ESSENTIALS OF WRITING A PICTURE BOOK
START DATE: Starts as soon as the student enrolls
DURATION: 6 weeks
LOCATION: Private Facebook group and email student provides when registering for the class
FEEDBACK: Weekly instructor feedback of exercises
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Have you been dreaming of writing a picture book, but don’t know where to start? Do you have a character idea or plot churning inside your head restlessly waiting to come to life? Or maybe you have already written a story for children. Do you ever wonder how you can revise it and turn it into a delightful picture book? In this six-week workshop, we’ll explore step-by-step the route to writing your picture book from knowing your target readers well, discovering how to take the leap of faith to write your unique story, developing your compelling characters and plot, finding your voice, to learning all the other basics of writing and revising a picture book. With practical and inspiring advice from an instructor who had written her own children’s books that both children and adults have immensely enjoyed, this class will walk you through your writing exercises until you reach the goal of having that full manuscript in your hands.
Each week, students will complete a writing assignment for constructive and supportive instructor feedback. A variety of prompts and tips will be posted in the form of videos, quotes, and links at the FB group for students.
TOPICS WILL INCLUDE:
WEEKS AT A GLANCE
Week one: What is a Picture Book?; What are the General Characteristics of a Picture Book; Getting to Know your Primary Readers; Why You Want to Write a Picture Book and How to Start
Instructor Handout Reading Assignment:
Part 1 - Are there any characteristics of children that you can add to the list? What else do kids like to read? Is there anything more that they don’t like to read? Try to remember yourself as a child. Any childhood memory will help. It could be about you or any of your playmates. If you have children, write down what you have learned from your experiences with them. If you don’t have children, you can play close attention to your nieces, nephew, godchildren, or neighbors. You can visit a park, a school, or a children’s gym and observe how children think and behave.
Part 2 - Go through your collection of books or go to the library and find your most favorite picture book. What is the beginning, middle, and end? What is the problem of the story? How did the character struggle? How did the character solve his problem? What is so special about the book? After reading the book, does it leave you with a lingering thought or emotion?
Part 3 - Create a file in your computer where you will store all your ideas according to designated sections. Sections will be named accordingly— character ideas, setting ideas, scene ideas, conflict ideas, etc. Once a week, transfer all your ideas from your writer’s notebook, notepad, or recordings to your computer file for easy reference.
Part 4 – You are really serious about achieving your dream of becoming a children’s book author so start setting up a regular schedule and a private workplace. How many times do you want to work n your book. 2-3 times a week? Mark your calendar to remind yourself.
Part 5 - Post a note in your workplace that says, “I am a successful children’s writer. Whenever I doubt my capabilities or whenever I encounter stumbling blocks, I am uplifted by this reminder.
Week Two: Discovering Your Ideas and Your Unique Story; Ten Guidelines on How to Write Your Unique Story;
Instructor Handout Reading Assignment:
Pick one between the two assignments. You can either write from your childhood experience or from an idea that was inspired from the illustration.
Part 1- Pick one of your photos of an old album and write a story of not more than 500-750 words. Ask yourself the following questions:
Part 2 - Write a story of not more than 500-750 words using this illustration in one of my early chapter books as a prompt. Let your imagination run wild! Use only the elements in the picture that interest you and start from there. You can pick a setting, character, or an action. Ask yourself the following questions:
Week Three: Start Developing Your Characters First; The Functions of Supporting Characters; Effective Ways to Show Your Characters; What is a Character Blueprint and a Character Map?
Instructor Handout Reading Assignment:
Part 1 – Think of a main character that you would like to write about. Your character may be a human child or a nonhuman child. Preschoolers and primary graders like to read about animals, fairies, and elf characters or anything that is regarded as animal or fantasy fiction. Just bear in mind that when you create your animal or fantasy character, he should think, act, and face real-life problems like you readers.
Create a character blueprint for your main character by looking at the example that I have given you. From this character blueprint, make up a problem for your character to tackle. You can make changes to your list to make sure that the character has the appropriate traits or inner conflict that would create more challenge for him to get what he wants.
Part 2 - Create a character blueprint for 2-3 supporting characters.
Part 3 – Create a road map for your main characters.
NOTE: Make sure to check the guidelines and examples from the current lessons.
Week Four: Point of View and Finding Your Voice, Style, and Tone
Instructor Handout Reading Assignment:
The next assignment is for you to write a fiction or animal/fantasy fiction from the eyes of the main character (from your assignment in Week 3) in the first person or third-person limited point of view.
NOTE: Before you submit make sure that you have applied what you have learned from Week Three about developing a main character that will win the hearts of your readers.
Guidelines:
Week 5: Plotting Your Story and Drawing your Readings into the Scene
Instructor Handout Reading Assignment:
Part 1 - Find specific words for the general words in the first column (a list of words will be given to you in sheet).
