Writing picture books

I’ve been getting excellent feedback on three picture book manuscripts that I’ve written. They have potential, I am told, but still need some work, especially bringing the word count down. So I’ve been busy editing and revising. Here's a good article on Harold Underdown's blog posted by Margot Finke on "Writing Picture Books: The Basics." 

 

At the SCBWI-LA conference, I learned that I need to Invite, Entice, and Encourage a reader with the first few lines of my book. Make the reader want to join you on the journey. Show through human action. Action verbs are very important. Make sure your words are moving the story forward. Some think writing picture books is easy. Let me tell you. It’s not. But it’s a lot of fun. Enjoy the journey.

Speaking of word count, the Children’s Writer is sponsoring a Seasonal Poetry Writing Contest. The word count limit for that is only 300 words. Yikes! The deadline is October 31, so if you like to write poetry, you’d better hurry. For more details, click here.

Halloween is right around the corner. Check out this blog post on BuzzFeed about Halloween costumes that use book characters. It’s really cool.

 

Pen Name: The use of a name other than your legal name on articles, stories, or books. Also called a pseudonym. – Writer’s Digest Weekly Planner