Revise: Remember the 4 Sources of Conflict

Conflict, the type that motivates and moves a plot, comes from four sources.
Yesterday, an editor asked for revisions on a very short piece which was meant for a kindergarten or first grade audience. The editor didn’t like the competitiveness between siblings. But when she contemplated taking out that conflict, she correctly understood that the story [...]

Keeping Current: Read Newly Released Books

Take a Reading Day
Standard advice: read what you want to write.
If you want to write a novel, then read mysteries or thrillers or teen or easy readers or whatever genre you want to write.
Last week, I took a reading day and had great fun. I often advise people to read

Simple Narrative Arcs, 2

Narrative Arc in Less Than 100 Words: Example 2
Very simple picture books still have a narrative arc, even though the word count is extremely small. Yesterday, we looked at an example of a great simple narrative in My Friend, Rabbit. Today, here’s a look at a narrative arc in 80 words (with the help of [...]

Simple Narrative Arcs, 1

Narrative Arc in Less Than 100 Words: Example 1
Very simple picture books still have a narrative arc, even though the word count is extremely small. Here’s a look at a narrative arc in 80 words (with the help of some illustrations), as it appears in My Friend, Rabbit, by Eric Rohmann, winner of the 2003 [...]

How to Write a Children’s Picture Book

Ebook: How to Write a Children’s Picture Book
It started out as 30 Days to a Stronger Picture Book. But now, (drum roll, please), it’s an Ebook. Expanded from it’s original format, it now includes new sections on

Research Competition

I am researching competition for a picture book idea. I know there are topics with very stiff competition and I want to avoid anything similar to what has already been done.
But this time, I am also researching how

33 pages

The 33 page picture book
No, there are no 33-page picture books. Not yet.
At a recent conference, though, I had a discussion about why picture books are usually 32 pages. One person suggested

Major Changes

The picture book I’m working on has had three major revisions.
What to Keep
When I realize a story needs a major overhaul, I try to figure out what I want to keep. In this case, I loved

Revising for Audience

I’m writing a picture book that I know should work. But it’s not.
Consider the Picture Book Audience

Part of the problem with this story is that it’s set in a commercial kitchen and I have a kid who wants to cook. Critiquers tell me that the writing is great, the kid is great, but they [...]

editing

Simplify Your Picture Book Story
I’m currently revising a picture book and my major goal is to simplify the story.

Why simplify the story? At 1200 words, the picture book text is way too long. I needed to cut it about in half. Why? Sue Edwards has just been reading 50 picture books in a short amount [...]