LEIGHTON LEARNS PATIENCE

My brother has ALWAYS told me to write children's books. When you flip through some children's books today, they seem extremely simple and yet engage children really well. However, I was always reluctant to take on the test of writing children's books because I had a hard time drawing people. While I was visiting my brother and family in Oklahoma, I spent time around my niece, even reading her books. I saw her struggling with learning how to wait, so I decided I might try the approach of writing a book. First I started to try and draw her little character. After many unsuccessful attempts I finally nailed down a character similar to my niece. I thought if she was able to read a story with her as a character, she could see how it doesn't pay to be impatient but from the third person perspective. I thought a different perspective would help her get a better idea. After I drew the character, I came up with the story. I love rhyming stories or poetry and growing up I loved reading shel Silverstein. I think he heavily influenced my children's book writing style. Once that was done, I started drawing pictures. It took me about 3 weeks to finish the 38 page book. I drew all the pictures on Procreate on my iPad. Once I was done drawing pictures I did so much research about how to make a children's book and watched literally over 100 hours of videos. I learned how to format the book on Adobe InDesign and turned this once flippant idea into a real book. I had so much fun it really exploded my inspiration and I've already started writing a second book about my nephew, who is currently learning how to share. I have so much fun writing the stories, and while the illustration is only fun when I'm finished, I plan to make a series to help all my nieces and nephews learn little life lessons and it's a fun way to let them know how much I love them.