How to Write a Picture Book - Part 5

Maybe I should clarify what a picture book actually is and how it will be used.

There are many kinds of children’s books illustrated with pictures – stories with words; wordless stories; narrative non-fiction (for example, the life-cycle of a particular animal that has been worked into a story); counting, alphabet, time, colour recognition; works of art; graphic novels; non-fiction; board-books; books that link words to pictures to aid spelling and reading skills, and more. They are produced for a full range of ages from babies to young adults.

Picture books (also called picture book stories, picturebooks, picture storybooks or picture story books) are for shared reading, for children who are mainly 7 years old and younger. This means that words can be included that will sound good (which is so so important) when read by an adult and have a meaning which is obvious from their context (like ‘nubble’ – which may not be used in everyday speech), or which could be difficult for a young child to read them self (like ‘luxuriant’, or made up words such as ‘eruptublasted’ or ‘hyperboggulated’). While an adult is reading the text, the child will be reading the pictures.

Today, ‘picture books’ are never stories that can be read on radio and fully understood without reference to the pictures.

Books where the illustrations are included purely to break up the pages of text and give the reader a pleasant experience, are ‘beginner readers’ or ‘illustrated story books’.

The pictures in a ‘picture book’ add to and tell a significant part of the story. Occasionally, they can tell the whole story.

What picture books have you been reading? Have you tried writing the plot of each one in a sentence or two? For example:

The main character is introduced and given instructions, but they are not followed and there’s trouble, but the character returns home and is still loved. (Peter Rabbit)

Life is terrible for the main character, which is a problem. Something happens and life gets better, but the character acts and there’s disaster …but all is well at the end and life is great. (Cinderella)

Here are some other simple plot descriptions – see which books that you’ve read fall into one of these:

All is going well until… there’s a problem. The main character makes a response, but things get worse, then they solve the problem at the third attempt they succeed and life is good.

The main character has a ‘character flaw’ which is obvious by the things they do. Something happens and because of the flaw the situation gets worse, but the main character decides to change and all is good at the end.

There’s a problem right from the beginning and the main character tries to solve it, but things get worse. The problem is solved and life is good.

The main character has a good character feature, but other individuals cause the ‘hero’ to abandon this. There’s suffering for all until the hero (main character) returns to their original nature which is now recognised as beneficial, and the other individuals give up their demands for the hero to change.

There are other plans, but a large number of popular picture books do fit one of these plots!

It may be useful to base your story on one of these models …but don’t try to write all the words yet – just list what ‘events’ happen and how the main character reacts to each one.

Peter Taylor
www.writing-for-children.com 

How to Write a Picture Book - Part 4

In this series of posts on writing for children I hope to help you develop your own picture book story in a way that will give it the best possible chance of acceptance by a traditional publisher.

Do you have some ideas for a story? What will your story be about—no, not …about a mouse that… or …a boy who… What will it REALLY be about?

Picture books normally have a theme that helps the child reader to make sense of their world and discover how it works, how to fit in and how to get the most out of life.

Examples of universal themes include:

• You will always be loved by your parents
• The value of friendship
• How to love
• How to compromise
• Happiness through sharing
• When fed lemons, make lemonade
• The value of honesty

...And I'm sure you can think of many more.

The theme of your story will be its foundation, its soul and life-force. And the story will be an outer layer wrapped around the theme, explaining the world emotionally. The theme could be described as the moral or meaning of the story, or what will be learned.

A story can have more than one theme.

You may choose a theme or themes as a starting point for your story, or the theme(s) only become clear during the planning and plotting …or even after a few drafts have been completed and you’re into editing.

At whatever time you decide on or discover the theme or themes, your story will be the showcase, and so the theme(s) tell you what belongs to your story and what doesn’t ...therefore, as you plot and edit, most scenes, characters, dialogue and images in your story should reflect one of your themes.

You can write an entertaining story without a universal theme …but it’ll never be considered a ‘great’ or ‘significant’ story because the reader won’t gain inspiration or learn anything about the world.

Theme is what people will talk about when they describe or discuss your story—it’s what makes people buy copies. It’s what sales people look for, and they have a voice in the acquisition process.

The theme is why the story exists and should be read (though you need to entertain as well)…

BUT…

…you must never tell the reader what this theme or meaning is. NEVER write: ‘…and so always remember what Barry Bunny learnt: you must always tell the truth!’ This is a sermon. It’s didactic. It’s preaching, frowned upon—the current belief in publishing being that people don’t want to be preached to, told the moral or how to behave.

Theme needs to be like sugar dissolving in and becoming invisible among the other ingredients of a baked story cake.

Children are smart. If your story is well written and illustrated, the theme will be obvious from the characters' actions, reactions and dialogue - just make sure that it comes across is a worthy theme. You don’t want children to take from your story that ‘the winner is the person who makes the biggest threats’.

In the next post we will look at plotting and story structure. In the meantime, I hope you keep noting ideas and possibilities and remain open-minded as to what you may add or discard later.

Peter Taylor

www.writing-for-children.com