#journal making

The cover is not done yet, so I start with the first page. Which is a kind of story board too, just not that big and easier to handle. The left side is for general stuff and the right side is for the current/upcoming episode. I can just quickly tuck my notes for the scenes of that episode behind the clips and I can take them out just as quickly. Sort them, put them in order or in other compartments, add notes or - after the episode is posted, take them all out and add those for the next episode. (Excuse my rosebush and that pole for shadow photobombing, it was the best spot to take the pics ^^`)

The left side of the next page is for the following episode(s). I can move things I need to remember from past episodes here from the first page and add notes for the upcoming scenes of that episode. The scenes come to me in no particular order so I need to be flexible ^^' The right side is for the locations. To remember what has happened there, who lives/works there, building ideas... I can take each of the booklets out and I can add new pages easily.

Left side is for their romantic relationships. When did they meet/start, issues, chemistry, growth, milestones... Right Side is for the side characters.

All these folders are magnetic, I can just take them out and they jump back to their place by themselves when I move them over the page. It's just like magic ;) I also added a timeline ^^' The tuck spots of the relationship folder are embossed, when you zoom in, you can see the goat in the middle (I come to that at the end of the post).

My favourite page. This is for the 6 main charcters. The grey cards will become their identity cards. It was very important for me that everything can be changed quickly and easily. And that I can replace each and every page/card/folder should I mess up anything, want to change something or add/remove things. I will be able to change this whole tome (or parts of it) into anything else in the future at any point. Even the pages themselves.

The side panels flip open and the folders are tucked inside. So I can open and flip them in the tome but I can also easily take them out individually.

The left side of the next page is also for the side characters. And on the right start the pages with their friendship booklets. Four pages in total, three booklets on each page - makes 12 booklets. 6 main characters make 15 friendship combinations, right? But the remaining 3 are already covered in the relationship folders :3 I only realized late in our ongoing story how important tracking the evolution of their friendships was (for me at least) and when I made their friendships' overview pages on tumblr, it was quite a hassle finding all their friendship milestones within hundrets of story posts ö.ö Same for the relationships. Each booklet also comes with a timeline and replaceable pages. The spines and the pockets inside are embossed.

The last page. Left side contains 3 more friendship booklets. The right side's booklets are for world building purposes. General stuff, things that are possible/impossible, history, laws...

Most of the papers I used for the pages/labels/booklets/folders..., I painted/dyed/inked myself (not the blue one with the golden plants though ^^' but everything that looks like leather is just paint and paper ;) and I used no premade stuff (except for the metal parts). Labels and stuff are cut out with my trusty embossing machine.

So, for the cover. As mentioned before, it's still a work in progress and I haven't decided yet how it's going to look like. This tome is huge! 27x28 cm /~ 10,5 x 11 inches And the spine is 10 cm / ~ 4 inches Despite it's thickness, it lies quite flat (as you can see in the pics above) and the pages flip easily. I'd been a bit a lot worried about that ^^'

It also has a name: The Little Ones' (It's a pun from our current story where we have a bunch of nosy goats (and their little friends) that had been overly interested in the main characters' lives ;) They had books like this one where they collect all the stuff about the characters and the story.) I can't wait to fill this book! (It's created for our inZOI spin-off.)