Okay, I am LATE but this post is dedicated to Great Decisions’ 2-year b-day!! 🥳🎉
Sad, I wasn't ready for the official date, but I gave myself a week, and here we are! I am making a bookbind for Great Decisions by @rydoesartandstuff!! A beautiful story that honestly deserves better than what I can give it! But I'm gonna give it my best shot
So here's a couple of pages as I am currently still in the typeset
Overall info:
I am planning on yapping about this for a sec, so here's a summary!
The illustrations you see are not done and are temporary to see what they would look like in the typeset. Goin' for Trolls scrapbook and paperdolls
There's going to be at least 4 books. The current PDFs are for a 7 x 5 book because that's what I have for supplies but I am planning on making another set for A4 paper.
Currently the first book is over 921 pages on Word, but when printed, that should be cut by about half in irl.
The four books are: 1 = The wilderness + Pop Village, 2 = Trolls + The JD Depression ark, 3 = TWT + The JD bandaid ark, 4 = TBT + ???
Might be five books, depending on how long the last two arcs are, and if I want to make a book for the author's notes + QnA answers + art stuff!
So I'm making these books for me, which just means they will be up to my standards and not necessarily "professional" in any way. If anyone has advice or fun facts for me, I would love to read them! Also questions are more then welcomed as well!
I think this will take me a long time, and I'm kinda excited for it!
Illustrations:
The currently shown art is not the final, but I wanted to show what I was thinking and it helps me see what it might look like. I am trying to make the art look kinda like Poppy’s scrapbooks and kinda like paper dolls while still having some of that illustration vibesss. I'm liking how it's turning out! I want to add more textures as that is such a big part, to me, from the Trolls movies!
I'm thinking about making the full illustration the chapter heading itself but this will most likely be the only one that is, if I do. So far I want every book to have a pre-book illustration to show The Boi’s current state. I just think it would be nice.
I was also hoping to wait for Ry to answer my latest ask but I waited too long to ask them! Because I kinda wanted more of their answers before they realized what I was using it for, I guess if they don't read this, I'll be fine lol! but
I have asked Ry what some of their favorite/iconic scenes they think of with certain parts of the books, and I’m planning on illustrating most of those scenes! Plus a bit of my personal favorites. Some are going to be small doodle illustrations to the side or something, but I would like to do every scene they mention!
I haven't drawn illustrations for my bookbinds before so uh, hopefully I'm not giving myself too much hah! I'm excited and I'm planning on taking my time with it
Font:
I might mess with the chapter heading font. I'm not sure if I'm happy with it but it's nice right now.
The drop cap (the fancy first letter~) I made if you can't tell lol. The font I think might be a bit too thick but overall I like it! I wanted a leafy and like heavy lettering that I just couldn't find so I tried making a font for the first time!
If anyone sees anything funky, let me know! I have no idea what makes a "good font."
Typeset:
I'm kinda close to being done with the typeset. I'm messing with the frontmatter right now with how I want to arrange it and what exactly I want in it. Like, do I want all the tags at the start or put them in an appendix at the end? Where do I want the illustration and the quote? Is the illustration going to be on the right side or left? That kind of thing
And I would like to make a custom table of contents. I don't really like the ones on Word. I'm not quite sure how to do that yet, besides just drawing one out manually once I'm all done messing with the pages. So we will see!
So, book one is practically all done with typesetting until I get the illustrations done, then I just have to redo the drop caps to make sure they all look nice!
I'm working on two and three at the same time.
I'm not planning on starting on four until the story gets concluded!
Books:
There's gonna be four books, so far. The PDFs are for a 7 x 5 book since I think small book cute, plus the supplies I already have for bookbinding are for that size.
Book one will be = The wilderness + Pop Village, Book two = Trolls + The JD Depression ark, Book three = TWT + The JD bandaid ark, and Book four = TBT + ???
Then I think I might make an Appendix-type book just as a bonus? Right now I have eatch Author notes at the end of each book in an appendix, but I think it might be kinda cool to have a seperate book to read that. Though I don't know if it might just be annoying to have to grab and keep track of.
