Picturebook Manuscript Quiz: How do you measure up?
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- Fourteen Sections–Structure, Plot:
- Divide your manuscript into a minimum of fourteen sections, with each section a scene in the story. ( If you have fewer than fourteen sections, it’s probably a magazine piece, not a picturebook.)
- Does each section have an action to illustrate?
- Does each section make you want to turn the page?
- Does each section advance the story? If you take out a page, does it destroy the story?
- Does the plot have a narrative arc with a beginning, middle and end?
- Overall:
- Topic:Is the story kid appropriate, kid appealing?
- Language:Is the story easy and fun to read aloud? Have you used interesting, fun language? Have you allowed places for kids to join in, such as a refrain to repeat?
- Illustrations: Have you left space for the illustrator? Don’t describe every visual, but leave that to the illustrator. However, DO add things you touch, smell, taste and hear.
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- Divide your manuscript into a minimum of fourteen sections, with each section a scene in the story. ( If you have fewer than fourteen sections, it’s probably a magazine piece, not a picturebook.)
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