3 Tips for Drafting a Picture Book

My illustration skills are far
from intimidating.

I love coming home from the library with a stack of picture books. I stretch out on the sofa and read and read and read. When I’m done, I go back and page again through the ones I liked best. Perhaps it is because I read so many that I can tell when a new writer doesn’t understand the form. And that leads me to tip #1.

Know Picture Books

A picture book is a really specific type of book. It isn’t just the words and the pictures. It is also how the book is physically made. There are 32 pages. This number includes the title page, dedication and copyright. Sometimes it includes the end papers.

The very best make use of page turns, locating surprises after the turn of the page. When you do this, the coming of a page turn helps build the reader’s anticipation. They know something is coming.

Plan Your Story Scene by Scene

Because the length is so specific, you need to make certain that you have enough to fill the book but not too much. You also have to make certain that there is something distinct and interesting going on in each spread.

To do this, plan your story scene by scene. Each spread (or scene) is an event. This means that something needs to happen so that the illustrator has something to depict.

But each scene also needs to be unique. This can be a unique action, a new setting, or a change in tone.

Sketch Out Thumbnails

Perhaps the best way to plot your story scene by scene is to sketch out thumbnails. You can find a great thumbnail template by Debbie Ridpath Ohi here. Print it out and you have a storyboard showing the pages in your picture book.

Once you’ve got an idea for your picture book, sit down and draw your story. No really. Don’t write it. Draw it. This was something that Marla Frazee recommended at the recent SCBWI Big 5-0 conference so I decided to give it a try.

This is especially important for those of us who are writers because we tend to consider the words but now how they will be depicted. My drawings are not brilliant. I have a girl with pigtails, a tall boy with glasses, and a neighbor with a garden hat. Am I going to tell the illustrator that she has pigtails, he has glasses and Miss Lin is wearing a hat? No way. This was just so that I could tell my stick figures apart.

But drawing my story made me really look at my pacing. When you are writing text, it is easy to tell yourself that you don’t have too much story here and that really isn’t a thin spot there. But when you draw it, you can’t lie.

I had too many spreads left at the end. So I took another look at my story.

I realized that I had forgotten a key spread early on and I could add to the final climb to the climax. It will definitely be a better story when I sit down to draft it.

Frazee recommended that draw each potential manuscript several times. I wasn’t going to do this but I want to see how things look with my spreads in order. I want to take another look at my page turns.

My drawings are far from brilliant but this plan is going to help my story come together more cleanly when I do sit down to write.

–SueBE

Why Writing Is Like Beading

Those of you who have read my blog for any time know that not only do a write, but I also craft.  Knitting, crochet, and beading help me recharge my creative energy.  Lately, I’ve been beading lariat-style necklaces.  These necklaces are a single four foot strand of beads.  There is no clasp, so you knot or loop the strand.  Or whatever.

The point is that they are really flexible just like the books we write. A picture book can be fact or fiction.  It can be written in rhyme or prose.  It can also come together relatively easily (relatively) or take multiple tries.  Just like beading a necklace.

Sometimes following the pattern works.  When I tell you how to storyboard a picture book, that’s like giving you a pattern.  Follow these steps to create a picture book.  Sometimes you follow the steps and it works.  Your writing style and my writing style are enough alike that you can use my method.  Ta-da!  When I made my first lariat necklace, I used different beads than the pattern called for but it came together easily.

Sometimes following the pattern doesn’t work.  You write nonfiction.  I write nonfiction.  But when you try to follow my story boarding steps, it doesn’t work.  The balance is just off and, although you notice this early on, you keep working hoping it will sort itself out.  But it doesn’t.  So you study my steps.  Then you study what you have.  You see where you can tweak things to make it work.  That’s what happened when I tried making a necklace for a friend, but with a few adjustments it came together.

Sometimes you think that something isn’t going to work but then it does.  Last week, I got a rewrite request from my editor.  I read one of the things that she wanted and . . . uh, no.  There is no way that will work.  So I made all of the smaller changes and saved this until dead last.  Fine, just fine!  I made the changes she suggested and . . . it worked.  When a friend asked me to make her a necklace in golden and deep red beads, I cringed.  These weren’t my kinds of colors and I just couldn’t see it.  But I started stringing and . . . wow.  It looked great.

Writing is a lot like beading.  Sometimes you follow the steps and it all comes together.  Sometimes you have to make a few adjustments.  Other times, you are certain you’ve been asked to do the impossible and it all falls into place.

Word by word.  Bead by bead.  The creative process is a funny thing.

–SueBE

Picture Book Writing: Workshop a Mentor Text

Most of you probably already know that I tend gush about mentor texts.  In picture book writing, they are a great way to study pacing, giving the illustrator space to work and more.

But getting the most out of a mentor text can be tough.  Sitting there, flipping through the pages, I have a tendency to get distracted by the art, that really great page turn, and my favorite funny moments.  There is always something to distract me in a top-notch picture book.

One way to make a mentor text work for you is to “workshop” it.  What do I mean?  There are three steps.

Type out the text.

Once you’ve typed it out in standard manuscript format, here are a few things to study.

• Just how long is it?  Compare it to your own manuscript.
• How much of the story is in the text?  What does the author include?
• What does the author leave out?
• How did the illustrator expand on the text?

Create a story board.

You probably won’t want to use the actual text to do this.  Instead, describe each spread in just a few words. The story board will help you study pacing.  Take note of the following:

• How many spreads introduce the main character?
• On which spread do you learn the story problem?
• How many attempts are made to solve it?
• Is there a darkest moment?  On which spread?
• How many spreads are spent on the anti-climax?

Dummy the picture book.

