Writing Picture-Book Texts
By Sophie Masson | March 4, 2016 |
Flickr Creative Commons: Carol VanHook
Recently, to my great delight, two of my short, original picture book texts have been accepted for publication: one, Two Rainbows, is about a farm child who’s moved to the city; and the other, Once Upon An Abc, is a quirky ABC book based on folk and fairy tale characters from around the world. Several other texts are out with publishers at the moment, so we’ll see what happens with them. It certainly seems that this particular way of writing, which I’ve dreamed about doing for years, has, like the children’s poetry I wrote about in an earlier post, suddenly clicked for me.
A little history: My first picture book, Two Trickster Tales from Russia, was actually published in 2013, but it’s a different kind of text from the others I mentioned, as it’s re-tellings of two traditional Russian stories. Another story, original this time, was published in a lovely illustrated multi-author and illustrator book, Three Dragons for Christmas, last year.
My focus in this post, however, is on the ‘classic’ picture book format: one original text by one author, illustrated by one illustrator, within a 32-page book. Writing one of these texts necessitates learning a whole other way of approaching writing. It’s been a delight, learning that, but also a challenge at times!
So I thought I’d pass on some of the things I’ve learned over the last couple of years as I’ve worked on several texts—some of which worked, others of which didn’t and were discarded—or left aside for a while and reworked.
- Picture book texts are akin to poetry but are not exactly the same. Poems need to build up the visual and musical images and patterns clearly within the words; picture-book texts need the music but the word-visuals need to be sparer to make space for the illustrator.
- Story is important in picture-book texts, even if that story is very simple and the timeline short (e.g. bedtime). Texts shouldn’t just be impressions—children don’t respond to that.
- Texts should be child-focused—i.e. have a child’s point-of-view even if the characters are non-human (e.g. talking animals). But remember that very often it’s adults who will be reading the book to children, so it’s good if the text can have appeal for adults too.
- Picture book texts are not, generally, long. They can be as short as 100 words, up to around 700 words (though occasionally, as with my retelling of the Russian tales, they can be slightly longer). Some publishers won’t look at anything above 500 words and also don’t like very short texts, but those are not hard-and-fast rules for most publishers.
- Pattern and rhythm are important in picture-book texts; it’s important to read your text aloud to feel its sound-patterns. But that doesn’t mean it needs to rhyme. (Though it can, of course!)
- A twist or surprise at the end of a text is a good idea—the trend at the moment is against ‘quiet’ books. But you shouldn’t force a twist that doesn’t belong onto a text; you just need to be able to finish it off satisfyingly.
- Don’t get hung up on ‘your’ vision of the illustrations; the illustrator needs as much creative freedom as you had in creating your text. However, you should still have a sense of the potential illustrative canvas of your work; publishers will often ask if you have a vision, even if sketchy, of that.
- Be prepared to craft and edit as you would for a longer work.
- And, of course–read! Get your hands on as many picture books as you can: classics that have stood the test of time, as well as the latest thing. Think about how the writers have approached the text. Think about how the illustrators work with the text. Get a sense of the range that’s around right now as well as the classics that continue to inspire.
Some great links if you want to research the matter further:
Mem Fox, Australian author whose classic picture books have been a great hit internationally, has some great tips for authors hoping to write picture-book texts.
Common misconceptions and traps to avoid are discussed in this piece.
Joyce Dunbar, British author of many children’s picture books, shares her tips here.
Here you’ll find a website specifically dedicated to the writing of picture books.
If you want to learn more from hands-on critique, workshops, etc, plus get to know about opportunities in the field, it’s a great idea to join the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators; they have regional chapters all over the USA, the UK, Australia, Canada, and many other countries.
I’d love to hear from anyone who’s written picture books, and from readers of picture books, too. What are your top tips for a perfect text? What are your favorite examples of the genre?
Born in Indonesia of French parents, and brought up in France and Australia, Sophie Masson is the award-winning author of over 70 books for children, young adults and adults. Her latest books include Sydney under Attack (children’s historical novel, Scholastic Australia, 2022) A Hundred Words for Butterfly (adult novella, ES-Press, 2022) and Cock-a-doodle-doo (children’s picture book, (illustrated by Kathy Creamer, little Pink Dog Books, 2022). In 2019, Sophie received an AM (Member, General Division) award in the Order of Australia honours list.
Sophie, thank you for this post! I’m working on my first picture-book text, so this information–including the links for further reading–couldn’t be more timely. I’ve read plenty of picture books and have a kindergarten teacher as a beta reader (as well as some tiny friends), but this is just the sort of information I’ve been looking for. Yay!
Good luck, Barbara! I love the synchronicity of this post for you. SO wonderful!
Thank you Barbara–glad you find it useful. And hope it all goes well for you!
I haven’t written a picture book, but I have an almost-3 and an almost-2 year old so I read them daily! Some of my favourites are the Sheep in a Jeep series, LMNO Peas and its follow-ups, Jamberry, Are You My Mother?, Big Sarah’s Little Boots, Dear Zoo, Socks for Supper, Something from Nothing, and the Frances Books.
