(Image description: a tiered bookcase filled with lots of colourful children’s picture books.)
From Little Things Big Things Grow
I hadn’t planned on writing a children’s picture book.
At least not right now anyway. But sometimes the best ideas happen that way.
It came to me as I imagine many children’s stories do. I was playing with my three-year-old when we decided to create a book. “We can write down the words and draw the pictures then get Daddy to read it before bedtime tonight,” I said. Rose seemed excited and eager to get started.
Rose dictated and I scribbled the words down (we could’ve tried it the other way around but I’m yet to learn to read Rose’s language and she refuses to write anything but her name in my language). I wanted it to be a fun exercise and wanted to show my daughter that she can come up with a story that can be retold, so I vowed not to interrupt or add my voice to any of it.
“A big witch called Rose, she flies in the sky.”
It had started out better than I expected — there was no mention of Elsa and the story wasn’t Frozen!
“She sits on a seat with her mermaid friend. They turn on the light and tell their mum and dad they need to go to the toilet …”
Erm. Okay, sure.
Rose’s story pretty much continued on with her bedtime routine. There was nothing particularly witch-y or mermaid-y about it but it was her story and I loved it. So did Daddy when he read it.
What I really want to teach Rose is that her voice and her stories matter, and that being able to share them with others, if she wants, is a privilege.
How does all of this relate to my picture book? Well, when Rose grew bored of her own story, I started writing down my Rosemary Witch story that had simply popped into my head while writing down Rose’s — sometimes a good prompt is all that’s needed even if it’s just for fun. Continue on to read all about my process.
Sidenote
Here’s a little about the song ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow’ by Paul Kelly:
From Little Things Big Things Grow has become an iconic Australian protest song, paying tribute to the Gurindji people, and becoming symbolic of the broader movement for Indigenous equality and land rights in Australia.
Storytelling is a big part of Indigenous culture, but many Indigenous people have to fight to be heard. My father’s side of the family are Indigenous, but complicated upbringings have led to some disconnection from culture (for some of us). Yet, it seems apt that this song came to mind while I’m thinking on the significance of passing on knowledge and encouraging my daughter to use her voice and tell her own stories.
I also recently stumbled across a project called Our Stories, which is part of the Adelaide Festival, and a great way to continue the tradition of Indigenous storytelling during the pandemic.
I know I’m going off on tangents here but it’s funny how these little things pop up at just the right moment and feel interconnected — does that ever happen to you?
Anyway, continuing on …
What Does My Picture Book Writing Process Look Like?
My picture book writing process is a work in progress. This isn’t the first picture book I’ve written, but it’s the first one since I’ve had children and the first since I’ve made writing a big priority.
I don’t usually write on paper anymore — all my drafts are digital — but this time, with a pencil and a blank page, my hand flew across a couple of pages until the first draft was complete.
I hadn’t sketched out a plot, theme, or message I wanted to convey, but the basics of the story were all in my head so I just got it down on the page. (That’s completely different from my novel writing process where I write lots of notes and spend a lot of time planning before writing.)
Here’s a step-by-step of what I’ve done so far:
Hand write first draft — I know many people who hand write their first drafts (my sister included) to get the basics down. Even though I don’t usually do it, I can see the appeal because it worked really well for me while I had everything in my head ready to go.
Read it to my daughter — Pretty much as soon as I finished writing the story down, I read it to my daughter. It was great to read it aloud to see how it flowed and what parts needed to be changed.
Type it up — This was another part of the process that helped me see what needed to be changed to make the story better and I made plenty of changes as I went.
Picture book research — I started googling average word counts for children’s picture books to figure out if my story was even within the ballpark (this webpage and the whole site in general is invaluable).
Edit and rework — Over the next couple of days I continued to fine tune the story until it felt more complete and ready to share with some more people.
Send to my sisters — Besides my husband (and in this case, my daughter), my sisters are always my first readers, so I emailed it to them to get some feedback.
Edit and rework — I continued reading over and reworking the story until it felt right. My word count went up to around 800 words then back down to about 600 before going back up to 800 again.
Type up some of my daughter’s picture books — I already knew the word count range for children’s picture books (from 250-1000 in case you’re wondering), but I wanted to know the word counts of some of my daughter’s favourite books. I typed up Fancy Nancy: Butterfly Birthday, Madeline and the Old House in Paris, and Thelma the Unicorn. This was actually a great exercise because I also picked up on sentence length and structure that I don’t take much notice of when I’m reading to my children.
Edit — After some more research, I edited further and really focused on the message I wanted to convey. The original story had two main messages but I knew it would be tighter if I just focused on one, so I made some big changes in that regard.
List agents to query — I started making a list of potential agents to reach out to. So far, my list sits at 20 agents. I’ve been making my way through the #PBPitch list, but when I’m done with that, I’ll be adding some Australian agents I’ve found as well. (Soon I’ll be adding my PB agent list as a resource so keep an eye out for it if you’re interested.)
And I’m still editing — Despite the changes I’ve made so far, my word count is still sitting at around 800 words. Even though that’s within the recommended range, the general consensus is that around 500 is the current preference, so I need to make some cuts. (Wish me luck!)
When Story Ideas Don’t Come Easily
Not all stories jump into our heads and demand to be told. Some need to be pulled and pried out from the tiniest sparks of light.
An article I wrote a while back outlines five simple ways to generate story ideas (fiction or non-fiction), so check it out if you need a little push to find inspiration for your next story.
What I’m Drinking
It’s late on Tuesday night and I’m furiously trying to finish this newsletter that became longer than planned (just so you know, the length issue happens every week), and it’s been a full-on day, so I’m cramming to finish when usually I’m well and truly done by now.
I’m drinking Twinings Camomile and Spearmint, which is my usual nighttime tea because it’s calming without putting me to sleep and making me cranky the next day like some other sleepy teas.
(I have no affiliation with Twinings and I’m not being paid for this mention — I just really love tea!)
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One Last Thing …
After all that, I still want to help people.
If you haven’t heard already, once I reach 100 subscribers, you’ll have the chance to win a mini writing mentorship/free editing (one mentorship to win per month) where I’ll edit up to 10 pieces of your writing for a month.
Stay tuned for more details coming straight to your inbox, and in the meantime, share with some friends to help me reach that magic 100.