Restarting My Children's Book

Back in 2020, I started writing and illustrating a children’s book. Thanks to the weekly art group that I go to, I’ve started working on it again. I’m very grateful for this group and the members who come to our meetings. I’m also thankful to Jesse White, the assistant director (and camp director) at Pullen Arts Center who gave me the idea to create a mini version of the book.

Writing and illustrating this book has been an interesting process. When I first started, it was a strange time due to the pandemic. Very few people, including myself, were working their usual jobs. I’ve taken a few art classes in the past, and I used drawing and writing to keep myself occupied during that time period. I don't remember if anything in particular inspired me to start working on a children’s book, but it seemed to come naturally to me. I continued to work on it during the next year or so, until I reached a point when I thought it would need to be reviewed and/or published. 

I knew it would probably cost money to move forward with publishing it, so I wanted to be sure that I really believed in the project before doing so.

Flashforward to today...

Picking it back up has been an interesting process as well. I was excited at the idea of starting to work on it again, and it felt like something fresh when I began again. Over the years, I’ve continued to have an interest in writing and illustrating. Seeing a few of my peers and coworkers working on books has inspired me to keep the dream alive. One of the coworkers who has inspired me is the assistant director at my job, Jesse White. She has written and illustrated her own children’s book, so I reached out to her for help with my project.

When I first read Jesse’s blog entry about writing her book, I have to admit, I was not encouraged. A lot of the emotions that she wrote about experiencing during the process of creating her book were not ones that I would normally seek out. Despite this, I knew that God had put a story in me to tell, and I was determined to follow through with it.

One of the things that Jesse mentioned in her post is that she didn’t want to make it seem as if she was ungrateful or unhappy with the process, but that she did want to share all of the emotions, both “good” and “bad”, that she felt while working on the book. Others who are working on something big might feel some of the same emotions, and as a result, know that it’s all a part of the process. This turned out to be true for me, and it was affirming to know that I wasn’t the only one feeling this way.

An emotional journey

Recently, the emotions I have felt while working on the book have been fairly overwhelming. Not necessarily because of the book itself, but more so because the past few months of my life have been fairly unpredictable, and a bit stressful because of that. Having said that, I have enjoyed researching all of the different things that have come up because of it.

I’m looking forward to see where it will go from here.

Sincerely,

Jabari