Please consider your choices about form, layout, typeface selection, colour approach, materials and medium, in order to effectively tell your story. Ensure all components of your writing are embedded into the overall narrative, from tone of voice through to structure and pacing.

There is also a theory (?) that humans attending large gatherings is the equivalent of apes and monkeys checking each other for fleas, I think Jimmy Carr (you know - an equal to Churchill and Hitler)  speaks to how we laugh more when we are in the same place at the same time as compared to viewing humour on individual screens as we are hardwired to form groups and ultimately societies and cultures. 

https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/guide-to-public-speaking/

Books are never created by one person alone. A beautiful spectrum of roles and processes combines skills to form them, from a spark between neurons through years of crafting to a place on our bookshelves. A missing step in the publishing journey leaves the idea unloved by all who could. 

 

Stories are an art form; books are a product. Shaping words into dark woods, scary monsters, unrequited lovers, to narrate between people, is not only as old as humanhood but a part of what we consider to be human. It is how we understand ourselves, our societies and the world around us.

 

Books are a new player in the stories game: after the proliferation of the printing press in the fifteenth century, books for children were not conceived until the nineteenth century. Many, not one, factors like lithographic printing and the adoption of half-tone dots from intaglio photography, allowed this to happen. Halftone dots create the optical illusion of a riot of colour as words fashion worlds in our mind.

 

Children’s books needed one more ingredient: the value of the childhood experience as we know it. Stories had begun to be written especially for children and not as an adaption of adult tales prior and the 1870 Education Act allowed children to stay in education and placed value in them. With a new market of literate readers, and means to produce books for them, children’s books exploded as a genre. 

 

Sometimes author and designer are distinct, sometimes the roles blend in one person. Their stories are told through the shape of objects, of words, and bring to life all the senses. Saul Bass and Paul Rand are well-remembered designers of the 1950s for jumping into children’s books, playing with how the physicality of books gives tactility and how letters are meaning-infused shapes. 

 

The article below explores how the publishing industry approaches children’s books, how illustrators and designers see their role within writing stories and why some creators choose to self-publish.

First draft - 

I love you, Minecraft. I love your blocky textures and your never-ending worlds. I’ve spent night after night mining deep underground, hunting for those elusive diamonds you love to tease us with. And I’ve always maintained that those pesky creepers are just misunderstood – it must be pretty lonely knowing that you’ll explode if someone comes too close… Oh, and I’m sorry for all the times I rage-quit on you, too. Thank you for always forgiving me when I come crawling back.

And as for you, Tetris… where do I start? We’ve had an on-off relationship for at least the last twenty years now. I’m sorry for all those times I’ve left you for something shiny and new. I always come back though, and it’s just like old times… Did you know you’ve sold over 500 million copies now? You won’t forget me, will you, now you’re the best-selling game of all time and all that.

Still writing up notes on my blog but here is where I’m at so far, falling a bit behind this week - https://alicemarlow.home.blog/2020/02/26/week-5-written-communication/

 

I’ve written a blog post about my mostly confusing week – hopefully it might shed some light on how I’ve ended up where I have. https://theworkshedoes.wordpress.com/2020/02/27/written-communication-workshop-challenge/
For some reason I can't attach the typset 'article' but you can see it on my blog and here - and below is how it would look if ever published