Taking stock

If there’s one thing I learned when I taught writing, there’s no straight road from the beginning to the end of a project. That first draft? Cut it in half. Need a first line? You’ll find it buried in there somewhere, just not at the beginning. What started as a narrative will end up a poem, what began as a poem might make a great story, and that story you love? Put it away and start again. Most of all, don’t be afraid to play, talk to people, and try out even crazy and scary suggestions.

I began by thinking about something simple —- an accordion fold book with square format, black and white photos glued to the folded paper —- but the more I read about it, an accordion book is anything but simple. So I scrapped that idea and decided I’d first select some photos, 20 color and 20 black and white. Here are the B&W; the ones at the top left just didn’t work, and I’ve swapped a few out since this I took this pic. I wanted photos that made sense when put in order, and I’d have each B&W face a color photo. All but a few photos were taken since 2017, and most since 2020. Ordering them was nothing less than fun, and I had plenty of help. I used Moab paper that I could print on both sides, so while these dried I dug up color photos that 1) worked as 4x4s, 2) I liked, and 3) would work both following the previous photo and facing the B&W partner.

Here are the color photos. It took a bit of experimenting to get the color the way I wanted it; I’m finding that each paper takes the ink a little differently. I’m happy with it so far, and if it doesn’t work, you’ll hear no more about it.

Finally, here is a practice run at Japanese four hole binding using some rejected photos. This method was suggested by a friend, fine tuned thanks to YouTube, and even though I’m intimidated by things like this, I like the result. The book will have a cover and even end papers, but that’s for another time.