Part 2 - Fill in the boxes with sensory details by imagining yourself in the picture below. What do you see, hear, smell, taste and feel?
Part 3 - Let’s flex your writing muscles using sensory details. Think of a scene from your childhood as the subject of your assignment and write a 500-word description. You do not need a very long descriptive paragraph in a picture book, but this will help you choose later on what details are necessary in your story.
Guidelines:
Animal or fantasy fiction writer should …
Week 6: Rewriting your Story and Exploring What to Do Next
Instructor Handout Reading Assignment:
Part 1 – Rewrite the story you’ve been writing in Week Three-Week Five based on the checklists I have given you. There might be other changes you want to do with your story. If you would like to write another story, go for it!
Part 2 – After your instructor has given you feedback and you have revised it accordingly, what do you do now with the manuscript in your hands? Remind yourself why you took this workshop in the first place. Nothing is more fulfilling than seeing your baby in book form! Let your instructor know what your plans are so she can give you some advice on what your next step will be.
MATERIALS NEEDED: All you need is a pen, paper, computer, and some children's books for inspiration.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:
A self-made business woman, Christine L. Villa, aka Chrissi Villa, is the founder of Purple Cotton Candy Arts. What started out as a small business to explore her own creativity in arts and crafts has now expanded into publishing children’s picture books. A graduate of one of the courses offered by the Institute of Children’s Literature, “Writing for Children and Teenagers (2010),” Christine published 10 children’s book titles in the span of just 7 years, a few of which have Filipino and Spanish translations. The original version of her children’s story, The Magic Paintbrush, won the People’s Choice Award in 2011, #1 in the top 7 knowonder! stories, as voted by readers online and second place in the Royal Dragonfly Book Award 2021. Her two picture books, Frankie Loves to Burp and Zoobooloo: With Filipino Translation, won first place in the Northern California Publishers and Authors (NCPA) Book Award Competition 2018 and 2019, respectively. Her picture book, Will You Still Love Me? A Puppy Haiku Story, won a silver award in NCPA Book Award Competition 2020. Zoobooloo won honorable mention in the Royal Dragonfly Book Award 2021. Currently, she is a member of Northern California Publishers and Author (NCPA) and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Whenever she is not busy writing or publishing books, she visits schools to read books to children or to teach students how to write picture books.
Aside from publishing her own books, Chrissi also offers publishing services to aspiring children’s authors. Under her own imprint Purple Cotton Candy Arts, she has published ten picture books since 2018. At present, she has three more picture books forthcoming.
COST: $250, which includes e-mail critique and positive feedback on student’s assignments and final story, and access to a private group on Facebook for interaction, additional tips on writing, and updates on new classes.
DURATION: 6 weeks
LOCATION: Private Facebook group and email student provides when registering for the class
FEEDBACK: Weekly instructor feedback of exercises
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Have you been dreaming of writing a picture book, but don’t know where to start? Do you have a character idea or plot churning inside your head restlessly waiting to come to life? Or maybe you have already written a story for children. Do you ever wonder how you can revise it and turn it into a delightful picture book? In this six-week workshop, we’ll explore step-by-step the route to writing your picture book from knowing your target readers well, discovering how to take the leap of faith to write your unique story, developing your compelling characters and plot, finding your voice, to learning all the other basics of writing and revising a picture book. With practical and inspiring advice from an instructor who had written her own children’s books that both children and adults have immensely enjoyed, this class will walk you through your writing exercises until you reach the goal of having that full manuscript in your hands.
Each week, students will complete a writing assignment for constructive and supportive instructor feedback. A variety of prompts and tips will be posted in the form of videos, quotes, and links at the FB group for students.
TOPICS WILL INCLUDE:
- What is a Picture Book?; What are the General Characteristics of a Picture Book?; Getting to Know your Primary Readers; Why You Want to Write a Picture Book and How to Start; Discovering Your Ideas and Your Unique Story; Ten Guidelines on How to Write Your Unique Story; Start Developing Your Characters First; The Functions of Supporting Characters; Effective Ways to Show Your Characters; What is a Character Blueprint and a Character Map?; Point of View and Finding Your Voice, Style, and Tone; Plotting Your Story and Drawing Your Readers into the Scene; Rewriting Your Story; Setting, Characters, Plot, Theme, Sentence Structure, and Proofreading Checklists; What to do Next? Submit to a Traditional Publisher or Self-Publish
WEEKS AT A GLANCE
Week one: What is a Picture Book?; What are the General Characteristics of a Picture Book; Getting to Know your Primary Readers; Why You Want to Write a Picture Book and How to Start
Instructor Handout Reading Assignment:
- Types, Categories, Genres of a Picture Book
- What are the General Characteristics of a Picture Book
- Getting to Know your Primary Readers – Characteristics of Children, What Do They Like and Don’t Like to Read
- Why You Want to Write a Picture Book and How to Start- Your Reason/s for Writing a Picture Book, Set Up a Schedule and a Workplace to Write, Keep a Writer’s Notebook Handy, Take a Leap of Faith
Part 1 - Are there any characteristics of children that you can add to the list? What else do kids like to read? Is there anything more that they don’t like to read? Try to remember yourself as a child. Any childhood memory will help. It could be about you or any of your playmates. If you have children, write down what you have learned from your experiences with them. If you don’t have children, you can play close attention to your nieces, nephew, godchildren, or neighbors. You can visit a park, a school, or a children’s gym and observe how children think and behave.
