Writing Children's Books by Anthony Fredericks

Author:Anthony Fredericks
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781681570815
Publisher: Blue River Press
Published: 2018-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

In June of 2015, my wife and I took a long-anticipated journey to Redwoods State and National Park in northern California. We had planned a week-long sojourn in and amongst these towering and majestic arboreal behemoths. With the Best Western Hotel in Eureka as our base of operations, we set out each morning for a new area of this expansive series of parks to walk the trails, take hundreds of photographs, and admire the vistas. We were amazed by these titans - botanical kings soaring skyward in splendid groves tucked into verdant valleys and along sinuous trails. It soon became evident to me that there was a children’s book waiting to be written about these magnificent organisms.

Upon my return home, I began some serious research about redwoods. In my travels through my local library and across the internet, I discovered a most amazing fact: Until the late 1980s, redwoods were thought to be so tall that no animals could possibly live in there high branches. It wasn’t until a small group of brave adventurers ascended these towering giants that a previously unexplored world of creatures was discovered. There, more than 200 feet above the ground, were unique habitats for many animals typically found on the forest floor.

Thus was born the idea for Tall Tall Tree (2017).

I began writing the first draft in July 2015. Draft after draft followed throughout the fall and winter of 2015 and well into the spring and summer of 2016. Each draft was an improvement on the previous one; each draft better clarified the information, tightened up the vocabulary, and smoothed out the rough spots. During that time, I consulted a thesaurus. I stood in front of the bathroom mirror and read passages aloud to check on the rhythm and cadence of the materials (an action that absolutely intrigued my cat). I crossed off words, re-added them later, and then crossed them out again. I shortened some sentences and made others a little longer. I threw away entire paragraphs and then fished through my wastebasket to find them again. I created multiple folders in Microsoft Word and added and deleted files almost every week. Week after week and month after month, I would add and subtract, add and subtract. Finally, after twenty-four separate drafts, I submitted the manuscript to a publisher.

After several weeks of waiting, the manuscript was accepted for publication. I signed the contract and steeled myself for what I knew would happen next—more editing. Over the course of the next several months, my editor and I went through an additional twenty-seven drafts (if you’re counting, that’s a total of fifty-one drafts). This is when we made sure every single scientific fact was accurate, every word was absolutely precise, the rhythm of the rhyming text was spot on, and every sentence was engaging. It was also during this time that the artist was creating his illustrations for the book.

Finally, in March 2017, the manuscript was complete; we had a finished product. The book went into

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