Children’s author explains what goes into a story

Lori Ries leads Mary Woodward students through the full process, from plot to publishing

By Barbara Sherman

The Times, Mar 20, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Barbara Sherman / The Times

BOUNTY OF BOOKS — Taking a break in front of a banner made by students to welcome her to Mary Woodward, Tigard children’s author Lori Ries holds up several of her stories that have been published, including the one on the far right in Korean.

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TIGARD – Most kids love to read stories, but many don’t get to meet a real children’s author and learn how a book is put together from writing through publishing.

Lori Ries is a published author of children’s stories who is also a parent at Mary Woodward Elementary, and she recently went to the school to teach students about writing stories.

“How do you come up with ideas?” she asked. “Radio waves are in the air. The waves are all around us – so are ideas.

“Things you touch, see, feel – they give us ideas. How do you turn an idea into a story? The first thing I do is write down my idea in my notebook.”

Ries explained that the idea for her first book, “Super Sam,” came from watching a boy by a lake who was pretending he was a super hero.”

She wrote the story and submitted it to an editor, who agreed to find an illustrator and publish the book.

Ries now has five books published using different illustrators, and more are in the works. Her books include “Pickles,” “Punk Wig” and “Fix It, Sam.”

“I love all my illustrators,” Ries said.

But other people are involved in the process too, including a book designer.

“The book designer steps in so if there is a bedroom in the book, the designer draws a bedroom map and the location of everything,” Ries said. “Every single page in the book with the bedroom will show the same room. Then they do a word map, which shows what will be on every single page in the book.

“Later, the book designer makes notes and tells the illustrator what changes to make, like putting a bear on the bed, and what colors to use.

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