Part 2 - Go through your collection of books or go to the library and find your most favorite picture book. What is the beginning, middle, and end? What is the problem of the story? How did the character struggle? How did the character solve his problem? What is so special about the book? After reading the book, does it leave you with a lingering thought or emotion?
Part 3 - Create a file in your computer where you will store all your ideas according to designated sections. Sections will be named accordingly— character ideas, setting ideas, scene ideas, conflict ideas, etc. Once a week, transfer all your ideas from your writer’s notebook, notepad, or recordings to your computer file for easy reference.
Part 4 – You are really serious about achieving your dream of becoming a children’s book author so start setting up a regular schedule and a private workplace. How many times do you want to work n your book. 2-3 times a week? Mark your calendar to remind yourself.
Part 5 - Post a note in your workplace that says, “I am a successful children’s writer. Whenever I doubt my capabilities or whenever I encounter stumbling blocks, I am uplifted by this reminder.
Week Two: Discovering Your Ideas and Your Unique Story; Ten Guidelines on How to Write Your Unique Story;
Instructor Handout Reading Assignment:
- Discovering Your Ideas and Your Unique Story
- How to Unearth the Stories Inside You?
- What if You are Stuck?
- Ten Guidelines in Writing Your Unique Story
Pick one between the two assignments. You can either write from your childhood experience or from an idea that was inspired from the illustration.
Part 1- Pick one of your photos of an old album and write a story of not more than 500-750 words. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Why are you smiling or pouting in the picture? What made you happy or sad?
- When and where was the picture taken?
- Who else is in the picture? What kind of siblings or friends did you have? Did you have fun together? Did you quarrel?
- What kind of thoughts did I have in this picture?
- What did I do next after this picture was taken?
Part 2 - Write a story of not more than 500-750 words using this illustration in one of my early chapter books as a prompt. Let your imagination run wild! Use only the elements in the picture that interest you and start from there. You can pick a setting, character, or an action. Ask yourself the following questions:
- What is the setting of story?
- Who is the main character?
- Why is the bee in the middle stuck inside the flower?
- Can you find a problem or a conflict that needs to be solved in the illustration?
- Which bee will solve the problem?
Week Three: Start Developing Your Characters First; The Functions of Supporting Characters; Effective Ways to Show Your Characters; What is a Character Blueprint and a Character Map?
Instructor Handout Reading Assignment:
- Start Developing Your Characters First
- Creating a Main Character Who Wins the Hearts of Your Readers
- The Functions of Supporting Characters
- Creating Unforgettable Supporting Characters
- Effective Ways to Show Your Characters
- What is a Character Blueprint and What is a Character Map?
Part 1 – Think of a main character that you would like to write about. Your character may be a human child or a nonhuman child. Preschoolers and primary graders like to read about animals, fairies, and elf characters or anything that is regarded as animal or fantasy fiction. Just bear in mind that when you create your animal or fantasy character, he should think, act, and face real-life problems like you readers.
Create a character blueprint for your main character by looking at the example that I have given you. From this character blueprint, make up a problem for your character to tackle. You can make changes to your list to make sure that the character has the appropriate traits or inner conflict that would create more challenge for him to get what he wants.
Part 2 - Create a character blueprint for 2-3 supporting characters.
Part 3 – Create a road map for your main characters.
NOTE: Make sure to check the guidelines and examples from the current lessons.
Week Four: Point of View and Finding Your Voice, Style, and Tone
Instructor Handout Reading Assignment:
- Picking your Point of View
- Point of Views Used in Picture Books
- Choosing Your Tense
- Finding Your Voice and Style
- Setting the Right Tone
The next assignment is for you to write a fiction or animal/fantasy fiction from the eyes of the main character (from your assignment in Week 3) in the first person or third-person limited point of view.
NOTE: Before you submit make sure that you have applied what you have learned from Week Three about developing a main character that will win the hearts of your readers.
