Stories Write Themselves

As we make progress with the illustrations we have, of course, tried to stay true to the written story that these illustrations will accompany. There is the thought that maybe the illustrations can tell a part of the story that is not in the text. Nothing major. Maybe just a bird looking on from a tree limb that is not mentioned in the text of the story.

In this newest illustration, we noticed that Robin looked profoundly sad. We also noticed that Robin was holding the paisley kite with a posture that seemed to express defeat or simply broken-heartedness. These observations led us to rethink our story and suddenly we realized what we should have realized from the beginning. We realized that the kite, itself, was a character in the story.

So, we re-wrote the story. It is the fourth re-write so far. In songwriting we used to say that songs are really not fully crafted until they have been re-written. It seems true for this story, as well.