Tips on Writing Picture Books

I’ve had a lot of new writers ask me for tips on writing for children. Yes, I’ve published a picture book and even work as an editor with children's authors, but honestly I feel the best tips come for those who have published multiple picture books. This is why I asked author Margot Finke to share some of her experience with us when it comes to writing picture books.

World of Ink Guest Author Margot Finke: Tips on Writing Picture Books

My mother was a great cook. She taught me to use the correct tools when baking, but that occasionally, a well-chosen substitute worked just as well. She advised me to choose fresh ingredients, measure with care, and add each ingredient at the right time. Mix carefully. She said that spices were important little surprises that could make all the difference. Remember to heat the oven so your cake bakes perfectly. Knowing the right moment to take your cake out of the oven is a trick that experience teaches. I have followed her baking advice for many years.

Why am I telling you about cooking? Because my mother's baking rules apply to children's picture books as well as cakes.

Recipe for a Great Picture Book:

The Right Tools:

Gather together good punctuation and grammar: you have to know the rules before you dare break them. Keep your recipe for the plot and characters handy. If you are not sure which words to use, or when you should add them, check out a good word dictionary or thesaurus.

Ingredients:

Use fresh plot ideas, crisp characters, and juicy words. When any of these ingredients are tired or overused, your picture book is bound to sink. Add words sparingly.

Measuring and Adding:

Carefully measure the ingredients you put into your picture book. Begin with a cup of simple plot, a measure of cool characters, and a dash of good voice. Your beginning will need a sprinkle of spice. Whip the middle of your story into a firm shape. Then, dust the ending with a teaspoon of accomplishment & self-respect.

How to Mix:

Mix the ingredients together with great care. When adding snippets of information, blend them thoroughly. Their flavor must be there without being obvious. The texture of your finished book should be smooth and even.

The Spices:

A dash of the right spice can make all the difference. Don't over do it. A pinch here and there will liven up your story. Too much spice can overshadow the other ingredients. Blend well after every addition.

Baking Your Book-Batter:

It is a good idea to let your book-batter sit for a while. Later, when you look at it, you may want to add more ingredients, or pour it in a different pan. A second opinion is helpful. Ask other book-cooks you trust to take a peek. Evaluate their advice, and then do what you feel will make your book-batter a winner.

Taking Your Baked Book from the Oven - "To Remove or Not to Remove - That is the Question!"

Experienced book-cooks develop an instinct about such things. Beginners at book cooking often feel great angst. They tear their hair. Some cook their book until it is dry and unpalatable. Others take it out too soon, and it sags in the middle. Keep at it until you gain the needed experience. And don't fret about a few baking disasters. Even the best book-cooks have disaster stories to tell: often more than one.

Decorating Your Finished Book for the Judge:

Divide your book into approx.15 pieces. Frost one side of each piece with a multicolored illustration. Press together. This makes the book whole again. Frost the top with a special illustration. If the judge declares you a winner, and frosting is not your forté, she will find someone to do this part for you.

Once it is expertly decorated, your book is truly finished, and ready to be admired.

Book Nutrition Facts:

• Calories from the total word count: 1,000 or less
• Total Fat: 0
• Weak Voice Cholesterol: 0
• Total calories from adverbs and clichés: 0
• Carbohydrates from sugary sentences: 0
• Proteins from plot and character: 100%
• Vitamins from active & powerful verbs 100%
• Calcium from fun elements: 100%
• Total Reading Fiber: 100%

Happy Book-Cooking Mates!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Margot Finke is an Aussie transplant who writes midgrade adventure fiction and rhyming picture books. Margot didn't begin serious writing until the day their youngest left for college. This late start drives her writing, and pushes her to work at it every day. Margot said, "I really envy those who began young, and managed to slip into writing mode between kid fights, diaper changes, household disasters, and outside jobs. You are my heroes!"

 Her first books, a 7x book rhyming series, "Wild and Wonderful," offers fun facts about animals from the US and Australia. Educational and fun, eBooks can be read on a computer, laptop, or various color e-Readers. They are great for classroom or home schooling moms. 

