Storyline Defined

A storyline is the overall plot or theme of your book. It ties the whole book together, whether there is a written story, or simply images. It creates cohesion from start to finish, and for purposes of this project the storyline you turn in with your storyboard should be in the form of a very simple written description. Although it is called a storyline, you do not have to write an actual story. You may choose to create a book centered on a theme, or write a story with a plot and characters. Below are examples of two storylines from published pop-up books. The third example is a made up storyline, meaning that there are no storyboards, pop-up samples, imagery, or any physical development of the storyline at all, it's just for example purposes

  • In Chuck Murphy's Color Surprises (see a sample from this book on the Visual Style page), the author simply lists colors: Red, Blue, Yellow, Purple, Green, Orange, Brown, Pink, Black/White and the phrase, "All Colors". He chose a unique type of animal to represent those colors: yellow chick, purple butterflies, green snake, orange tiger, brown monkey, pink flamingo, black and white penguins, and all colors of fish. It is so simple, yet also clever and fun. The storyline is simply the kernel, but the real work went into the mechanics, laying out the visual style and making the artwork. This type of book is thematic, similar to ABC or 123 books. There are many different pop-up books for children with such themes.
  • Another example of a storyline can be seen in the Young Naturalist's Pop-Up Handbook- Butterflies, by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart (see a sample from this book on the Text As a Compositional Element page). It starts with a spread about butterflies with descriptive text. The next spread describes moths; then life cycle, behavior, defense, and finally diversity. The actual text and imagery must have been developed and tweaked many times over to form a visually full and textually cohesive book.
  • Finally, an example storyline from scratch, with no further work involved, ready for critique before moving forward: The book shall contain a 3-dimensional labyrinth structures. Each of the six spreads has a common use of materials, with white paths, and a contrasting color field on the balance of the spread. The book contains no words, other than "START" on the first spread. As the player navigates the structure with their eyes and perhaps a finger, they eventually reach a path connected to a hole that passes through to the next spread. The next spread opens and they continue on the third structure, etc. What the player does not know is that the path does not end on the last spread. Rather, it eventually loops back through each spread all the way to the beginning again.

Your storyline should be a brief paragraph (three or more sentences) with coherent sentences and relatively proper grammar (you won't lose points for poor grammar, but if we can't understand what your plan is, that will be a problem). You will turn it in with your storyboard. If you have a text component such as a limerick or poem you have written, you may share that as well if you want feedback on it.

A pop-up book storyline can be based upon any appropriate reference, as long as you have rights to use it. If you want to create your own story, please read the Simple Recipe for Story Creation page.

Here are some examples of possible types of storylines you could choose:

  1. Short story
  2. Poem
  3. Limerick
  4. Photo essay
  5. Song
  6. Folk tale
  7. Categories/Collections (alphabet, numbers, pets, shoes, etc)
  8. Field guide

By creating a storyline you are working out the plan of your book before you begin crafting the actual spreads. The unique thing about a pop-up book is that unlike most books, it allows the reader to interact with the story in three dimensions. Using this interactivity in conjunction with your plot will make a more dynamic and compelling story.