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Some of my mentors could not find the timeline I posted earlier, so here is a repost of it. It is subject to change!
End of February= Complete first draft entirely (including media, songs, words, layout) Beginning of March= Edit and review the first draft multiple times for errors, changes, etc. Get Mr. Redei's opinion. Perhaps send it off to Ms. Maxey. End March= (NOTE: This is subject to be pushed back depending on how long iBooks publishing will take. I am still figuring that out) Make final reviews and prepare for iBooks publishing. I need to do more research on the publishing process, and see how long it takes. I'm not sure how much time I need to allot myself for this, or whether this will only take a few days or weeks. The rest of the timeline is determinant upon how long the publishing process will take. Last week, I received some insightful and constructive feedback from Ms. Carsley. She recommended reaching out to the Severn Librarians and Julia Youssef, who is also creating a book, in order to figure out how to make an aesthetically pleasing set up. I actually have been trying to play around with the title page, since that is an easy way to familiarize myself with using iBooks Author; however, I have to say my creations so far are not aesthetically pleasing- they don't quite reflect the time and effort I've put into the researching part of the project. Once I come up with some page layouts that I am proud of, I will surely share them on here.
Ms. Carsley also reccomended creating a media document where I store all of my images for easy access, so I will definitely get to work on that and post that when I am finished. In Sum, the next two weeks will consist of me compiling a media document, reaching out to the Severn librarians or Ms. Johnson, meeting with Mr. Redei, and talking to Julia Youssef. I also hope to soon provide an update on what the publishing process to iBooks entails. Here is my 72 page research document!Here is my research document so far, which consists of the table on contents, an introduction about myself, some sentences about the Fellows Program, and bountiful information and some copy pasting from websites. This is the document of information that I am using to construct the actual drafts from. While researching itself is a big task, making sure I cite my sources is time consuming, but very important. I've been looking through museum websites, databases, and reputable radio websites for my information. I have attached some of my citations so far. I am sure that there will be more to come.
Changes and Edits:I realized that while drafting the book in a word document was a good idea in terms of content, so much of a children's book is about the aesthetics. It isn't particularly helpful to lay out words in a word document full of text because how many words, the spacing of the words, the sections, and many other aspects depend upon the layout of the page and how it looks. My current plan is to work the draft in iBooks Author. This way, my work will be saved, I can continually edit it, and I can see how my research and media looks together. Thus, even though the first draft date has been pushed back, I will still have just as much done (if not more). This will allow me to import media and text at the same time, enabling me to see how it all fits together. Thus, I will not need dedicated deadlines for media input, rather I will just be reviewing the media.
I also met with Ms. Maxey in November to discuss using iBooks author. She confirmed for me that this is the best platform to do this book on, which is exciting and relieving, because I am always filled with some amount of self doubt! So, here is my new timeline, which is subject to change. Mid-February= Complete first draft (including media, songs, words, layout) End February/Beginning of March= Edit and review the first draft multiple times for errors, changes, etc. Get Mr. Redei's opinion. Perhaps send it off to Ms. Maxey. End March= Make final reviews and prepare for iBooks publishing. I need to do more research on the publishing process, and see how long it takes. I'm not sure how much time I need to allot myself for this, or whether this will only take a few days or weeks. The rest of the timeline is determinant upon how long the publishing process will take. It seems as though some of my winter blog posts did not update. As I work to recover these, here is a small insight as to what I've been working on. Drafting the eBook has been very time consuming, as I've had to word 70+ pages of research into an adequate form that is comprehensible for children. I've also been simultaneously completing college applications, so there has been a lot on my plate! I'm very excited to get my first full draft completed, which I presume will be in about Mid-February.
I've also been inspired to explore a new avenue, perhaps in college: I am both a classical music and politics enthusiast. Whenever my orchestra begins rehearsing a new piece, I’m always excited to familiarize myself with the historical and political context in which it was written. Once I can understand a piece’s purpose, it becomes more than just small circles on staff paper. Currently, I’m midway through a year-long research project studying classical artists and the origins of orchestral music. Yet, with so many of my favorite pieces, including Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture or Bizet’s Carmen, written in response to political issues, I wonder how nations’ politics impact their music. Do nations tend to have more tranquil or chaotic music during a political upheaval? Do modern artists like Taylor Swift or Cardi B ever sing in response to political uproar? This is perhaps an idea for a new project, or a new research opportunity. My novel now is aimed at children, so a lot of complex political ideology issues are left out, but I think there is absolutely room to grow my fellows project in the future. Having completed the research portion, established a medium, and determined that I am protected under fair use, my Goals for the fall and rest of year are:
- End of November: Complete First Draft and Decide on Media - December: Receive Edits of First Draft - January: Write second draft, use edits given by others - February/March: Enter images, songs, text into iBooks Author and format aesthetically - March/April: Have the work reviewed - April/May: Publish to iBooks Recently, I've had to channel my middle school self and play all the classical pieces that my orchestra once did in middle school. I am trying to figure out which music clips I want to use, and out of such a large selection I am trying to see which songs were the ones that got me most interested into classical music; I am trying to choose ones with the most common or engaging melodies. My all time favorites list has to consist of at least the Carmen Suites, Beethoven's 5th and 7th symphonies, William Tell Overture, Overture of 1812, and The Nutcracker. I haven't been playing trumpet as much as I should be, and getting back into the swing of things has really reignited my passion for playing and my passion for this project! After conferring with several others who are doing similarly styled projects, I declared that my summer 40% portion would be the completing my research. I am very excited to share my work and my findings! I attached a picture of me playing my trumpet! Here is a link to an audition I've been working on; its not my best but it will do. https://youtu.be/KsS3NKuqMcY. Today, Ms. Carrington and I talked on the phone about how to imbed music clips! We discussed Fair Use Laws in depth in order to determine the way in which I will be able to use clips. Because I don’t plan on monetizing my book, I am only using very short clips and not entire songs, and I am doing this for educational purposes we discovered that I prob ably will not need any licenses or rights to my songs! Furthermore, I will be able to gather a lot of media from wiki media! She also recommended iBook author as an excellent program to create my book on. I think our meeting was pretty productive.
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