No Clue how to Write a Picture book

While I was walking yesterday, I started thinking--yes, I know this process usually gets me into trouble--about Piper.

Piper is a faerie who is featured on the cover of The Fast and the FAERIEous, as an older version than the one I want to write about. . . in a picture book. . . . sort of, or maybe an early reader, or a chapter book, or . . . see my problem?

Here's my sitch. Years ago I wrote quite a few stories about Peter the naughty little fly. Well, I don't have a clue how to go about writing a picture book. Oh, I know some of the basics--32 pages, the art is 50% of the story so descriptors aren't needed, less than 500 words (but can go as high as 1000), and keep the language and sentence structure are simpler.

But what makes one cute anecdotal story publishable, while another is not? That is the question.

After a quick search on the Internet, I found one author who wrote her story, but then she showed the finished published story. This gave me a back-to-back comparison as to what made one story better than the other.

Of course, at this time my daughter kicked me off the computer and I didn't bother to save the author's name, so I'll have to search the Internet again to find her webpage.

But that's okay. That's part of the editing process.

When my walk was over, I jotted a couple of pages of notes down. I have the motivation and adventure, but I don't have a good conclusion.

Right now, all I need to concentrate on is putting the story onto paper . . . er, type it in the computer. Once there, I can tweak and play with it all I want . . . saving the various versions.

That's the one nice thing about writing short stories. They are easier to handle and manipulate, BUT you have to write very, very tight, choosing the best words for the story.

That's what I need right now. More focus to my writing.

But you know what's sad?

I think this one little picture book story already has too many things going on.

*sigh*

Later, Peeps!