Writing Picture Books

 

Picture books are usually between 24 and 32 pages long (divisible by 4). Occasionally, they are longer or shorter, but the majority fall in that page range. Don't worry, these aren't full pages, there are pictures to go along with your words.

Writing picture books takes research, knowledge, and inspiration. Before you even get started, you should take the time to read picture books that are already in the library. That way, you can familiarize yourself with the layouts and types of language often used in picture books.

Determine what your story is going to be about. Who is your main character? What is his or her goal? What obstacles stand in the way of your main character reaching his or her goal?

When you've read some picture books and know what your story is going to be about, you need to think about your audience. Who is going to read your story? How old are they? Readers who are three and four years old are going to need a different voice and word choice than readers who are eight and nine years old.

When you've found your story and your audience, start writing. Imagine what pictures will go with your words and use vivid language to bring your story to life. Remember, when you read your story, the words should sound natural and should have an easily identifiable rhythm (not necessarily, in fact probably not at all, rhyme).

ACTIVITY

WRITE

Write a picture book. When you first write your story down, you can write it all on lone page, but when you start revising, make sure you break down your story into 28 to 32 parts of the individual pages in the book.

REVISE

Revise your picture book for word choice, spelling, and punctuation. Make sure your page breaks come at natural points in the story.

ILLUSTRATE 

Draw pictures to go along with your story. Make sure each picture corresponds with a page of the story.

PUBLISH

Allow others to read your story while you read theirs.