TLDR: Leave room for the pictures to tell part of the story.
It might seem obvious to say, but it can be a hard concept to grasp when you are starting - picture books are words and pictures experienced at the same time. If you can, have someone read a picture book to you and experience it the same way a kid would - by listening and looking at the pictures. This should give you a good idea of how the pictures are helping tell the story.
What does this mean for your writing? It means you need to leave room for an illustrator to tell part of the story in the pictures.
One of my favorite examples of this comes from the amazing book "Little Red" by Bethan Woollvin, which you should buy and then leave an amazing review for, but if you can't then you can it rent from a library and definitely not find on YouTube. . .
You can see my favorite page on her website. It is the page that says 'And then he made a plan'. The picture shows the wolf with a plate in his mind and grandma and little red on the plate. Thanks to the picture, we know exactly what the wolf's plan is.
Or remember in "I Want My Hat Back" when we first meet the rabbit? No where in the words does it say the rabbit is wearing a hat. It is the illustration that is giving us this information.
This shows how much work the illustrations can do in a picture book - and you should leave enough room in your manuscript for them because when you do magic can happen!
But Kris, 'they' say no art notes!!
Ok I'm going to hot take here - I think art notes are fine as long as they aren't excessive or unnecessary. For example your art notes shouldn't be full of description or expository - just say art note: the rabbit has a hat.
What would "Sam and Dave Dig a Hole" be if there wasn't an art note that said "there is a diamond in the dirt"?
More picture books that do a great job of using art to tell the story: All of Bethan Woollvin, all of Ross Burach, all Jon Klassen, Ame Dyckman, the book Mrs. S uses background images so well - just to name a few.
Happy writing!
Comments