Ann Whitford Paul: Picture Book Openings That Grab...

... With fewer than 50 words

Writing Picture Books
by Ann Whitford Paul

Ann Whitford Paul is the author of the seminal picture book craft text, Writing Picture Books: A Hands-On Guide from Story Publication to Creation. She's also written more than 20 books of her own, including If Animals Kissed Goodnight.

Her session was standing room only. A mosh pit. A festival. A mud-free Woodstock—or wordstock, depending on your tolerance for puns. We ran out of handouts: That's how eager people were to learn at the feet of Ann, who is an absolute legend as a teacher, and a master at the craft as a writer.

Picture book openings should make readers feel as if anything is possible. Readers need to smell possibility.

"Editors and agents can tell from the opening whether they want to read on."

The length of picture books is something authors need to pay close attention to, as well as the age of the reader. For very young readers, 300 words is a threshold. Older PB readers can handle 500 words.

Here's what the structure looks like:

Ann Whitford Paul

• The opening of a PB is the first act of a three-act structure. 
• The bulk of the work is the second act in the middle. 
• You reach a climax at about two-thirds through—a terrible point where the character fears they won't solve their problem.
• You quickly get out in the third act. 

Plunge in. Your opening shouldn't be more than 1/5th of your word count. 

Writers can do an opening in 50 words, but if the book is short, the opening needs to be even tighter. 

She talked about the many things the opening of a book has to address: 

• Who
• What 
• When
• Where
• What tone
• Wow

Here are a few examples she used to show us how it works in real books.

"Farmer Brown has a problem." 

This is the opening line of Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin.

In five words, Cronin gives who it's about, where it's set, and what is amiss (also what the character wants). 

"I'm so excited I run all the way home from school."

 This is the opening line of Big Red Lollipop by Rukshana Khan.

We want to see why this character is excited. 

"Will you miss me?" Abe asked. 

This is from I'll See You When the Moon Is Full by Susi Gregg Fowler. It's a powerful six words.

The opening functions just like an invitation to an event. It has specifics. It's enticing, she said: "You are inviting someone to come along this journey in your book."

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Jane Yolen Announces A New Grant For Mid-List Authors... And the 2012 Winners!

Congratulations to Mary K. Whittington for winning this year's inaugural Jane Yolen Mid-List Author grant!  A published author who hasn't had a new book come out in a while, Mary recently had a stroke, and is halfway through writing a new novel using voice recognition software.  Jane calls Mary her hero, and hopes the grant helps her get that novel finished and out into the world.

And our cheers as well to Ann Whitford Paul and Barbara Diamond Golden for their honor grants.

More information about the Jane Yolen Mid-List Author Grant (and how to nominate a mid-list author you know for next year) will be forthcoming on scbwi.org, where you'll find information on all the author and illustrator Grants and Awards.

Spot Yourself! Autograph Party Photos Part 2

Author Jill S. Alexander and author/editorial director Diane Muldrow rock summer color

ARA for Western Washington Kim Baker is STILL full of vim and vigor after four days of conferencing

Author/illustrator Richard Jesse Watson, author Ann Whitford Paul and illustrator/author Jesse Joshua Watson are just like family. Wait, Richard and Jesse ARE family.

Our hero, SCBWI dude and debut author Aaron Hartzler, pop and locking in the LOBBY

Author and Utah RA Sydney Salter holds up titles from Gordon Korman and Carolyn Mackler

 Illustrator/Author/Graphic Novel Slayer Dan Santat and author Tammi Sauer are sad the conference is over. Don't worry, you guys, there's the winter conference in New York to look forward to!

That's better.

Ann Paul - Starting Strong

Well, for those of you not lucky enough to be in the room with Ann Whitford Paul right now, I have a small consolation prize at the bottom of this post.

One of Ann's rules for a strong beginning: Let the reader know right away what the tone of your story is - sad, silly, scary, serious, etc. Imagine reading a story that has a happy title and starts off sounding cheerful and finding out a few pages in that the characters beloved PET dies!