You can probably do this with a copy of what you typed out but you’ll need the book as published as well.  Once you’ve taped the text into your own dummy be sure to note:

• How much text is in each spread.
• How the author makes use of page turns.
• How each spread differs from the one before and the one following. It might be different characters, action, setting, mood or emotion.
• The difference between one page spreads and two page spreads.

Workshopping a mentor text will help you see how and why it works.  By comparing it to your own manuscript, you will also see how your work differs and what you still need to improve before sending your work to a potential editor or agent.

Don’t just love the mentor book. Make it work for you!

–SueBE

Storyboard: One Way to Outline Your Picture Book

When you write a picture book, you need to make certain you have enough story.  The problem is that there has to be enough to stretch over 32 pages.  And this has to be 32 pages with zing.  They can’t be scant.  They can’t be meaningless.  They have to matter.

I’ve been noodling over a new idea for just over a month now.  I know it is a story that matters.  How do I know?  People are arguing about it.  Everyone is certain that their answer is Right with a capital R.  But I have to make sure this story that matters can fit inside and fill the inside of a picture book.

One of the best ways to tell is to storyboard it.  For those of you who have never worked up a storyboard, it is a worksheet, or board, that allows you to mock-up a picture book so that you can see the entire thing on one page.  I don’t like working on something as small as a sheet of printer paper.  My storyboard is a piece of cardboard that was used to cover a mirror in shipment.

Why bother with a storyboard?  The great thing about using a story board is that I can see right away if I have enough scenes.  Will my idea fill a whole picture book?

So I start by writing a sentence or a phrase for each scene.  I do this on post it notes.  Once I have my post-it scenes in hand, I set about arranging them on the various spreads.

Some people prefer to do this on a worksheet.  I like this post-it note approach because I can re-arrange things as needed. To an extent, the order of my scenes are sequential.  This happened on X date.  This followed on Y date.  And this was on Z. But that just covers the historic spreads.  The modern ones are going to take some fiddling.  Post-its and my giant board let me move, cut apart, put on one two-page spread, and just generally fiddle.

When I’m done, I have an outline and I’m ready to write.  Not that the writing will necessarily be easy but at least I know when I’m done I’ll have a story that is long enough, and worth of, a picture book.

–SueBE

The Storyboard: The Best Way to Outline Your Picture Book

For about two weeks now, I’ve been researching a new picture book tentatively titled “Cave Below.”  No, I didn’t do all of the research in two weeks.  This one has been rattling around in my head for a couple of years.  I just finally got serious and decided to get it done so I’ve been reading about the history of a cave, the geology and the chemistry involved.

With pages of notes, it was time to outline.  One of the best ways to outline a picture book manuscript is the storyboard.  For those of you who have never worked up a storyboard, it is a worksheet, or board, that allows you to mock-up a picture book so that you can see the entire thing on one page.  I don’t like working on something as small as a sheet of printer paper.  My storyboard is a piece of cardboard that was used to cover a mirror in shipment.

Why bother with a storyboard?  The great thing about using a story board is that I can see right away if I have enough scenes for a whole picture book.

But before I can lay things out, I need to transfer some of my notes onto post-it notes.  I fill out a post-it note/or part of a note, for each scene.  Then I take my storyboard and put everything in place.

Some people prefer to do this on a worksheet.  I like this post-it note approach because I can re-arrange things as needed.  When you’re writing a nonfiction book about a process, the order of the scenes is determined by the process itself.  The problem is that no single source talked about the entire process depicted in my book.

Because of this, I’m having to mesh what one source gives me with another.  In this case, it meant shifting what was initially scene 2, or the second speadk down the board so that it becomes spread 5.

Now that I have the storyboard, I’m ready to write.

–SueBE

Kathleen Kemly: What Illustrator’s Can Teach Writers

Here is another amazing video produced by Dana Sullivan,  Assistant Regional Advisor of the Western Washington region of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. This one features Kathleem Kemly and her work on the picture book Molly by Golly.  

As with Paul Schmid, I was fascinated by how she combines computer capabilities and traditional illustration techniques.  Don’t skip the video thinking that they combine them in the same way because their approach is completely different although both of them talk about creating spontaneous, lively drawings.

If you are a picture book writer, this is an especially good video to watch because Kemly shows how she storyboards and dummies.  She also discusses the flow of a manuscript in terms of illustrations as well as various design elements.

I think my favorite part was watching her layer in color, adding it, wiping it off, painting blue then yellow then red. Amazing!

If you write picture books, take a look and see how the “other half” of the picture book team works.

–SueBE

Storyboards

At the workshop on 4/17, somehow we got on the topic of pacing in picture books and using storyboards and dummies to test out your manuscript.  I promised to get more info to several participants but won’t get to it until after the retreat.  Hopefully the post today on storyboards and the one tomorrow on dummies will tide them over.

A storyboard is a way of viewing your entire picture book manuscript at a glance.  It was originally used by comic book artists and animators to plan out their work. Now picture book writers are using it too.   It is easier to show you a storyboard than it is to describe one, so here is my board.  As you can see it is a large piece of cardboard with the appropriate number of spreads pasted onto it.

When I am noodling over a new picture book,  I take a packet of post-it notes and write out one scene per note.   “Runs down road.”  “Leaps off cliff.”   “Cuddles crocodile.” Whatever is pertinent for this particular story.  Then I lay them out on the board.  Do I have enough scenes to fill the book?  Do I have too many?

With a few strokes of a highlighter, I can mark off how many spreads I use to introduce my character and story problem and the number of spreads devoted to each attempt to solve the problem.  There are three attempts, aren’t there?  And a denouement?

Is it really worth the time to play with all of this before I write a single word?

You bet!   When I storyboard a piece first, I can often rough it out in an hour or less.  It won’t be brilliant but I have something solid to work with until I can make it brilliant.  That’s where my dummy comes in.

–SueBE