Writing Picture Books Revised and Expanded Edition: A Hands-On Guide from Story Creation to Publication

328 Pages·2018·3.37 MB·English

by  Ann Whitford Paul

Writing Picture Books
Revised and Expanded Edition
A Hands-on Guide from Story Creation to Publication
Ann Whitford Paul
WritersDigest.com
Cincinnati, Ohio
Dedication
This revised edition is dedicated in loving memory of Sue Alexander, to my
special friends and critique partners, Karen B. Winnick and Erica Silverman,
who have been with me every step of my writing journey, and to anyone who
has ever written or dreamed of writing a picture book.
Proceeds from this book donated by the Ann Whitford Paul–Writer’s Digest
Award for the Most Promising Picture Book. Submission instructions can be
found at scbwi.org.
Table of Contents
WELCOME TO THIS REVISED AND EXPANDED BOOK
PROLOGUE
PART ONE
Before You Write Your Story
1. BECOMING A PICTURE-BOOK SCHOLAR
PART TWO
Early Story Decisions
2. BUILDING A FRAME FOR YOUR STORY HOUSE
3. TELLING YOUR STORY Part One
4. TELLING YOUR STORY Part Two
5. TELLING YOUR STORY Part Three
6. DARLINGS, DEMONS, OR A MIXTURE OF BOTH Creating
Compelling Characters
PART THREE
The Structure of Your Story
7. DIVING INTO YOUR STORY
8. BAITING WITH A SHARP HOOK Creating a Fabulous First Line
9. BASIC PLOTTING
10. MORE ON PLOTTING The Three-Act Structure
11. HOLDING YOUR STORY TOGETHER
12. DOES YOUR STORY HAVE A SATISFYING ENDING?
PART FOUR
The Language of Your Story
13. THE TWO Ss OF STRONG WRITING
14. RHYME TIME
15. MAKING MUSIC WITH YOUR PROSE
16. THE IMPORTANCE OF WORD COUNT
PART FIVE
Tying Together Loose Ends
17. PAGE TURNS
18. CUT AND PASTE Making a Mock-up Book
19. GRABBING THE READER WITH A GREAT TITLE
PART SIX
After Your Story Is Done
20. SHARING YOUR STORY
21. SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT
22. THE BUSINESS OF PUBLISHING
23. SELF-PUBLISHING?
24. PRIMING YOUR IDEA PUMP
25. WHEN YOUR DREAMS TURN INTO REALITY A Publisher Makes an
Offer
EPILOGUE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Welcome to This Revised and
Expanded Book
How can ten years have passed since Writing Picture Books was first published?
And nearly twelve years since it was written? Just as much has changed in my
life and in yours, in our country, and in our world; so, too, has the field of
picture books evolved.
Publishers have continued to merge into bigger organizations, and new
smaller publishers have opened their doors to manuscripts. Some publishers still
want submissions to arrive via snail mail, but others accept only e-mail
attachments. Agents are more necessary than ever to break into the business.
And what about the stories themselves? Since the first edition of Writing
Picture Books, editors have been asking for books that are on the cutting edge
and break traditional boundaries. One example might be I Want My Hat Back by
Jon Klassen, where it appears the thief character suffers a grisly consequence for
his crime.
Narrative nonfiction, where plotting and other techniques of fiction are
applied to nonfiction, has become a popular buzz phrase. Picture-book poetry
collections now need a theme or story format, not just a smattering of different
subjects on which the poet focused. In addition, as attention spans have been
reduced by television, video games, smartphones, and computers, publishers
have begun asking for shorter manuscripts.
Internet sales have skyrocketed, but independent bookstores have struggled. A
high percentage of books, instead of being purchased by professional teachers
and librarians, are sold to parents. Then there’s the phenomenon of self-
publishing, which has allowed rejected writers an alternative way to get their
publishing, which has allowed rejected writers an alternative way to get their
stories into the world.
All these developments and more will be addressed in the following pages. If
you have read the first edition, you will still find much fresh material here. The
excerpts from published books have been updated, and the examples and quizzes
have been rewritten. New chapters have been added, and discussion of the
publishing business has been revised to include current information and
requirements.
All of this was done with the hope of easing your journey into the land of
picture-book publication. May your travels be happy and successful.
Prologue
“I love revisions. Where else in life can spilled milk be transformed
into ice cream?”
—KATHERINE PATERSON
Completing a draft of your story isn’t the end of the writing process; it’s the
beginning. Then you must shape your draft into a publishable manuscript. This is
the fun part of writing, the time-consuming part of writing, and what separates
the amateur from the professional. Writing Picture Books Revised and Expanded
Edition: A Hands-on Guide from Story Creation to Publication will help you
become a professional.
When I first put pen to paper, fingers to typewriter, I made all the mistakes
editors groan about. My stories were dotted with characters with cutesy names,
like Sammy Skunk. I wrote about putting a child to bed from the mother’s point
of view. I inserted dull directions to the illustrator, saying the character should
be walking out the door or skipping down the walk. My characters were perfect
children who never misbehaved; my plots were contrived, with an adult
conveniently turning up to solve the problem; and my language was duller than
an engineering textbook.
Naïvely, I thought my stories were so fabulous that an editor would make an
offer of publication as soon as she read one. When, months later, my stories
were returned with form rejections, I convinced myself that the editors didn’t
know what they were missing. After many form rejections (I’m a slow learner),
it dawned on me: I had serious learning to do. I signed up for classes, joined
several writing groups, attended conferences, and read every book I could find
about writing.
The importance of revision (that process between first draft and final
submission to an editor) gradually seeped into my brain. I wrote this book to
help you and other writers understand this faster than I did.
Writers can have three different kinds of reactions to their first drafts. Which
one will be yours?
1. Do you love your draft? Are you so enamored with your text you can’t
bear to change a thing? I thought my story about Sammy Skunk saving
his friends Billy Beaver, Suzy Squirrel, etc. from Coyote Carl by
spraying his horrible smell (big surprise there!) was imaginative,
original, and perfect. I sent it out immediately.
2. Or do you instead decide your story is hopeless and toss it in the trash?
I’ve done that, too. Once I wrote about a young Italian boy pulling up
potatoes. Besides the fact that I had never lived in Italy or grown
potatoes, the story felt thin. Convinced my writing was terrible, I tore it
up and moved on, not thinking that I could at least plant potatoes and
learn more about the process. Maybe if I was fortunate, I could even
travel to Italy.
3. The third reaction, which we should all strive for, is a combination of the
first two. That’s where a writer reads her first draft and decides this isn’t
bad. She knows it isn’t good either, so she’s ready to play around and
make it better. But what should she delete? What should she save?
That’s the problem. It’s hard to be objective about what works and what
doesn’t in our stories. The key to improving your writing is to learn how to be
your own critic, develop ways to pull yourself back from your story, and become
an outside reader. How do you do that?
Many writers set a manuscript aside for days, weeks, or months to break
through the love-or-hate affair with one’s writing. This can help, but few have
the self-control to hide a story in a drawer or under a bed for the weeks, months,
or years necessary to acquire that objectivity. And there’s no guarantee you’ll