I love books that have a strong rhythm, unpredictable rhymes and other techniques like alliteration and assonance (Sheep in a Shop is a must read!), the right amount of repetition, and phrases that are fun to say out loud (I can’t count how many times I have read Jamberry, but I’m not tired of it yet).
We would love to read Once Upon an Abc! Best wishes on your picture book publishing endeavors.
Thank you very much! Oh, those books you mention are great–and my kids and I just loved Something from Nothing and still do, a great classic!
Picture book texts are not an area of focus at my literary agency but I can say this: a few things that never work are anthropomorphized animals who are really just humans and thuddingly obvious messages about sharing, manners, using the potty or other lessons that authors think kids need to learn.
The great picture books capture the world of kids and deliver their themes in ways amusing and non-obvious. “Where the Wild Things Are” is about temper tantrums, though you’d hardly know it. “The Day the Crayons Quit” is about creativity and taking care of your stuff, but the point is made so indirectly that you don’t even know you’ve grasped it.
A picture book editor once told me that a major job of the text is to suggest illustrations. They’re more captions than anything. I’m not sure I wholly agree but it is certainly true that a picture book text should not be one that could be read alone, without illustrations.
When our adult-writing authors send us happy e-mails saying, “Hey, I wrote a picture book last weekend! Here it is!” …or, “My kids love the bedtime stories I make up, can you find a publisher for them?”…we groan.
Don’t try this at home, folks. Picture book texts are much more work than you think.
Don, when I first starting writing, I thought how hard could it be? My first trade book, a novelty (Ten Easter Eggs) took me 10 years to get right. You might say that’s 10 words per year. LOL.
ILLUSTRATION NOTES: To Note or Not to Note? There’s A LOT of discussion in the children’s book world about whether to include illustration notes or not and if so, when? I talk about this a lot with my students and I, myself, am still learning! I know one editor who doesn’t want ANY notes–the text should stand completely on its own. The best rule of thumb I know is: Can I understand the story without the note? If yes, leave the note out. If no (as in the case of the big punchline illustration in I’M THE BIGGEST THING IN THE OCEAN by Kevin Sherry), leave it in!
Absolutely, Donald! They are a lot of work and require a great deal of thought.
Congratulations and best wishes for your upcoming books, Sophie. And thank you for writing this post. I’m new to writing picture books and found your tips helpful (and plan to investigate the links you provided). Inspiration to write in this genre came, in part, from many years of reading scores of picture books to groups of children–I worked in Day Care Centres for over 14 years. Some of my favourites from that time are…
The Monster at the End of this Book
It Looked Like Split Milk
Some of my newly discovered favourites are…
The Good Little Book
Any Questions
This Tree Counts
I have written articles for my blog on this topic and plan to link to this article.
Thank you, Leanne–glad you find the post helpful. Best of luck with writing the texts–and enjoy it! I haven’t read the books you mention but I’ve been looking them up and they sound lovely. Thanks for bringing them to my attention.
Ah, Sophie, a topic near and dear to my heart. Congratulations on the acceptances!!! One thing to remember is not to talk down to children. They are smarter than most people think they are.
Some of my favorites: Farfallina and Marcel by Holly Keller, Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes, gosh anything by Eve Bunting, Leo Lionni, Rosemary Wells. So many great books!
I have great fun writing picture books, though some take a long time to make just right.
They DO take long sometimes, don’t they! Thank you for saying that. A lot of people think they are short so they must be easy. Ha!
Thank you, Vijaya! You are so right–talking down to children, even the smallest of children, is one of the worst things a writer can do in a story: and the kids spot it right away, don’t they?
And yes, it’s both fun AND hard work–and the both have to go together, or the text will simply not fly..
WONDERFUL tips for picture book writers! Thank you for this fab post. I write picture books and teach classes on writing them and can attest to the challenge of creating a unique story that kids will come back to again and again. The market has gotten tighter and tighter, especially at the larger publishers, but I focus on the fun of the writing, playing with language, creating unique characters and universal experiences. I have a picture book coming out next year that was accepted in 2013 so patience is also part of the fun :-).
Thank you very much for your nice words, glad you liked my post! Yes, you’re so right–patience is certainly part of it all, with picture book publishing! You enjoy it all the more when the book finally comes out, right? :-)
That is right! What an accomplishment and joy it is when it does come out. (I have one that was acquired October 2013 that comes out next year–Spring 2017!)
Congratulations on the new books, Sophie.
When I decided at the beginning of this year to write a children’s book, I didn’t realize how hard it would be. It is difficult to get a sound message across without going over 32 pages.
A great post!
You are so right! I often tell my picture book writing students that it’s easier for me to write an 80,000 word young adult novel than an 800-word picture book and I’m not kidding. The novel may take longer, but the picture books can be more challenging–in all the best ways.