A bedtime story you can make tonight.

I’ve been writing this newsletter for eleven posts without giving you a tutorial. That was on purpose.

Today I’m going to break that, just once, because I’ve been getting variations of the same question in my inbox:

Okay, the bedtime story for your niece. How? Walk me through it.

So here’s the actual how-to. The whole project. End to end. About forty-five minutes from start to finished printed book.

You will need:

— A kid you love
— A laptop (any kind)
— A ChatGPT account (the free one works fine)
— One of these image tools: ChatGPT itself, or Midjourney, or Sora — any of them
— A color printer (your home printer is fine; the local print shop is also fine)
— About six sheets of cardstock or thicker paper

You don’t need to be technical. You don’t need a “prompt engineering” background. You don’t need to buy anything beyond what you already have. If you have a kid in your life and forty-five minutes, you can do this.

Before you start, write down five things about the kid.

This is the most important step and the one almost everyone skips. Open a notes app. Write:

1. Their name and age.
2. The name of one stuffed animal or toy they love.
3. Their favorite color.
4. One thing they’re scared of, or worried about, or working through.
5. One specific thing they do that’s funny or theirs (a phrase they say, a thing they always ask for, a way they laugh).

Don’t generalize. Don’t write “she likes pink.” Write “she’s been wearing the same dusty pink hoodie for two months and she calls it her ‘soft armor.’” The specifics are what makes the story actually about her, not a generic six-year-old.

Step 1 — Generate the story (10 minutes).

Open ChatGPT. Paste the prompt below. Edit only the bits in brackets:

Write me a five-page bedtime story for [KID’S NAME], who is [AGE] years old. The story should star them as the main character. Include their stuffed animal [TOY’S NAME] as a side character. Their favorite color is [COLOR]. The emotional center of the story should be about [THE THING THEY’RE SCARED OF / WORKING THROUGH] — handled gently, with the kid being brave in a small specific way. Also include this detail about them: [THE SPECIFIC THING THEY DO]. The story should be about 200 words per page, five pages total. Each page should end with a small image idea I can illustrate. Keep the language warm, simple, age-appropriate. Don’t make it too cute. Don’t make it preachy. Just a good bedtime story.

Read what comes back. Most of it will be okay. Some of it will be wrong. Cross out the bits that don’t sound like a story you’d actually want to read out loud. Ask ChatGPT to rewrite specific pages: “page 3 is too sweet. Make it slightly more uncertain.” Iterate two or three times. You’ll know when you have it.

Step 2 — Generate the illustrations (15 minutes).

For each of the five pages, paste the image idea from ChatGPT’s text into your image tool. If you’re using ChatGPT for images, just say: generate the illustration for page 1 in soft hand-painted watercolor children’s book style, original artwork, not based on any existing illustrator’s style. That phrasing avoids most of the third-party-style guardrails.

If one image doesn’t land, regenerate. Don’t overthink. The kid won’t care if the cat is slightly the wrong color.

Step 3 — Put it together (10 minutes).

Open a Google Doc. Set page size to 5×7 inches (or whatever you can print at home). For each of the five pages: paste the image at the top, paste the text below. Make the title page (page 0) with the kid’s name on it.

Save it as a PDF.

Step 4 — Print it (10 minutes).

Print the PDF double-sided on cardstock if you have it, regular paper if you don’t. Staple it along the left edge, or punch two holes and tie it with ribbon, or just leave it loose and hand it over.

You’re done.

That’s it. That’s the whole tutorial.

The first time you do this it’ll feel weird. The second time you’ll do it in thirty minutes instead of forty-five. By the third time you’ll be inventing variations — a Father’s Day story, a story for a friend going through chemo, a story for a kid you haven’t seen in a year because you live in different countries.

If you make one in the next two weeks, write me back. Tell me whose face changed when they opened it. The replies are where this newsletter actually lives.

I’m really glad you’re here.

— Tapan

PS — If the kid is shy about being the main character, make them a sidekick instead. Star their stuffed animal. They’ll get it.