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Imagine...the Wonder of Picture Books
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Illustration for Grandpa and Thomas

A drawing of an old man and small boy at the beach

by Pamela Allen

acquired from Pamela Allen, 2020

Call number: PXD 1543/Box 12

Courtesy Pamela Allen and Penguin Books Australia

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Audio file
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Transcript

Presenter: There are 32 pages in a picture book, and you start on page 5, therefore you’ve got that many pages to say whatever you want to say.  And how do you decide to spread that idea over the pages that you have left; because there’re no longer 32?  Well the way in which I work it, I know what’s going to happen in the book, so I do a drawing of the climactic moment.  And then I have to choose where to put it.  So I’ve got a book from the newsagent with blank pages and a spiral down the back so I can turn the pages.  I have it on a separate bit of paper and I stick it in with a bit of Sellotape to the page I think is going to be the climactic page.  Then I’ve got empty pages to outlay or map the story.

I’m economical with the words, but they have to have their own special place, so perhaps I’ve got the drawing too big.  So I went and bought a photocopier and the photocopier allows me to shrink the drawing.  This is the dummy book that eventually goes to my publisher.  My publisher wants a copy.  My editor wants a copy.  Tim Curnow wants a copy – what’s he called?

Speaker 1: Agent.

Presenter: Agent wants a copy.  I’ve got several copies that I send out at the same time so that I get feedback from all of them.  And that’s what I’m doing; I’m mapping the story.

Curators/Speakers
Pamela Allen
Topic Title

'Dummy' books and mapping out my stories