When Reality Sets In

Thank you for reading this and sending encouragement along the way! It means a lot!

🗓️ 41 Days Until Publish

Usually, when you do something for the first time, it doesn’t play out exactly like you thought it would.

But then other times, to your surprise, it does. And you are left wondering if you are really good at seeing the future or are simply creating your own self-fulfilling prophecy.

Whatever the reason may be, this is what has happened to me in the last few weeks on this project…I knew this part would be tough.

I am roughly 2 months in and I have figured out so much! Things like where I want to publish, v4 of the manuscript, book specs and even found an editor. So what’s the problem?

The illustrations.

From the beginning, this was the part that I was most worried about. It was also the place that I had the least experience. And it’s not really the illustrations that are the problem, it is the fact that there are so many of them to do! I mean, each one feels like a metric ton of work because I am often doing 3-4 major revisions per page.

Then there are the backgrounds.

I am used to drawing individual characters. Not entire scenes with colorful background graphics!!

Here is an example of one of the first drafts of one of my pages. I won’t tell you how it fits into the story, but the inspiration for the monster was The Gruffalo! The final page actually looks nothing like this but I had to do this to help me get to the final design!

Right now, I have completed 9 different full page, full color illustrations. Which is awesome! However, I still have 14 more to go!! And many of the 14 are the ones that I have been putting off because I am not 100% sure how to even complete them.

But I knew this time would come. It happens in every big project. It is the time when reality of what you set out to do finally sets in. It’s when you start rethinking why you chose to do this in the first place. You start looking for excuses to quit or figuring a way to delay or push off the deadline. You start to look for an out.

But this is also the time where it is essential to remember your why. You go back to the reason why you started this whole thing and what you are hoping to accomplish when it will be completed. And that is one of the things that helps you push through.

So that is what I am doing.

The image below is one of my whys. I want to write a book that creates these types of scenes. Where dads (and moms and aunts and babysitters, etc) sit and read this book to little boys and girls and create wonderful memories. This keeps me pushing for the April 10th deadline and attacking those 14 remaining illustrations. Time to keep moving!

More to come. Thanks for reading.

Kacy