![]() The underlying reason for my caution on the topic of outsourcing the writing of your business plan is the confusion about what makes a business plan successful. I also review children's books and books on writing and love stationery, growing bonsai trees and walking my bearded collies.See Also: How to Write a Business Plan Be aware of common pitfalls I do school visits as well as run creative writing workshops. I also have two monthly columns in Writers’ Forum, one on writing for children and the other about authors and their research. I write children's fiction, non-fiction and teacher resources for a wide range of publishers. Of course if you use other methods of planning I would really be interested to find out more. My recommendation to you if you are just starting out is to try and use this format. When the plan is in place and I am happy with it, I start to write the picture book. Again I just jot down a few words for each section. I use this planning sheet to help me as part of the rough sketch phase of my planning. I keep these in mind and think carefully what I would like on each of the twelve spreads. Just as for a novel the stakes have to get higher and higher. I outlined both of these ideas in my blog post on The Art of Plotting. I also try to keep in mind Michael Hauge’s six stage plot structure and the story arc. When I plan a picture book I always try to think of the plot, which goes into the middle section of the book, in three parts too. The rhythm of growing has three stages: baby, child and teen. Think about it… the rhythm of the day has three parts – morning, noon and night – there are three main meals in a day – breakfast, lunch and dinner. In the case of picture books THREE really is the magic number that young children can identify with. The Power of three is an important tool when writing children’s books, especially picture books. Notice how there are three bears, three scenes – porridge, chairs and going to sleep on the bed. Take a look at how a familiar fairy-tale such as, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, fits to this picture book structure. Most songs, nursery rhymes and fairy tales are built upon the rhythm of this magical number three. Sometimes they can be slightly different formats but usually they are 12 double-page spreads. The part you have to write is twelve double-page spreads. The blurb, price, ISBN number and bar code. This features the title, series, author, illustrator and publisher’s logo. It includes information about the publisher, the printer, the ISBN number, copyright notices and sometimes the author or illustrator’s dedication. Sometimes they include themed illustrations. ![]() These are the pages that appear immediately after you turn over the front cover. There are 32 pages in a picture book:Īs you can see this is briefly broken down as: My next task is to think carefully about the structure of the book. It is important to me to know how the story is going to end before I start writing so I know exactly where the story is going. My first task is to jot down a brief sentence or two of what I want to happen in each of these three sections. When I plot a picture book I think carefully about the beginning, middle and end. As you know I had two new books out on the 17th of this month but how do I actually go about planning ALL the picture books I have had published?Ī good picture book is not just written it is constructed. This week I thought I would talk about planning a picture book. Last week in my ‘ Anita says…‘ writing tips regular blog I talked about Planning a novel. ![]()
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