Guidelines:
- Create supporting characters that are unforgettable.
- Effectively show your characters.
- Make sure that your point of view and tense are consistent all through your story.
- Don’t hesitate to allow your writing to reflect your own uniqueness.
Week 5: Plotting Your Story and Drawing your Readings into the Scene
Instructor Handout Reading Assignment:
- Plotting Your Story—Where to Start, What’s in the Middle, How to End
- Tip on How to Draw Your Readers into the Scene
- Ways of Developing Your Senses
- The Use of Dialogue in Your Scenes
- Basic Rules When Putting Dialogues on a Page
- Characteristics of a Good Dialogue
Part 1 - Find specific words for the general words in the first column (a list of words will be given to you in sheet).
Part 2 - Fill in the boxes with sensory details by imagining yourself in the picture below. What do you see, hear, smell, taste and feel?
Part 3 - Let’s flex your writing muscles using sensory details. Think of a scene from your childhood as the subject of your assignment and write a 500-word description. You do not need a very long descriptive paragraph in a picture book, but this will help you choose later on what details are necessary in your story.
Guidelines:
- Show rather than tell by using sensory details.
- Be specific rather than general.
- Make use of all your senses. On your draft, use colored pencil or highlights to mark your sensory details. Use blue for seeing, green for hearing, yellow for smelling, pink for tasting, and violet for touching. Check which ones you have used the most. If you have mostly green markings, that means you’ve focused more on auditory descriptions.
- Read aloud. Make sure your sentences flow naturally.
- Give your description a title.
Animal or fantasy fiction writer should …
- Make the readers accept right away that the story he is telling is true.
- Carefully sustain the story’s unreality by keeping things logical.
- Start and end the story on the same fantasy plane.
- Take into consideration all the elements of a good story, including a theme. Some fantasy, though, are just plain fun.
- Add taglines to each dialogue.
- Write a short paragraph showing the character in action.
- Write a paragraph expressing the main character’s inner thoughts.
- Mix dialogue with action.
- Use the write punctuations in writing your dialogue.
- Read aloud your dialogues to see if they sound authentic.
Week 6: Rewriting your Story and Exploring What to Do Next
Instructor Handout Reading Assignment:
- Rewriting Your Story
- Tips on What to Do When you Need to Delete
- Tips on What to Do When You Need to Expand
- Setting and Place Checklist
- Character Checklist
- Plot Checklist
- Theme Checklist
- Sentence Structure Checklist
- Proofreading Checklist
- What to do Next? Submit to a Traditional Publisher or Self-Publish?
Part 1 – Rewrite the story you’ve been writing in Week Three-Week Five based on the checklists I have given you. There might be other changes you want to do with your story. If you would like to write another story, go for it!
Part 2 – After your instructor has given you feedback and you have revised it accordingly, what do you do now with the manuscript in your hands? Remind yourself why you took this workshop in the first place. Nothing is more fulfilling than seeing your baby in book form! Let your instructor know what your plans are so she can give you some advice on what your next step will be.
MATERIALS NEEDED: All you need is a pen, paper, computer, and some children's books for inspiration.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:
A self-made business woman, Christine L. Villa, aka Chrissi Villa, is the founder of Purple Cotton Candy Arts. What started out as a small business to explore her own creativity in arts and crafts has now expanded into publishing children’s picture books. A graduate of one of the courses offered by the Institute of Children’s Literature, “Writing for Children and Teenagers (2010),” Christine published 10 children’s book titles in the span of just 7 years, a few of which have Filipino and Spanish translations. The original version of her children’s story, The Magic Paintbrush, won the People’s Choice Award in 2011, #1 in the top 7 knowonder! stories, as voted by readers online and second place in the Royal Dragonfly Book Award 2021. Her two picture books, Frankie Loves to Burp and Zoobooloo: With Filipino Translation, won first place in the Northern California Publishers and Authors (NCPA) Book Award Competition 2018 and 2019, respectively. Her picture book, Will You Still Love Me? A Puppy Haiku Story, won a silver award in NCPA Book Award Competition 2020. Zoobooloo won honorable mention in the Royal Dragonfly Book Award 2021. Currently, she is a member of Northern California Publishers and Author (NCPA) and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Whenever she is not busy writing or publishing books, she visits schools to read books to children or to teach students how to write picture books.
Aside from publishing her own books, Chrissi also offers publishing services to aspiring children’s authors. Under her own imprint Purple Cotton Candy Arts, she has published ten picture books since 2018. At present, she has three more picture books forthcoming.
COST: $250, which includes e-mail critique and positive feedback on student’s assignments and final story, and access to a private group on Facebook for interaction, additional tips on writing, and updates on new classes.
Click to set custom HTML
Let's keep in touch! Contact me at [email protected].