The Surprising Complexity of Picture Books

Photo by Kindel Media

Today’s post is by author and book coach Janet S Fox.

To most readers, picture books appear to be simple stories, easy to write and short in length. New writers often enter the world of writing for children by attempting to write picture books rather than longer form stories, only to discover that picture books are not easy to write at all.

Good picture books are complex and layered, structured as carefully as a novel yet linguistically closer to a poem. If you are a picture book author but not an illustrator, you need to know how to make a text that will allow room for the illustrator to bring their vision to the work and yet create a complete story.

Protagonist, antagonist, rising and falling action, arc of change, emotion—all of these must be developed in a picture book, and generally with a word count of under 500 words. The words used must be simple enough to be understood by the youngest readers yet engaging enough to entertain adults.

Plot arc is one facet of picture books that can be almost invisible. Yet like all great stories, the arc of character change must be present, and must be driven by cause and effect and not a random string of events.

For an example, let’s study the plot of the picture book Big, written and illustrated by Vashti Harrison. (For you writers who do not illustrate, I have concrete takeaways.)

Cause and effect structure

For everything that happens in a story—including a picture book—the next thing that happens must be a result of what came before. More importantly, what happens next must be the result of what your protagonist has done, for better or worse. Otherwise, your story becomes no more than a string of events.

One inspiration for this way of looking at cause-and-effect forces is a plot plan devised by the movie studio Pixar as #4 in their “22 rules of storytelling” (originally shared on what was then Twitter by Pixar Story Artist Emma Coats), in which you can see how this works:

Once upon a time there was [something].Every day, [something happened]. But one day [something new happened].Because of that, [something else happened].Because something else happened, [something else happened].Until finally, [the final thing happened].And ever since that day, [there was something new].

When we fit the Big concept into this template, this is the arc of its story:

Once upon a time there was a little girl with a big heart and big imagination.Every day, she grew and grew. But one day she grew very big in her body, too.Because of that, people around her laughed and scolded and teased.Because they teased, the girl felt she didn’t belong anywhere, like a great big nothing.Until finally, she decided to make space for herself and tell people they’d hurt her.And ever since that day, she liked herself just the way she was.

For each action of the protagonist, there must be forward momentum toward both an external goal and an internal desire. Your character must do things in opposition to the antagonist, and because of what they do, things will happen, and that chain of events will lead to an entirely new life for the character.

It’s the words “because of” that are important here:

Because of that, people around her laughed and scolded and teased.
Because they teased, the girl felt she didn’t belong anywhere, like a great big nothing.

How this actually works in Big

The little girl’s external goal is to not be teased and humiliated. Her internal desire is to be accepted for who she is—to belong. The antagonist is everyone around her who criticizes her and puts her in a box from which she must break out to achieve her desire and goal.

Let’s look at Harrison’s actual text, in italics, at each of the story arc steps:

Once upon a time there was [a girl with a big laugh and a big heart and very big dreams].Every day, [she learned her ABCs and 123s, she always said please and thank you…and it was good]. But one day [something big happened].Because of that, [it made her feel small].Because something else happened, [she began to feel not herself].Until finally, [she let it all out…and decided to make more space for herself and was able to see a way out].And ever since that day, [she was just a girl, and she was good].

Big has a total of 275 words, not including the illustrated “background” words, and is long for a picture book at 56 pages, not including the foldout; many of those pages are wordless. Of course, one part of the brilliance of Harrison’s story is the way she uses her illustrations, with the girl literally pushing the boundaries of her world until she can break free of others’ negative words.

But her text follows the Pixar template almost to the letter, which creates a complete story arc, with change in the protagonist and cause and effect.

For non-illustrating picture books writers

You who are solely writers must give the illustrator room while limiting word count. Harrison’s small word count is evidence that a picture book is a marriage of poetry and imagery, and this plus her use of a perfect story arc provides an example writers can follow.

Apply this lesson to your idea:

Fashion a story concept that has an arc like Big.Think about the illustrations to a point but leave plenty of room for the illustrator’s imaginative additions.Treat the words as you would if you were writing a poem, with spare, clean language and power-packed metaphors.Use the Pixar template—first, to fill in your concept.Now fill in the template with your actual text, 275 words, more or less.

Does your story work with the arc of story, character change, rising/falling action, and cause and effect?