Remember, kids today are computer savvy, and ALL 11 of Margot’s books (both hard copy and eBooks) can be viewed on Margot’ Magic Carpet.  The latest three are: Taconi and Claude – Double Trouble (midgrade), Horatio Humble Beats the Big D + Ruthie and the Hippo’s Fat Behind.

Visit her DOWN-UNDER FUN or WILD US CRITTERS:  to discover extra fun facts about the animals in her books.

Blog Talk Radio’s World of Ink Network Show: Stories for Children with hosts VS Grenier, Kris Quinn Christopherson and Irene Roth will be chatting with author Margot Finke about her recent children’s books: “Taconi and Claude – Double Trouble” a historical middle-grade adventure, “Horatio Humble Beats the Big D” a rhyming picture book about dyslexia, and “Ruthie and the Hippo’s Fat Behind” a rhyming picture book about change.

The show will air live, June 13, 2011 at 1pm EST (12pm Central, 11am MST, and 10am PST). Tune in at the BTR World of Ink Network site at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/worldofinknetwork. You can listen/call in at (714) 242-5259. (Note: if you can’t make the show, you can listen on demand at the same link.)

You can find out more about Margot Finke’s World of Ink Author/Book Tour schedule at http://storiesforchildrenpublishing.com/MargotFinke.aspx . There will be giveaways, reviews, interviews, guest posts and more. Make sure to stop by and interact with Margot Finke and the hosts at the different stops by leaving comments and/or questions. Margot Finke will be checking in throughout the tour and is offering an additional giveaway for those who leave comments throughout the tour. 

STOP PRESS!

Write a comment on any participating blog during my June Book Tour,  
and win a FREE COPY of this fun time-travel story.
I wrote it specially for kids.

NOTE:
One copy per person.  Please leave your e-mail. 
( Safe sample:   mfinke<@>frontier.com )

To learn more about the World of Ink Tours visit Stories for Children Publishing at: http://storiesforchildrenpublishing.com

The Approach of the Summer Doldrums

We're a couple weeks from what calendar calls the beginning of summer. Here in Utah, most of the kids are out of school. They're running around the house, claiming they're bored, and looking at you to give them something fun to do. If you're a stay-at-home Mom, your school-year routine is shattered, and whatever quiet time you had to write between your household jobs while school is in is probably now spent shuttling kids around. And those of us whose lives discourage a regular writing routine now find it doubly hard.

Vacations are looming on the horizon. The yard has to be maintained again. It's too nice to hang out inside, at the computer, especially if that's how you spend your work day. Besides, that writing nook, so cozy in the winter but now stiflingly hot, is no longer a refuge when so much needs to be done and there are little distractions fighting in the next room, or coming in because they're hungry, or reminding you that it's time for swimming lessons, or asking you drive them to their friend's house on the other side of their school area boundaries, or whatever.

Writing groups have trouble getting together because people are out of town on vacations, scout trips, or church camps.

The whole world is conspiring against the writing life, never an easy life in the best of times.

So what do you do? How do you keep going? How do you keep the WIP from foundering hopelessly on the summer tide while you wait for the autumn winds to fill those sails again? Share your strategies here. A lot of us would love the suggestions.

Flow in Writing

by Deren Hansen

Wikipedia defines psychological flow this way:

Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, the positive psychology concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields.

You've probably heard about people who claim that the writing just flowed (and you've probably felt a bit jealous of them). It's hard to hear such a thing without, 1) taking it to be something mystical, and 2) judged yourself to be a lesser writer for not being able to make a similar claim.

I can't guarantee that you'll always enjoy flow in your writing, but if you understand the nature of the state then you might be more likely to experience it.

The most important thing to understand is that there's nothing mystical about flow. Indeed, it is effectively the opposite of mysticism because you're neither awed nor terrified. When you're fully immersed in the process you find, to the extent that you're even aware of your internal state, that you feel a profound calm.

