PROCESS PLANNING
What was your initial research question?
Main: What is the nature and purpose of creative expression?
Debatable: How does one express themselves creatively?
Factual: Why are children's books written from a child's perspective?
Conceptual: Why does writing belong to the 'creative expression' category?
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What global context did you choose?
Since my project was about writing and illustrating and these are forms of expressing art, I found "Personal and Cultural expression" fitting.
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What research did you conduct and what resources did you use?
My main research looked into the key factors of writing a children's book: using the right storyline, not making it too boring, making the plot easy to follow, writing using easy language, making the book look interesting, having enough illustrations, having a unique story as well as a unique main character etc. I used other kids books for inspiration and help to see how other others did it. Online were also a lot of helpful websites regarding advise for writing books.
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What were some obstacles you encountered during this (if any)?
Of course, the main obstacle was being able to think of a good story. And this might seem super easy but so many stories have already been written and its hard to have a really original story these days. I had to make it unique and this took some time.
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What did you discover about your project during this time?
I discovered that writing a book was more difficult than I thought it would be. I had to take a lot of things into account that I first off had never even thought of. There was so much new information and essential steps to follow and it took much more time than I thought it would. For example, thinking of the main character. I had to think very thoroughly when making her. A book would be less interesting if the main character looked like the everyday child so I had to go into grand detail to make her unique.
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Did you have to make any changes to your ideas?
I had many changes over time, but this was to be expected. I changed my story about 4 times before choosing the final one, I think this was the main changes I went through. I also thought I would be making my illustrations on paper and scanning them but in the end, this turned out very differently. It ended up being done on the iPad and I didn't have as many illustrations as i'd hoped.
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PROCESS TAKING ACTION
What were the first steps you took when putting your research plan into action?
When all my research was done: I had interviewed two authors, looked at other children's books, and done a lot of research on the writing and different storylines, I did the obvious: I decided my final story I wanted to do and started writing. I wanted my story to have a message, so I chose to put global warming in the story, though I had to make sure this was explained in a simple manner considering that young kids would read it. I chose my storyline, started writing, and creating ideas for illustrations.
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What actions did you take to develop your product/project?
I mainly wrote and illustrated to develop my product. I also had to format all the text into the book-printing website and this was also an essential part of developing my product.
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What were some obstacles you encountered during this (if any)?
In the end, I ran out of time to make more illustrations which was really frustrating because it is after all a children's book and it would have been really great if there were more illustrations. Close to the deadline another really big obstacle was that a lot of pages of the book on the website were not saved which lead to stress and loss of time.
What did you discover about your project during this time?
I learned that time management is essential especially when doing a big personal project. I also learned that saving your progress and overall work is really important because there is always a chance you could lose it. Stay organized.
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Did you have to make any changes to your ideas?
I had to adapt to the idea of not having many illustrations which I really didn't like but I had to deal with it.
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