Making a Book Dummy

Up to this point I’ve let myself write and illustrate this book in an uncharacteristically haphazard fashion.  Some would say I’ve let it come organically; illustrating images at random after they’ve been dancing through my head at 2am.  Deep within the nightly clutches of insomnia filled with garden snails, I’ve tried to pull out these little scenes that might be part of something larger.  It’s not nearly as organized as most everything else in my life is.  It’s not my shirt drawer.  It’s not arriving at the bus stop on time every morning.   It’s… sporadic.

Writing the text has been a little more linear, although there are definitely entire chunks of the book that I’ve just been skipping with the thought that eventually the words will appear on an old receipt as I sit waiting in the car to pick up my daughter from school.

But frankly now I’ve come far enough along where I really need to assemble a book dummy to get to the next level of finishing this project.  It’s like building some weird piece of Ikea furniture– you’ve assembled all these separate parts, screwed pegs into place, pieced together drawers and  pull-knobs– and finally it’s time to connect them all and see what this thing is going to look and feel like once it’s complete.

So, what is a book dummy anyway?

Well, it’s a little mock-up version of what the book actually will look like once it’s published.   For a picture book this means text and sketches, as well as a few fleshed out illustrations combined and laid out in book format, keeping in mind the total number of pages along with cover, title, copyright info, etc…

When I sat down at the computer the other day and began piecing things together, I very quickly got extremely emotional.  It’s been a dream of mine for as long as I remember dreaming things to create my own story book.  Seeing the illustration of the first page paired with the first sentence just seized me.

I’ve been working at this so long that often I forget to look up and realize how far along I am.  There’s an unsightly long way to go still, but it’s happening.

Even in the midst of making dinners, raising a toddler, going without sleep, painting shoes, unclogging the sink, picking up, dropping off, mailing checks, buying endless groceries, etc, etc, etc…. there’s this other thing that’s happening, and it is starting to somewhat resemble an actual book.

Have any of you, my readers, ever made a book dummy?  I would be interested to hear about your process.