wouldn’t have made them if it hadn’t been for my grandchildren being here.
Doing things with other people can give you a lift sometimes. It can be more fun. And the results are usually better. With the cookies, you can take a look at what someone else did and get ideas. The tiny brown chocolate chips in the gingerbread boy’s icing eyes were really cute. We put some on the buttons, too. I had cutters for bells and stars and trees, but the kids brought some for stockings and candy canes.
Writing can be better as a team effort, too. Some writers collaborate on a project. I’ve never done that, but I do have a wonderful critique group. Getting another person’s eyes and ears on something that you’re working on is a great help. A picture book is a kind of team work. It’s the combination of text and pictures that make a picture book. And even though the author and illustrator don’t work together, the end result comes from two different creative minds.
The text for a picture book comes before the illustrations. But a picture can inspire a story, too. Has a picture on a Christmas card ever really moved you? What if you took that picture and wrote a story or a poem to go with it? Maybe you could even write words to go with that picture for an original Christmas card.