Ann then provides examples of differently toned stories.

A good example of a sad story done well: THE TENTH GOOD THING ABOUT BARNEY by Judith Viorst (and the fantastic illustrations of Erik Blevgad).

First page text:

My cat Barney died last Friday.

I was very sad.

I cried, and I didn't watch television.

I cried and I didn't eat my chicken or even the chocolate pudding.

I went to bed and I cried.

The first line of the story sets up the tone. The two first lines are 'telling' lines, yes, says Ann, but then we go on to be 'shown' how sad the main character is in the next three lines. We also get a little taste of humor with the line about chocolate pudding. A very strong start to a wonderful picture book.

Ann gives other examples of strong story beginnings. She tells the audience about her 'W's (one of which is 'Wow') and Ann provides the workshoppers with some, pardon my French, freaking awesome handouts.

Would you like to find the WHO WHAT WHERE WHEN WANT and WOW of your story?

Lucky you, Ann has a great new book out:

Read about it here and here and check out the book trailer below.

POSTED BY JAIME TEMAIRIK

ANN WHITFORD PAUL & ERICA SILVERMAN, "Planting and Sprouting Ideas" panel

ANN WHITFORD PAUL & ERICA SILVERMAN, "Planting and Sprouting Ideas" panel

Highlights from Ann Whitford Paul and Erica Silverman's panel on inspiring ideas for writing. 

ANN PAUL bio: Her books have won numerous awards including NY Times Notable books, Carl Sandburg Award for Children's Literature, Bank Street College Best Books list, and many more. Her 2009 titles include TORTUGA IN TROUBLE, WORD BUILDER, and WRITING PICTURE BOOKS: A HANDS-ON GUIDE FROM STORY CREATION TO PUBLICATION.

ERICA SILVERMAN bio: Another award-winning author of picture books and easy readers, including BIG PUMPKIN, DON'T FIDGET A FEATHER (California Young Readers Medal), SHOLOMS TREASURE: HOW SHOLOM ALEICHEM BECAME AN AUTHOR (Sydney Taylor Award) and the COWGIRL KATE AND COCOA series. She recently became a librarian at the Los Angeles Public LIbrary.

-- They did many fun writing exercises and handed out several helpful handouts and writing exercise templates.

-- They also handed out gummi bears for an exercise on "Inspiration Through Observation" using facts, fantasy, feeelings, fuzzy connections. They asked everyone to observe their gummi bears with all five senses and write about it. One conference goer sheepishly raised her hand and said, "I need another candy, I already it, I'm sorry!" (gummi bears pictured above!)

-- For the gummi bear exercise, one conference goer talked about how upset the kids in Germany were when gummi bears were pulled off the market because of the spread of mad cow disease (gummi bears were made w/cow marrow)!

-- "No judgement," Ann Paul reminds conference goers so they would not be shy to share their writing.

-- One conference goer fantasized that the gummi bear was a diet pill. Everyone laughed.

-- Another held the gummi bear to her eye to look at the world through a different lens.

-- When Ann Paul asked about feelings evoked by the gummi bear, one conference goer wrote about her son being in awe of gummi bears on his ice cream.

-- Another writing exercise handout showed a black and white photo of an attic with the words, "Off in a dusty corner you find an old suitcase. You open it up and gasp. Write about what you saw inside."

-- Conference goers also received orange folders with fun souvenirs from Ann Whitford Paul, including her business card, bookmarks, and several writing handouts including one called "Inspirations for Discouraging Days."

-- Overall, Erica and Ann presented a wonderful and very encouraging panel for conference goers that taught them how to think outside the box and come up with inspirational ideas for stories. It was almost like attending an intimate writing workshop with your friends - although everyone in the audience didn't know each other, it became a very friendly and supportive atmosphere where everyone responded favorably to each other's writing exercises. This is another example of why the SCBWI National Conference is such a great event to attend - where else can you receive such one-on-one advice and writing critiques with famous and acclaimed writers such as Ann and Erica?

Posted by Paula Yoo