Flow is like Baby Bear: you're neither too hot with great ideas, nor too cold bogged down in the details, but just right with the ideas and the words to express them coming together at the same time.

I've heard people argue that writing is a purely creative, right-brain activity. There's truth in that claim, particularly for those who see the action and the setting, and hear the voices of their characters. But encoding those ideas in well chosen words and ordering those words in compelling, grammatically correct sentences is a left-brain activity. Of course, your inner editor lives in your left brain.

People who focus on one side or the other short-change themselves. In my experience, flow is most likely to occur when I've mastered the left-brain mechanics (i.e., proficiency at typing, a command of grammar rules, a rich vocabulary) and energized the right-brain to focus on the story (and not entertain every distraction that comes along). Put another way, you can think of flow in writing as balancing right and left brains to produce and encode ideas.


Deren blogs daily at The Laws of Making.

Blog Spotlights: Scott Rhoades

Scott has been with this blog since the get-go and I appreciate that more I can adequately write. Bringing in his own unique humor and style and his understanding of new technology, Scott does a great job of keeping all of us going. Check out his website and, like me, you'll be wanting to read more!

http://www.scottrhoades.com/index.html

The Maggie Project: Margot Finke on Writing for Children

The Maggie Project: Margot Finke on Writing for Children: "It all began years ago, when teachers, family and friends praised the little stories I wrote. So I kept writing until I was eventually publ..."

Blog Spotlights: Taffy Lovell

Taffy's blog is a fantastic mix of writing, literature, and life. Just ask one of her 280+ followers what she has to share on her blog each week. They'll tell you a lot can be learned from Taffy! We're blessed to have her blog for UT Children's Writers too!

http://taffyscandy.blogspot.com/

A Comedy of Horrors

by Scott Rhoades

Last Friday, I wrote about how delight relies on surprise. Things that delight us are often things that surprise us.

This week, I want to write about two genres that depend almost entirely on surprise to delight us, two genres that might be thought of as near opposites but that are really very similar. If you read the title of this post, you know where I'm going. (I never was very good at keeping a surprise.)

Comedy, as I pointed out last week in my almost worshipful praise of songwriter Tom Lehrer, depends completely on surprise. Think about jokes. Jokes, whether they hinge on a stupid pun or an unexpected resolution to a humorous situation, depend on a surprising punchline. When the surprise is gone, so is the funny. That's why a joke is only really funny--I mean gut-splittingly-drink-spittingly funny--the first time you hear it.

For comedy to work really well. You need a set up. A good set up builds tension, and the tension continues to deepen until you finally get the release from the punchline. If something in your setup fails, you end up with a premature release. It might not completely spoil the punchline, but it takes away much of the punch.

The same with horror. The best horror doesn't simply gross you out, something many of today's horror writers, and especially screen writers, never quite learned. Horror is all about building tension toward a release at the end. Sure, there might be small releases along the way, like the smaller hills on a roller coaster, but they are not really releases. Each of these releases is a trick that actually builds even more tension, until you get your release at the end. Like humor, that release has to be a surprise if it's going to work.

Another technique that's often central to both comedy and horror writing is the transportation of the audience away from whatever they consider safe. Safety inhibits surprise. At the same time, taking us too far from our safety zone eliminates much of the delight we get from a good surprise. An unsafe, unpleasant surprise does the opposite of delight. That's why people like roller coasters, scary stories, and jokes that push our limits like an uncomfortable pause without going too far. And it's why they don't like the surprise of a baseball coming through their living room window. They want a safe way to flirt with danger, to trick their brains into releasing endorphins without ever really putting them into really unsafe territory.

Let me take a break for a second to ask a question. Where might you find some of the best humor writing? Inside a good horror story. In a horror story, lots of stuff goes wrong. But if everything goes bad all the time, then you expect the bad and it no longer surprises. The tension is built not so much as a ramp as a series of steps combined with ramps, and many of those ramps are punctuated by something funny. Just like you can't know good without knowing bad, you can't know terror without knowing laughs.

