How To Plot a Picture Book

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2016 How to Plot a PB Good Morning Friends, It is NOT easy to write cute, clever, rhyming books for children. Falling off a slick log is easy (just a little southern saying my Florida family says a lot,) but, writing - any kind of writing - is not easy. Rhyming books are the most difficult to properly construct, so STUDY before you start working with that animal! I'm not tackling rhyming today. I need to study more, myself. Today, I want to talk about plot. As a teenager I enjoyed plotting to capture the attention of a handsome classmate, or plotting what to wear to capture friends' approval, etc. Silly girl. Today, I'm writing about plotting picture books. There are several ways to approach and plot. 1. Turn on good music. I love Il Divo, Elvis, Carrie Underwood and one song by Foreigner. However, some days I prefer silence when writing! 2. Look at the notes on your bedside table that you jotted in the middle of the night. Hmmm. 3. Put your bottom (backside, buttocks, tush, whatever you call it) in the chair and stay there! 4. Now we are ready---so I will begin again with Number One. 1.You need a main character that you & the reader like. Something must happen to this character. 2. Give your MC (main character) something to strive for, or accomplish. 3. He /she plots how to accomplish his/her desire. 4. Of course, he runs into roadblocks or complications. 5. The situation gets bad. 6. The situation gets worse! 7. The MC finds solutions and solves the problem. No one else solves the problem, not his Mommy or his Daddy or the wind. Just him. And, he can't wake up and say, "It was all just a dream." NO! It must be a satisfying conclusion. TIGHTEN UP YOUR WRITING. I will talk about ways to do that in another blog. In the meantime, Have a Great Day Writing. Remember: Writing is REWRITING! Love Ya, Mary Ann Duke, Ed.D.