Structure.
I've now created two blog books from my last few years of blogging. A 2006/2007 compilation album and a 2008 book. Pulling my blogs into books the last few years has taught me that I like a certain amount of structure in my books.
A beginning. I like to start with a smattering of pictures from the year and a letter to my daughters. Much like the introduction of all my work, I write that letter last. When I'm ready to publish the book, when I've looked over it a thousand times, then I go back and pen a little love note to my children. I like it. Something that captures me in that moment. My thoughts, my feelings, who I am in on the day that book goes to print.
A middle. That's the part I work on all year. The part I share with the world, the blog posts, and the part I don't, the 2 or so posts I write a week that I just can't share publicly. They are either too personal or too full of a humor you have to live with me to really understand.
Once I've pulled in all the posts, edited (I am capable of editing I just don't worry about it too much on a daily basis), and am satisfied that I'm saying all I want to about the year, then I go through my thousands of pictures. I pull them all together chronologically and pick the best ones from the year.
Then I write captions and, turns out, the captions are kind of my favorite part of the books. Little details that make the pictures more meaningful: what I was thinking when I took the picture, why the red crocs Brynn was wearing were such a big deal, how disgusting that fuzzy caterpillar was in real life, but how much one or both the children loved it anyway. All the details that don't warrant their own post, but make the picture rich and meaningful.
An End. The finale. The recap. The wrap up. Something at the end that ties it all together and makes the work feel complete.
(I'm such a writer, no? Beginning, middle and end. That's really the magic formula, people. Keep it under your hats.)
So the recap. I haven't been writing the recap during the year, I've been waiting until I'm almost done with the book. Turns out that it is hard to pull it all together later on. I can't quite remember everything, me and my stinkin' short term memory, so this year I'm going to try and blog my recap. 2009, a year in review.
(I tell you all of this, so that I'll be committed to doing it over the next couple of days. "Hey, I committed publicly to a recap. Now I can't rat fink out." That's what I'll be telling myself, just in case you were dying to hear that inner dialogue.)
Excited??
{crickets chirping}
Please humor me. Let's try that one again.
Excited???
Great, me too.
A beginning. I like to start with a smattering of pictures from the year and a letter to my daughters. Much like the introduction of all my work, I write that letter last. When I'm ready to publish the book, when I've looked over it a thousand times, then I go back and pen a little love note to my children. I like it. Something that captures me in that moment. My thoughts, my feelings, who I am in on the day that book goes to print.
A middle. That's the part I work on all year. The part I share with the world, the blog posts, and the part I don't, the 2 or so posts I write a week that I just can't share publicly. They are either too personal or too full of a humor you have to live with me to really understand.
Once I've pulled in all the posts, edited (I am capable of editing I just don't worry about it too much on a daily basis), and am satisfied that I'm saying all I want to about the year, then I go through my thousands of pictures. I pull them all together chronologically and pick the best ones from the year.
Then I write captions and, turns out, the captions are kind of my favorite part of the books. Little details that make the pictures more meaningful: what I was thinking when I took the picture, why the red crocs Brynn was wearing were such a big deal, how disgusting that fuzzy caterpillar was in real life, but how much one or both the children loved it anyway. All the details that don't warrant their own post, but make the picture rich and meaningful.
An End. The finale. The recap. The wrap up. Something at the end that ties it all together and makes the work feel complete.
(I'm such a writer, no? Beginning, middle and end. That's really the magic formula, people. Keep it under your hats.)
So the recap. I haven't been writing the recap during the year, I've been waiting until I'm almost done with the book. Turns out that it is hard to pull it all together later on. I can't quite remember everything, me and my stinkin' short term memory, so this year I'm going to try and blog my recap. 2009, a year in review.
(I tell you all of this, so that I'll be committed to doing it over the next couple of days. "Hey, I committed publicly to a recap. Now I can't rat fink out." That's what I'll be telling myself, just in case you were dying to hear that inner dialogue.)
Excited??
{crickets chirping}
Please humor me. Let's try that one again.
Excited???
Great, me too.
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