TRANSCRIPT

Hi… thanks so much for watching.

I mentioned in an early video that this video series won’t have a lot of information about how to write picture books. You can find plenty of courses and resources online and in the real world to help you hone your craft.

That said, I’ve been writing my entire career as an advertising copywriter and since 2018 as a picture book author, so I do have advice on what can help to make your manuscripts stand out from the competition.

Here are seven of the most important factors to keep in mind as you write your manuscripts:

First, ignore trends. If you see a lot of books on the shelves about the current topic of the day, say, alligators, you may be tempted to write about them. Don’t… unless you really have a passion about writing about alligators. Publishing is such a slow-moving industry that those books that you're seeing now on the shelves were in the works long before this. What’s popular today will be passe tomorrow.

Two, write what you want. Instead of trying to tap into the latest trend, focus on stories that mean something to you or that resonate with you. For example, I wrote a manuscript about an old man eating alone. Offhand, it doesn’t sound like a story for children, but the topic was meaningful to me because my youngest daughter always felt sad seeing old men eating alone. In the end, this story got published. The point of this is, you never know what’s going to capture the imagination of an agent or publisher, so write the stories you want. They may not get published, but writing what interests you makes writing more fun and helps to bring more passion to your manuscripts.

Three, if it happens in the real world, it can happen in a picture book. I heard this advice on a podcast, and I can’t remember who said it. I wish I did because it’s given me permission to move forward with certain stories. For example, I wrote a manuscript about gun violence. It hasn’t been published yet, but I wouldn’t have written this story without hearing this quote. Gun violence happens in the real world, so I think it’s an important story to tell – even to children. If you feel strongly about a story but are shying away from it because it may not seem right for children, just keep going. Find a way to bring it to life in a way that makes sense for a young audience.

Fourth piece of advice is to make every word count. Picture books typically have fewer than 800 words, and that number is actually trending downwards. With such a limited number of words, it’s essential to find the right word for every sentence. Break out the thesaurus and find the exact right word for every use. Manuscripts filled with words that sing and delight will stand out to agents and publishers going through piles of manuscripts crammed with mundane writing. I like Mark Twain’s advice for this. He said, “Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very'; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”

Five, think about page turns. When writing your manuscript, think about the child that’s being read to by a parent or teacher (or even on their own). How can you end each page with so much anticipation that they cannot wait to turn the page and keep reading? Make each page end on a cliffhanger – and then start the next page with an unexpected resolution to that cliffhanger. For example, in the book I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean! by Kevin Sherry, a giant squid spends the entire story bragging about how it's the biggest thing in the ocean – until it gets swallowed by a whale. The moment it gets swallowed, you have to turn the page to find out what happens. Does the whale spit it out? Does it get chewed up? Does some other terrible fate await the squid? Nope, the squid continues its bragging, declaring that it’s the biggest thing in the whale.

Sixth piece of advice, read your manuscript loudly out loud. Picture books are read out loud, so it’s essential that you read your manuscripts out loud as you write them. But not in a whisper or a mumble. Read them as if you were reading to a classroom. Be loud, use different voices for the characters, vary your inflection. This will not only help you hear how the book flows, it can also help drive word choice or sentence structure to find the words and phrases that sound the best and make the story as entertaining as possible.

Finally, make sure your story hasn’t already been written. Now this technically isn’t writing advice, but it can help you avoid spending time working a manuscript that’s already been written. If you have a title for your story, Google it or look on Amazon for picture books with that title. If you do find a match, see what the book’s about. If the storyline is totally different, all you have to do is think of another title for your story. Also, when you have an idea for a story, Google the concept to see if it’s been done. For example, I thought a story about a zombie going to school would make a great book. Apparently it does make a great book because several books on that topic already exist. That doesn’t mean you can’t write about that topic, but it does mean you need to find a new and intriguing way to execute that idea.

So I know that was a lot thrown at you in a short amount of time, but I hope that writing advice helps.

Did I miss any essential writing tips? Let me know in the comments. I would love to hear from you.

And thank you so much for watching. If you got any value out of this video, please like it, subscribe to my channel and share the video with other aspiring picture book authors. Thanks.