TRANSCRIPT

As you work on manuscripts and query publishers and agents, it’s important to also continue to educate yourself on how to be a better writer. No matter how seasoned you are, there’s always something new to learn.

When I started writing picture books back in 2018, I had no idea how to start. I literally Googled, “how to write a picture book.” And I found plenty of great information online. Definitely enough to give me the confidence to start putting words to paper.

But I also had confidence because of my professional background. While I didn’t have this sort of formal picture book writing training, I did have 30 years of advertising writing experience. And in many ways, I believe that advertising was the perfect training ground for picture book writing. Ads, especially commercials, they tell stories, to a specific audience, in a short amount of time. Exactly the same as picture books.

But even with this professional background and with 11 books published, I still continue to educate myself on how to be a better writer. Here are the top three ways that I learn…

The first is just to read Picture Books. One great thing about being a picture book author is that it only takes a few minutes to read other picture books. This is especially helpful if tend to fall asleep when you read or are a really slow reader like I am. But I encourage you to go to the library and check out a bunch of books and read them. And while you're there, ask the librarian what books that the children really love. You can also sop by a bookstore and spend some time in the kid’s books. Or if you don't feel like leaving the house, just go to YouTube and you can search for books that are being read aloud.

By reading other books, you can start see why certain books rise to the top of the sales charts. But more importantly, they can inspire you to think in new directions. For example, in Jon Klassen’s book I Want My Hat Back, one character eats another character. So what can you add to your story that would give it an outrageous twist? In the book Big by Vashti Harrison, the exaggerated illustrations helps to augment the story and the emotions the main character is feeling. Can something be done visually to push your story in a more compelling direction? Then conversely, B.J. Novak’s The Book with No Pictures, tells the story without any illustrations. So thinking about your own work, what word choices can make your dialogue or your narration stand out without any visual help.

The second way I learn is by listening to podcasts. I love podcasts because you can listen to them while doing something else, walking the dog, driving to work, cooking dinner. So whether it's interviewing authors or giving insights about writing, podcasts help to expand the ways you can think about writing your own books. They can also shed light on the publishing process which is really helpful, as well as offering querying advice. So here are several of the podcasts that have helped me:

Literaticast

The Yarn

Picture Book Summit Podcast

Writing Children’s Fiction

Reading with Your Kids Podcast

And the Creative Writer’s Toolbelt

And I will leave links for those below.

There are dozens of other podcasts. Just find the ones that appeal to you, listen to them and apply what you learn to your own writing and querying process.

And finally the last way that has been really beneficial to me for learning has been to attend webinars. Members of The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, also known as the SCBWI, have access to resources to support them along their writing journey. However, what I personally found the most helpful about SCBWI are the webinars put on by my local chapter, in my case it is the Southern Breeze. But I’ve attended virtual webinars on developing characters, doing school visits and how to write humorous picture books. And just FYI at the time of recording this video, annual membership in SCBWI is $99.

So those are my top three learning tips. What are other learning resources do you recommend? Let me know in the comments. I would love to hear from you.

In the meantime, 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. Thank you so much.