Learning events throughout the past year: Picture Books

 Last year my New Year's resolution was to learn. I'm proud to say that I have learned a lot this past year. Therefore, I've decided to devote a few blogs to some conferences, industry insight, and advice I received throughout the year, as it may be interesting to you.

I went to a Northern Ohio SCBWI picture book conference in May and can highly recommend all their events if you are in the area.
Web page here with photo of the conference organizer and SCBWI RA Victoria Selvaggio
http://www.nohscbwi.org/about.html

I'm not a picture book writer myself, but I have some very talented friends who are, so I thought I'd try to learn more about the process and what is involved. Here is a very general summing up of the entire conference through my observations and findings for those of you, who like me, are curious and don't know much about writing for this age group. The first thing to remember is that the basic formula for writing a great story is the same for all age groups, it's just the fine tuning that determines which group will enjoy the story the most. So let PB 101 commence!

 What is a picture book?

Audience is the utmost importance in a picture book. Consider how more text usually means an older audience. According to booksellers, most 7-9 year olds are now reading chapter books (sometimes easy chapter books, other times more advanced, but nonetheless, chapter books). If you are writing for two and three year olds, observe them. You will quickly find that they will not sit through a long book no matter how cute the pictures, or engaging the story is. 

When I was doing weekly reading to the early preschoolers at Braefoot Nursery in my village, I had to bring books that were roughly 800 words or less. If we did something fun in between stories, like the 'get the wiggles out dance', or pretending to be whatever animal was in the book I'd just read them, then I could get them to set through three... on a good day.

The meat of a picture book

• A picture book consists of a 32 page spread with 27 -28 of those being text and or illustration
• The first 2- 3 pages should set up:
• Setting
• A brief of surroundings as experienced by the main character
• This will be mostly decided by the illustrator, but it's the writer's job to give them clues* in the writing
  *please don't try to dictate to them what they should draw unless you MUST put in a side-note for something that is very important to the whole storyline only- illustrators know what they are doing in most cases and they have the full support of the publisher that hired them to do the job, so don't get stressed out that they won't 'get' your book, because if that's the case them maybe you need to rewrite it in the first place
• Remember that as in other age groups you are still balancing the old adage 'show, don't tell' so use the characters' senses when possible
• The setting influences what the characters say and the actions they will/won't take and the ability to do so
• Characterization
• Names can tell us a lot about the character, so take some time to choose the right ones
• As in other age groups, show who they are through actions and dialog, as opposed to giving a block of 'catch up' text because each word is a commodity in a picture book
• Issue
• What is the main problem for the character and why it's an issue for them
• Establish the struggle quickly, as there is no time to waste (or, again, no words to waste), and make the reader feel it
• Action
• With each changing action, the illustration will usually change
• Decide what will happen when, why, and on what page
• It's helpful to make a dummy book out of folded paper (I had always thought this was only for illustrators, but it really helps you to gauge how your text might fit into the book and how you might be able to tighten things up)
• a good site for information on dummies is here http://www.yellapalooza.com/tutorials/dummies.html 
• Plotting
• Everything your character makes happen will be a part of the plot line of the book
• The actions of these plot sequences are what the illustrator will use as plot points for the next picture
• Note that the illustrations will write a second, complementary, story into your book
• Different plot climaxes
• Decide what kind of plot you are wanting to display
• In a circle plot the climax won't be as intense as in a stair step plot
• Climax
• This is where the main character's problem should be thick and fast
• Think about increasing the pace/suspense and beef it up to give it dimension, as everything is coming together at this point
•  Ending
• What did they learn through their varied growth within the story?
• Let the reader come to their own conclusions about this without it having to be spelled out for them, lead with the experiences of the main characters and don't preach, as kids at this age love to discover things for themselves and are far smarter than we give them credit for
• Has the story changed the reader as well as the character? Has it given them a reason to look at things in a new, or different way? If not, why?
• Senses- leave them out at your peril
• Draw out memories and experiences of the reader by using the old five sense standbys to help them connect in a tangible way
• Use as many of them as you possibly can in as many different ways as you can:
• smell, taste, feel (temperature, texture, pain, etc), hear, see (but leave poetic license for the illustrator)

AND, most importantly, the right hand page should demand to be turned!
Good luck and happy writing.
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