Something else horror and comedy have in common? What do you do at the end of a good joke? You laugh like crazy. What do you do after a good scare? That's right.

Watch the people as a scary roller coaster pulls into the station. What are they doing? Laughing. What were they doing a few seconds ago? Screaming their little heads off. Wouldn't you love that same result in your own stories?

Here's the thing--all good fiction writing and many kinds of nonfiction writing are no different that horror and comedy. It's all about building tension until you reach the release at the end.

Both comedy and horror are often maligned (something else they have in common) as having less literary merit than more serious books. Whatever genre you like to write from picture books to literary fiction for adults, you can learn a lot about good writing by reading these "inferior" genres. If you don't usually read horror, try it. Same with humor. (Or mysteries. Or thrillers. Or romance. Or whatever.) Pay attention to the way the writer builds tension and makes you think there's relief in sight, only to twist that false relief into more tension. Then watch as the coaster comes back into the station. Pay attention to the laugh at the end as the tension is finally relieved by a surprise.

Then, no matter what you write, use fear and comedy to build the tension in your own story. Take the reader into safely dangerous territory, then let us feel the relief when that tension is released at the end. You'll delight your readers, and have a lot of fun writing.

Blog Spotlights: Deren Hansen

HUGE shout out to Deren for his "Writing Wednesday" posts here. Technique, form, function-- he covers them all. His own blog has more inspiration and passion about creating in your writing in "Making Monday" or "Free-Form Friday." Deren does a great job of showing how creativity can excel with structure and form!

http://blog.derenhansen.com/

June Blog Spotlights

For June, I want to spend some time visiting the blogs of members of the Utah Children's Writers group starting with our regular blog contributors. Check out the awesome blogs for our members and

Be sure to become a Follower!

We love Followers! We LOVE Comments!

Summer writing

YIPPEE!
School's out!
The weather is warming up and summer fun is around the corner!












How's your writing coming along?
Any distractions in your life?
Like this?

Yeah...I'm feeling major distractions coming on.
How does your writing compete with summer activities?

Do you make summer writing goals?
Summer is the time when I free write. I take a notebook with me to the pool and just write and write and write.
I take a couple of turns down the slide with the kids then go back to writing.
Sometimes I read.
But summer for me isn't structured and my writing isn't either.
Fall comes around, school starts, and I edit what I wrote over the summer.
What about you?
Any ideas or tips for keeping up with writing over the summer?
Please tell us!



BTW, if you are doing this
<-----
You have too much time on your hands.







http://www.instructables.com/image/FVFH9EGGNBEVD8I/X-Wing-Fighter-from-Office-Supplies.jpg

Ambitious and Strategic

by Deren Hansen

Several years ago I learned that my first novel was too ambitious to be my first novel.

What do I mean by that?

Lots of people talk about writing the "break-out" novel, but before you do that, you need to write the "break-in" novel.

There are many areas of endeavor where you've got to prove your ability before you're given free reign. I don't think we should be surprised that commercial publishing is one of them.

We often encourage writers to follow their dreams, reach for the stars, go for the gusto, but many of the ambitious people who have attained a measure of success understand that passion must be tempered and disciplined with strategy.

Serendipitously, I came across a reference to a post by Aprilynne Pike on writing firsts. I recommend you read her entire post, but here's a sample:

"Okay, I have been thinking a lot about firsts lately. And by first I mean, your first agent, your first book deal, your first publisher, etc. In case you are not familiar with my history, I spent almost two years looking for an agent and then spent a year with that agent (and two different books) before I got a contract. By the time I got an agent, I was basically desperate enough that I probably would have taken any legit agent I could get. By the time I got published, I would have taken just about any legit publisher I could get. I know a lot of aspiring authors have felt and do feel the same way.

"But maybe it's not that simple.

"I owe my agent connection to luck. I will state that right out front. But because I did end up with my incredible, fabulous agent, she matched me with a wonderful editor and a house I could not be more happy with. But, also luck, I managed to get the idea for a genre I am more than happy to spend my whole career writing in. All of my firsts, set me on the path I want to be in. On the path that my fit my goals. But, what was not luck, is that when it became obvious that my book was not going to sell, I looked for another way to meet my goals. I wrote another book. It eventually lead me to the career I have now."

