24 | The Writer • January 2020
How to structure your picture
books for success.
O
ne of the things I love
most about writing picture
books is that many have
their own built-in formats.
A to...yep, you guessed it – Z!
1, 2, 3...hmmm...what comes next? 4!
Days of the week. The seasons. With
these examples, the structure is clear
(obvious, maybe!) and yet perfectly
appropriate.
But what if your book doesn’t work
with one of these can’t-miss structures?
Author Heidi E.Y. Stemple admits
that while she doesn’t get bogged down
by worrying about story structure when
she’s writing, she absolutely focuses on
that during revision.
“I tend to think of it in terms of get-
ting the plot points to line up – no
loose ends.” she says about her process.
“The ending must be earned all the
way through – on every page, with
every word.”
How to earn your ending and
make those slippery plot points line
up just so can be quite the challenge.
Fortunately, we have plenty of mentor
texts – those well-done books that
illustrate various parts of effective sto-
rymaking – to examine some tried-
and-true picture book structures. See
for yourself:PATTERN OF THREE
This one’s been around forever, it
seems, but with good reason – it
works. A character has a problem, and
they try to solve it but fail. They try
harder and still fail. Then they try
even harder/smarter – and fail once
more. This sets up #4 as a well-earned,
audience-appreciated success (though
sometimes the success occurs on
attempt three).
Three is a powerful, satisfying
number that children are precondi-
tioned to expect. Morning, noon,
night. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Baby,
child, teen. (You also find a similar
“rule of threes” in photography, inte-
rior decorating, and music – plus this
very sentence.)BY RYAN G. VAN CLEAVE