Exploring the Amazon: Children's Book
The link below is a pdf version of the children's book I composed for my Exploring the Amazon class the during spring 2014 semester. The class consisted of 8 weeks of preparation for our various projects followed by 10 days on the Amazon River. The class was then capped off with project presentations upon return to the States. People chose tons of different projects from water and plant studies to cooking books to compilations of the different faces we met on the river. I will talk more about the motivation for the book below and the composing process. Feel free to check out the full link, but it is not required as I will pull out specific parts to analyze.
Exploring the Amazon a Children's Story
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Firstly I want to talk a bit about the idea and motivation for the book. I started by trying to figure out how I was best going to remember and share the experience with those who did not get to partake in such an awesome adventure. Immediately I thought of all the stories I might have and all the cool ways to convey that. A story book seemed to be pretty obvious from there. The next thought was, "who do I want to show this book to?". After much thought, I figured it would be pretty cool to compose a book to the future children of everyone within the class. From here, the process became a lot more complicated. The composition process for the book was a lot different than any composing process I had previously done.
The initial composition consisted of a lot of photography taking and journal writing to help capture the experience while on the river. I basically took pictures of every place and thing we experienced so that I would have visuals of the experience. For the journal entries, I wrote every time there seemed to be a significant experience or event. I made sure to write each day, and I would sometimes write reflections of each day at the end to help refresh those thoughts and memories surrounding the trip. This process was very raw and disorganized because I did not want to be preoccupied with the actual story compilation during the trip. I wanted to enjoy the experience fully before trying to relate that experience into an organized work.
Upon my return, the composing process was very difficult. So much had been packed into 10 days and deciphering from pictures and journal articles what to include was very difficult. The experience was so fresh and had been so overwhelmingly memorable, powerful, and incredible that it would be hard to do it justice in a book. However, I had to do my best with this reality and compose anyways. I started with choosing the key experiences from each day. I then began drafting each day into a rhyming synopsis of the experiences and memories of that day. This rhyme scheme of events was another prime example for my like and affinity for rhyming a creativity related works. I thought the rhyming would be great to include in a children's book. I split each day into a separated body in order to create flow and connectivity between the whole trip, while making each day a separate event.
From the initial write up, I was able to isolate pictures from each day to place with each day's written portion. This continued back and forth between writing/polishing my work to addition of themes and pictures to the book. Below is a screenshot of day 3 of the trip captured in the book.
The initial composition consisted of a lot of photography taking and journal writing to help capture the experience while on the river. I basically took pictures of every place and thing we experienced so that I would have visuals of the experience. For the journal entries, I wrote every time there seemed to be a significant experience or event. I made sure to write each day, and I would sometimes write reflections of each day at the end to help refresh those thoughts and memories surrounding the trip. This process was very raw and disorganized because I did not want to be preoccupied with the actual story compilation during the trip. I wanted to enjoy the experience fully before trying to relate that experience into an organized work.
Upon my return, the composing process was very difficult. So much had been packed into 10 days and deciphering from pictures and journal articles what to include was very difficult. The experience was so fresh and had been so overwhelmingly memorable, powerful, and incredible that it would be hard to do it justice in a book. However, I had to do my best with this reality and compose anyways. I started with choosing the key experiences from each day. I then began drafting each day into a rhyming synopsis of the experiences and memories of that day. This rhyme scheme of events was another prime example for my like and affinity for rhyming a creativity related works. I thought the rhyming would be great to include in a children's book. I split each day into a separated body in order to create flow and connectivity between the whole trip, while making each day a separate event.
From the initial write up, I was able to isolate pictures from each day to place with each day's written portion. This continued back and forth between writing/polishing my work to addition of themes and pictures to the book. Below is a screenshot of day 3 of the trip captured in the book.
The excerpt above covers the experience on day 3 of the trip. One interesting thing to point out is the fun rhyme scheme. This is very enjoyable for me to read (hopefully you feel the same) and was just as enjoyable for me to write. Having such a simple and basic look into each day helped make the process a little bit easier. This also will hopefully help when my future children read the book because it will give them a basic visual of the experience and help jog my memory on the more detailed stories I can share with them. The pictures also serve as a fun rendering of the trip and the people involved in the experience. They tell a story in and of themselves. This is meaningful to me because that is my goal as a rhetor; I am able to hopefully tell a story of my experience and of myself via my writing.
I think the reason I see a lot of success with creative pieces like this is that I am able to put myself into my audiences shoes as a rhetor. I relate well with a large amount of people and am able to easily convey my message because I know where my audience is coming from and what might entertain them. This is why I think my creative books and videos get a lot of self praise and (hopefully) praise from people who view them.
I think the reason I see a lot of success with creative pieces like this is that I am able to put myself into my audiences shoes as a rhetor. I relate well with a large amount of people and am able to easily convey my message because I know where my audience is coming from and what might entertain them. This is why I think my creative books and videos get a lot of self praise and (hopefully) praise from people who view them.