For good or ill, publishing is very much about pigeon holes. Strategic writers take care to choose a pigeon hole with which they are comfortable.

Aprilynne goes on to say that she's watched others who took the first agent or deal they got find themselves in places other than where they wanted to be (e.g, a small press, or a genre that isn't their first love).

Here's her final admonition:

"Not everyone is going to be a bestseller/lead title/ next big things/etc. That's not the point. But whatever your personal goals are, don't settle for less just because the other option is shelving your book and trying again. Those firsts are so important. Make them the right firsts."

Deren blogs daily at The Laws of Making.

The Delight of Surprise

by Scott Rhoades

It doesn't matter what genre you write, what age group you write for, whether you rhyme or swear or rely on pictures to tell most of your story. Whether people remember your work comes down to one thing: delight.

We've all read books that we really liked, or that had an artistry or depth or literariness that we enjoyed and appreciated, but that we didn't quite love. Likewise, we've read books that we know might not quite have the literary value of many of the books we enjoy reading and displaying on our shelves, but they've become instant favorites or guilty pleasures. A book sticks with you for many different reasons, but the books that make your eyes light up when they are mentioned have less to do with quality than they do with the sheer delight of reading them.

What creates this sense of delight varies from reader to reader, but I think most of are delighted by similar things, including:

• Surprise
• Use of language (see surprise)
• Humor (see surprise)
• Originality (see surprise)

I could make this list longer but, as you might guess, the one element that is sure to delight us is surprise. An unexpected turn of phrase, twist of plot, reaction of character or, really, an unexpected whatever triggers a pleasure reaction in our brains. It's why a unique combination of verbs and nouns brings more joy than a cliche, even if the cliche is perfect for a particular situation. It's why a writer like J.K. Rowling can delight us with an unusual combination of elements we've seen in books by Roald Dahl and other authors.

Think of two of my favorite authors, Mark Twain and John Steinbeck. Both of these men were prolific authors whose works vary greatly in quality. Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but he also wrote Tom Sawyer, Detective and The American Claimant. Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath, but he also wrote Burning Bright and The Short Reign of Pippin IV. I mention the "also wrotes" not to put them down or to call them bad, but to make a point. Twain and Steinbeck fans like those other books, maybe even love them. Why? Because each of these writers, even when relatively off, delight their readers with the way they write. Even if the characters aren't his best or the story is not quite up to snuff, there's just something about the way our favorites write that makes us forgive, or even ignore, the shortcomings of their lesser works because we know we're going to find something delightful.

That's the kind of writer you want to be.

All of this came to mind today while I was driving home for lunch, with a Tom Lehrer CD in the player. People my age most likely know a few of Tom Lehrer's songs, thanks to the Dr. Demento radio show. Songs like "The Masochism Tango" and "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" have a delightfully twisted humor, a darkness that makes us laugh and remember the songs. I love that about his songs. But there are a lot of funny and dark comedy songwriters. Lehrer is pushed to the top by the kind of intelligence you'd expect from a mathematics professor at major universities, like Lehrer was.

But that's not what really delights me about Tom Lehrer. I'm a word nerd, and (as you may have gathered by now) I love surprises. Few, if any, songwriters can turn a great phrase or rhyme that surprises me as much as Tom Lehrer.

How many rhymes do you know for funeral? Check this out:

When you attend a funeral,
It is sad to think that sooner or
Later those you love will do the same for you.

It doesn't come out right on the page. You have to hear it to believe it. He does it over and over in his songs. And it's not only the rhymes. Check out the astounding list of -ity words in "When You Are Old And Gray." The song would be hilarious without it, but with that list, it becomes something special. Or check out the unexpected place that his tender love song "I Hold Your Hand In Mine" takes us.

