Creating a Chapbook: Initial Ideas

Here I am starting to work on my second project this term in Creative Media Production which is Creative Writing. The style of the writing is new for me as I haven't known anything about it before. We have to write a chapbook, which consists text along with images and should be up to 40 pages. It can be either a fiction, or another kind of story which is connected with one common theme.

Chapbooks are small cheap booklets of 8-24 pages, developed in Britain during 17-18th centuries. In this kind of books lots of stories were told "containing songs, stories, poems, games, riddles, religious writings and other content designed to appeal to a wide readership" (Dutta A. et al, 2021). The paper which was used for printing chapbooks wasn't expensive which made these books affordable for everyone. 

Form and theme

 

In recent times, I have noticed the people's demand on knowing what how will their life look like in the future. Astrologists, AI tools, robots, all this develops faster and faster every day. Lots of people find it easier to pass the responsibility for their lives on someone else, stars or predictions. But is it naturally? Will this make our life better if we know all our future? 

I think this became a big problem now especially among young people and I would like to raise it in my chapbook. Because of overthinking and trying to figure out our future, we don't live today, we forget about the moment and we don't enjoy our reality. I thought that my main character may be a lady who is indecisive and always relies on what says astrologist rather than she herself wants to do.

The recent book "The Midnight Library" by Matt Haig which I have read inspired me to raise this topic. The idea of this story is to show that our regrets about our past decisions destroy our life. A main character Nora with lots of regrets appears in the library where she sees many book and they all tell her stories as if she made other decisions. Then she finds out that sometimes when she thought she made a wrong decisions she realises that other one would be even worse. 

In one the reviews Pulley (2020) remarks unusual structure of the story: "This is a streamlined novel; no side plots, no broad cast of characters, no twists of fantasy for the sheer joy of it. While the concept does fly high, it also flies straight".

In my work I want to focus in the same idea of appreciating the moment but I want to connect it with future predictions which will be different from what Matt Haig wrote about. I want also to divide the story into two points of view - author and the main character who will write a diary.

References

Dutta A, et al (2021). “Visual Analysis of Chapbooks Printed in Scotland.” Oxford University Research Archive (ORA) (University of Oxford) Available at: https://doi.org/10.1145/3476887.3476893 (Accessed 14 Feb. 2024). 

 

Pulley, Natasha. “The Midnight Library by Matt Haig Review – a Celebration of Life’s Possibilities.” The Guardian, 27 Aug. 2020, www.theguardian.com/books/2020/aug/27/the-midnight-library-by-matt-haig-review-a-celebration-of-lifes-possibilities. 

 Thompson, Alastair R. (1972) 'Chapbook printers', The Bibliotheck; a Scottish Journal of Bibliography and Allied Topics, 6 (3), p.76.

"Chapbooks". National Library of Scotland, www.nls.uk/collections/rare-books/collections/chapbook