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How to Write & Illustrate Your Own Book

Writing and illustrating your own book is a true rewarding challenge. You'll get actual experience in design and writing, plus you'll have perspective on what goes when people put a book together. Instead of leaving the illustrations to the publishing company or searching for hard-to-find photos--and the rights to those photos--do it yourself and enjoy the artistic challenge.

Things You'll Need

  • Computer
  • Art supplies
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Instructions

    • 1

      Write down a list of book ideas. You need to come up with characters, a plot (the conflict, the resolutions and other actions), symbols and motifs and subplots. Think about how you can illustrate your content with images. Make notes about what you'd like to draw and how each drawing will relate to the content.

    • 2
      Take notes about your goal to make them more realistic.

      Take note of how long your book will be and assign yourself a deadline--this will help you keep working toward your goal. According to Fiction Factor, a novel is anywhere between 50,000 to 110,000 words, usually around 70,000 for a first novel.

    • 3
      Invent illustration ideas based on the plot.

      Write your content. Be mindful of other similar books. Write something that is unique to you. Craft a new idea. Writer James Scott Bell's book "Write Great Fiction: Revision and Self-Editing," suggests strong openings and endings, good dialogue, a discernible conflict and noticeable character development.

    • 4
      Illustrating your novel yourself can give you artistic freedom.

      Look at your finished content and decide how you'll illustrate it: Will you provide one illustration per chapter or several illustrations? Keep note of where you want the illustrations to be in relation to the content. Complete the illustrations using a medium with which you are comfortable--from watercolor to colored pencils to computer design, you'll need to be able to scan the illustration and save the images on your computer. Title or number each image.

    • 5
      Format your novel clearly with attention to detail.

      Format your novel so that you have place marks for the illustrations within your content with their title or number. If you print your novel to send it to potential publishers, make sure they know where each illustration will be within the text.

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