Lehrer's songs are packed full of surprises, usually layers of them, in his rhymes, word choices, subject matter, and twists. And so, even the songs that nobody will ever consider classics delight me. I enjoy even the songs that are not among his best, because I know they'll surprise me, even after I've heard them several times. Not many writers can do that. Dr. Seuss can. Shel Silverstein can. And now you know (if you didn't already) that Tom Lehrer can.

We all want to delight our readers so they come back to our work again and again, so they know when they see something with our names on it they can't count on a good time. Look at your favorite writers and figure out what it is that makes them mean what they do to you, then personalize that and have some fun delighting yourself as you write.

Next time I post on this blog, I'll write about two particular genres that rely on surprise, two genres that many people might think of as near opposites, but that are really very similar. But if I told you now which two genres I mean, I'd spoil the surprise, so you'll just have to wait a week.

Fairness and you Monkey Brain

by Deren Hansen

On of the ideas I picked up from a biography of the Buddha is the
Zen notion of the monkey brain. The first image of a monkey brain that springs to mind is likely that of a frenzied simian bouncing around the cage of desires in which Buddhists would say we are trapped. There's clearly good writing advice to be mined from this image about creating a writing space, whether virtual or actual, where one can be free from distractions.

But I found another, intriguing association with the phrase, "monkey brain."

I came across a study that showed brown capuchin monkeys have a strong sense of fairness. The monkeys were trained to trade pebbles with researchers for food, usually pieces of cucumber but sometimes grapes. If pairs of monkeys made the trade and one of them got a better deal (i.e., grapes), the other would throw a fit.

Does this sound familiar?

What if I replace, "monkey," with, "writer," and, "researcher," with, "publisher?"

More familiar now?

This isn't a rehash of my advice to, "keep your eyes on your own test," though the points are related. No, this is about your basic expectations.

The fact of the matter is that the business of publishing is grossly unfair.

Your options are to throw a fit and go sulk in the far corner of your cage, or to transcend your monkey brain--particularly the part that keeps oh-so-careful track of how fair the situation is--and keep writing.


Deren blogs daily at The Laws of Making.

Death by Description

By Julie Daines

Description. The story needs it to survive, but too much can kill it. Here are a few tips I've found helpful when writing description:

- Description should match the POV character. In my mind, this is the number one rule. Everyone sees things differently based on their own unique life experiences. Take that into account when writing description.

A girl walks in wearing a tight, low cut dress and sparkly Jimmy Choos. What's a guy going to notice first? What is a girl? An environmentalist will notice things differently than a factory worker. A person from the country visits the city--what do they see?

- There is a fine line between too much and too little. Too little and the reader is disoriented. Too much and the reader is bored. Readers only need a taste, then let their imagination fill in the rest.

Too much detail tires the reader's mind as they try to align their mental image with the detailed description in the book. Obviously some fantasy and science fiction requires more description for world building, but the same general principle applies.

- Many writers feel the need to describe a new location/character/feeling in full detail the first time it's introduced. What if you were listening to a friend tell you about a conversation she had, and she started off with, "I was talking with Jane at the beach, she was wearing a navy-blue tankini with a matching swim skirt, fire engine red flip-flops, she had her hair in a pony tail and her skin was moist with sunscreen, and she had braces, and tortoise-shell reflective sunglasses, and her green, floral beach towel was spread out on the sand..."?

All you need to give the reader is the part that's important to the POV character. You can fill in other details later.

- An exception to the above rule is when the description is needed to show the difference from the norm. A hot dog is a hot dog. No need to describe it. Unless it's different. A starving kid finds a withered half eaten hot dog in a dumpster--then you might want to describe the smell, the look, the taste.

- Break up description with action or dialogue.

- A general rule of thumb: use only two to three senses per description to avoid sensory overload.

- Avoid cliche. How many icy-cold fingers, rolling waves, and cars crunching on gravel do we need. It's a challenge, but writers have to come up with new and different ways to describe common things.

Finally

At long last, a great wrong is being undone. In October, Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain will finally be available in a box set again.