4/6/2023 0 Comments Soup word writer![]() ![]() Maybe then, we’ll have to change the name of this site to Words NEED Pictures! ![]() Picture book writers have known for years that they cannot consider words entirely separately from the illustrations that accompany them, and perhaps this fact will come to sweep up the rest of us children’s writers in the years to come. ![]() My own employer (somewhat controversially) chose an emoji as “Word of the Year” last year, and you only have to look at the popularity of Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat to see how images are transforming the way we communicate. One major side effect of the rise of digital is an increasingly graphical approach to the world. ![]() With the help of some top digital gurus, I’ll be looking at new developments in kids’ digital storytelling and the opportunities that these projects offer for writers and illustrators (as well as a whole host of new creative roles that digital publishing has spawned). Naturally, I was heartbroken some months later when they stopped publishing it, but this proved to be a blessing in disguise because I switched to the awesome Whizzer and Chips! This British comic, along with The Beano, and IPC titles like Wow and Krazy, was to have a profound influence on my later writing style.ĭigital media is also increasingly prevalent in children’s lives – both for good or ill. I would then ignore all forms of human communication for the next half hour while I read the publication from cover to cover. I would bound downstairs to the front door on a Saturday morning, chuck aside The Daily Mail (thus proving I had excellent taste even then) and grab my copy of Mickey Mouse Magazine. Comics have been an important part of my life ever since I was a child. That’s been a terrific creative experience, and you’ll probably hear more about it from Paul and me at some point in this column!Īnother area that has been sadly absent from Words & Pictures is coverage of children’s comics and graphic novels, something I’m very pleased to remedy. I have some form in this area, as I’ve recently teamed up with SCBWI illustrator Paul Morton to create a highly illustrated middle grade novel called Max Tastic’s Guide to Internet Stardom. Where previously the publisher was the arbiter of which illustrator was paired with which writer, now creative people are getting together to collaborate on their own projects (although not all publishers approve, as this blog post by Nosy Crow’s Kate Wilson demonstrates). Reeve and McIntyre are the perfect example of another modern trend – the writer and illustrator team. Illustrated non-fiction is particularly benefiting from this renaissance, with some gorgeous volumes coming onto the market. Reacting to the rise of the e-book, publishers have focused on making these print books a beautiful artefact that children and adults will want to own. Traditionally, this area has been the exclusive domain of the publisher, but as technology and business processes evolve, so the tools to build these experiences come into the hands of ordinary creators like you and me.Ī notable recent trend has been a rise in beautifully illustrated children’s books, with titles such as Chris Riddell’s Goth Girl series, Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre’s Pugs of the Frozen North or the illustrated Harry Potter books published in beautiful editions with elaborate (and expensive) production values. Alphabet Soup is about the intersection between words and pictures, a world in which presentation, design, layout and interactivity have their own impact on how a story is told. Alphabet Soup aims to fill that gap, looking at forms of children’s publishing where writing and illustration have equal importance – areas like highly illustrated chapter books, children’s comics, educational publishing or digital media. Most of the articles on Words & Pictures deal with either writing or illustrating, but very few focus on both. But what (apart from a tasty and educational foodstuff) is Alphabet Soup? Well, read on and you’ll find out! When I took the decision at the end of last year to stop writing the Ten-Minute Blog Break, the obvious question was “What next?” The answer turned out to be the brand new weekly feature you’re reading right now, which glories in the name Alphabet Soup. ![]()
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