Writing For Kids

How Hard Can It Be?

Sam and Jessica, her illustrator

How hard can it be? It’s only 500 words.

At one time I also thought writing a picture book would be easy…until I tried it. And it is much more challenging than it looks.

For me the reason why picture book writing is tricky is children are discerning critics. If your story doesn't catch their attention almost immediately they will tune out and choose another book or they will tell you they don't like it. Children even as young as three have strong literary opinions!

For me there were two specific challenges in writing my first picture book:

1. The first was to tell the story I wanted to tell in as very few words as possible.

With a maximum word count of 1000, every word counts and it takes time to choose those specific words. 

2. The second was to always keep in mind what I didn’t need to write, allowing the illustrator to fill in the blanks.

This last point was a writing skill I hadn’t had to consider before. I had to stop myself from being too specific in the descriptions of characters, locations and events to allow the illustrator to use her creativity to tell the story using her art.

For example: instead of writing “the boy’s blue hat flew off his head and landed upside down on the wood chips.” I would write “the boy’s hat flew off his head.”

The illustrator would fill in the rest with her interpretation of the story.

This is why choosing your illustrator is such an important decision. Having them relate to your story is of the utmost importance.

Next time you are reading a picture book try to imagine what you would draw to accompany the words or what words you may write to go with the art. It’s a fun exercise that my son and I used to do. It may even inspire a story of your own!

Keep writing! Keep creating!

Sam