December 2024 - Picture Book People

Picture Book Prompt 83

“Hey, it’s great to play at Carnegie Hall, but even that is extrinsic to the actual music-making. It’s your intrinsic relationship to your creative pursuit that defines you.”
–Ted Gioia

You’re a picture book maker because you write picture books. Being published, celebrated, and well-reviewed are lovely things, but they aren’t what define you. What defines you is your commitment to making the best manuscript you can. So, what are you waiting for? Go write!

Picture Book Prompt 82

“Stories bring us together, silences keep us apart.”
–Elif Shafak

On the eve of Christmas, when so many families gather, think of the stories you tell and how they might become the glue that connects generations and creates memories. Make a note of them and then turn them into stories.

Picture Book Prompt 81

“What is a thunderstorm, to a bird?”
—John Hay

What would it be like to be a bird caught in a thunderstorm? Explore the idea in a 12-minute freewrite. Then see if you can turn it into a picture book manuscript.

Picture Book Prompt 80

“When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.”
—Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Dig up an old manuscript and take out everything that is “not the story”—everything that gets in the way of the narrative trajectory as it might be experienced by the reader.

Picture Book Prompt 79

“Settle, petal—you are not in trouble.”
–Elizabeth Gilbert

Children get it wrong so often. They get in trouble, are corrected, disciplined. What would it look like if they learned they were never in trouble, but that they were on an adventure of learning?

Think of what a story would be like in which the main character/protagonist thought they were in trouble, but an adult explained how they really weren’t and contextualized learning what is wrong and what is right in a loving, empowering way.