So! I think to make it cooler and worth having a whole book for this, I could put answers to QnA's in it and maybe some art! Either the author's own work for each character as a reference, or maybe some of the fan art in there too, as kinda a history thing to have!
Also, it would make the Story books shorter, which might be a plus
Pages as of today on Word for any who are curious
Book one: 921 (The Great Creator wrote so much for the gremlin children, and I love it- Especially since they wanted to write more XD)
Book two: 626
Book three: 760
Conclusion:
Thank you, Ry, for making a cool story and sticking with it as best you can! I think we all can tell how much love and care you put into eatch chapter!!!
I'm very happy to have a new long-term project to work on! I'm also excited to have this story on my shelf!!!!!
To all the individuals who have told me to read these books over the last ten years: tada!
Six of Crows was both exactly what I expected and nothing like I imagined. The character writing is phenomenal, I strongly dislike Kaz as a person but adore him as a character, which is honestly my favorite kind of writing. I'm fully invested in seeing how his story concludes, and while I don't expect it to be happy I'm not particularly bothered by that. This is the kind of thing I can get by with saying on a fresh blog.
So now here we are, fully invested and three quarters of the way through Crooked Kingdom, not anticipating a good ending for all involved but holding on to a hope that something not tragic will come of it for someone. If that someone isn't Jesper and Wylan... I will feel horribly and personally wronged.
On a note unrelated to the books themselves but to a different expression of the story - I broke and watched the show before reading Six of Crows (I needed to see Ben Barnes as the darkling, sue me) and have now concluded that this duology really should've been translated into its own movies instead of splitting screen time with Shadow and Bone. The casting was beautiful though, god bless Jack Wolfe for his service as he turns the venn diagram of fantasy book worms and musical theater nerds into a solid circle
When people ask what my current work in progress is about, this pretty much sums up the true heart of it... Dark on the surface, but meant to plant seeds of light.
HELP ME TURN MY NIGHTMARES INTO BOOKS (but like… the real kind)
hey tumblr, gather around, because I have a confession: I’ve been obsessed with storytelling since basically forever. like, since I was two years old, memorizing poems, imagining entire stories from a single picture in a book, acting them out, and generally making my parents think I was… let’s say, “quirky.”
fast-forward to age nine: i started writing books on Word. did i finish any? sometimes. mostly no. were they masterpieces? debatable. but here’s the thing: now i really want to write a series, and i need your help.
the series is going to be… messy, wild, and honestly probably a little horrifying. i’m thinking splatterpunk, extreme horror, grounded in reality. none of that supernatural stuff — just the terrible, disgusting things that actually happen in the world. pedophiles, abuse, bullying, mental illness, trauma… the stuff we don’t talk about. i’m calling the series:
“Things That We Don’t Talk About.”
each book will be like a mini-novel. different story, different characters, but all takes place in the same terrifying, real-world landscape. i don’t copy real events — i take inspiration and spin it into fiction. i want readers to squirm, think, and maybe even look at the world a little differently… or, you know, hide under their blankets.
here’s where you come in: i need ideas. phobias, syndromes, strange obsessions, unnerving situations, anything that makes people go “oh no, that could actually happen”. A already have sooooo many ideas, and some stories are already outlined. not asking you to write a full plot, just send me sparks, little nightmares, weird ideas — i’m ready for all of them.
bonus points if your idea makes me go:
“wow… why did i ask for help?”
because yes, that is exactly the vibe i’m going for.
I want to deal with my childhood trauma, there will be 1 or 2 book that are inspired by my own exprience with ED and SA.
so tumblr, hit me with your messed-up-but-genius ideas. let’s make a series that’s terrifying, real, and unforgettable. and maybe, just maybe, we’ll all look at the world a little differently… or regret it immediately.
The first half of the book follows the story of 16 year old Ellie. Her best friend was killed in the start of a chain of unsolved murders across London, and she's determined to figure it out.
The second half swaps between Ellie's point of view and the serial killer's, shining light onto their side of the story.
