How to Make Your Own Christmas Story Books
- 1). Decide how many pages you want your Christmas story book to be. If the book is going to be given to a child, the length of the book and the ratio of text to pictures will depend on the child's age and vocabulary. For a beginning reader, you'll want to have fewer pages, a simple plot and lots of illustrations; for an older child who can handle a longer and more complex story, aim for more words and fewer pictures.
- 2). Determine the format of your book. If it's 4 to 6 double-sided pages, for example, you can create a very inexpensive and simple booklet by folding 8 1/2-by-11-inch paper in half, making a simple cover from card stock and stapling it in the middle. If the book is going to include your child's artwork, you may want to use a 3-ring binder, in which you can place the pictures and the text in clear plastic sleeves to protect them from smudges and spills. If you have the budget to do something fancier in hard cover, there are online services, such as mypublisher.com, that will allow you to upload jpeg images from your computer, add text and have the book professionally bound.
- 3). Write your story. Since this is a Christmas story, it needs to have elements that revolve around this particular holiday. Make a list of all the things you can think of that are associated with Christmas (church, presents, Santa Claus, cookies, visits with relatives, shopping, candy canes, reindeer and elves, for example). You may want to reflect on actual Christmas memories or compose a story based on your child's expectations of what Santa may bring this year (and, of course, make your child the "star" of the book).
- 4). Decide on a genre. A story can be conveyed in many different ways, depending on your expertise and diversity as a writer. For instance, a Christmas story about a missing reindeer could be a silly comedy about mistaken identity, an enchanting fairy tale, a futuristic adventure or a contemporary mystery in which Santa Claus hires a private eye.
- 5). Decide what kinds of characters will assist your hero---or thwart his efforts---in resolving his conflict (i.e., saving money for a present) or pursuing his quest (i.e., finding the perfect Christmas tree).
- 6). Outline your story before you start writing it. Every story, regardless of its length or genre, needs to have a beginning, middle and end. The beginning of the story introduces the main character(s) and establishes the conflict or quest. The middle of the story introduces complications and obstacles that may keep the hero from finding success. The end of the story resolves all of the problems and---in the case of children's stories---often delivers a message (i.e., being kind to others, believing in oneself, all that glitters isn't gold). To ensure balance in your story, divide your projected number of pages by three; the number you come up with will be the number of pages you should devote to each of the three acts.
- 7). Start writing. As you compose the story, make notes to yourself on how each of the scenes might be illustrated. If you're incorporating photographs of your child, your family, your pets or your house, print these out for reference and make a note on the back of each one as to what page it will appear on.
- 8). Proofread your work thoroughly before you commit to printing it. Better yet, recruit other proofreaders to make sure that you have caught any typos and grammatical errors.
- 9). Design a cover that relates to the content of your story. Assemble all of your pages in the correct order (with page numbers) and print it out yourself, take it to a print shop or upload the images to an online publisher. Note: In addition to hard copies, print shops will usually accept content on a CD-ROM or flash drive.
