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Writing For Children 201: Beginning Picture Book Writing

Section 2: For Not So Self-Motivated, Who Need Some Structure

Assignments:

Read

1. Read 10 picture books. For each, write down...

Author:
Title:
Illustrator:
Publication Date:
Publisher:
1st Line:
Last Line:
Two lines or sequences from the text that you liked:
Briefly outline the story:
What did you think of the story? Why?


2. Read 100 picture books. Choose mostly picture books written in the past ten years. (For extra credit, look for the information from assignment 1 from each book. For extra extra credit, write the information down.)

Come Up With Ideas

3. Read Coming Up with Story Ideas, then with the help of the article and linked resources, come up with 100 ideas for picture books. The idea can be expressed in one sentence or phrase. For example: "What if a boy was adopted by alligators?" or "The time Uncle Jerry let us ride his ostrich."

Write

4. Read the Following Articles:
• Dangerous Myths and Terrible Truths: A Quick Intro to Children's Writing, by Aaron Shepard
• Writing Picture Books, by Rick Walton
• Writing Your Story: Tips for Children's Writers, by Aaron Shepard
• Getting Out of the Slush Pile, by Harold Underdown
5. Write 10 picture book manuscripts. Do as well as you can, but don't worry if some of them are awful. This is practice.

Revise

6. Choose what you think are the best 3 of the 10 manuscripts you wrote.
7. Reread the articles you read in assignment 4, this time with your 3 best manuscripts in mind.
8. Revise your manuscripts based on what you learned in assignment 7.
9. Find one or more people, preferably people who know something about picture books, to read your manuscripts and tell you what they think is working, and what they think is not working. Here are some things you could do:
• Find out who your local Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators regional advisor is. Contact them. Ask them if there is a critique group nearby that you could join.
• Ask a local librarian, college English professor, or the children's buyer at a bookstore if they know of any writers or writers groups in the area. Contact them to see if they could refer you to a person or group who could critique your manuscripts.
• If you can't find a critique group, ask a local elementary school teacher or children's librarian if they'd read your manuscript.
• If you still can't find anyone to read your manuscripts, ask friends, relatives, neighbors, anyone.

10. Based on the feedback you get, rewrite your stories.

Submit Your Manuscript

11. Read the following:
• Marketing Your Manuscript, by Rick Walton
• Submission Samples, by Rick Walton
• Getting Started: Really Basic Information for Children's Writers and Illustrators, by Harold Underdown
• Harold Underdown's Frequently Asked Questions File
• Multiple Submissions: Why, Why Not, and How, by Donna Freedman
• The How-Do-I-Get-It-Published Quiz, by Lisa Rowe Fraustino and Susan Campbell Bartoletti
• Dealing with a Downsized Market: Top Ten List of Things to Do, by Harold Underdown
• Rites of Submission: Cover Letters and Queries, by Jacqueline K. Ogburn
• The 7 Deadly Sins of Submissions, by Laura Belgrave
12. Following steps 1 through 9 in Marketing Your Manuscript, and remembering what you've learned from your assignment 11 readings, submit your three manuscripts.