How to Build a Snowless Snowman
A Children's Picture Book
The Goal:
The goal was to create a picture book exciting young girls about STEM. The picture book also needed to teach them something about STEM too in the process.
The Process:
Research
Before I wrote a single word for this book, I did some research since I have never written a picture book before.
Firstly, I enrolled in the Writing Salon's class: "The Craft of Creating Picture Books". It was a 6 hour long intensive session where students learned how to write a good picture book. I learned many useful tips such as making sure the child in the book has power and that she herself comes up with a good idea.
After the class, I also bought multiple picture books about STEM so I could understand the market. One particular book that stood out to me was, "Ara, the Star Engineer".
I absolutely love this book, because of how it shows strong women in STEM and how it introduces complex topics in engineering in an easy-to-understand format.
Brainstorming
I then sat down and made a list of all the possible potential topics I could think of. Then I narrowed it down to a few I thought could be good ideas. And finally, I set my sight on the topic of robotics because I realized I could combine multiple topics I had listed into that one topic.
After zoning in on the topic, I started thinking about the outline of the technical topics in the story. What did I want to focus on in robotics? Certainly I wasn't planning on going into great depth about the optimal materials for mechanical sturdiness or the best PCB layout methodology. I wanted this picture book to be understandable for even young kids. This book needed to just have the basics which is why I identified them and listed them out as shown below.
The First Draft
I used the same process I use for most of my first drafts --I sat down and wrote everything down as quickly as I could.
The Second Draft
When I read through the first draft, I realized I had been far too technical in my writing. I needed to curb my enthusiasm for the complicated topics and focus on the basics. I went through and attempted that.
The Subsequent Drafts
The next drafts were focused more on shortening the word count and determining where the page breaks should be. I got feedback for these subsequent drafts from family and friends and incorparted the comments into my revisions.
Future Revisions
I am hoping to find an illustrator for the book so I can release it as a complete picture book online. My goal isn't to make money out of this, but instead to inspire young girls and show them that they can do anything including STEM!
