Story Sonar: Listening Beneath the Surface of an Idea
I’ve often written about the importance of developing what Peter H. Reynolds calls story radar—the ability to notice ideas in the world around us.
A snippet of playground dialogue. A child’s question that stops you in your tracks. An unusual animal fact or a curious historical detail.
These sparks often become the seeds of new stories.
Story radar is about noticing. But there’s another creative skill that may be even more important, especially for picture book writers.
I call it story sonar.
While radar scans the horizon for new ideas, sonar listens beneath the surface. It helps us discover the deeper story hidden inside the idea we’ve already found. Let me explain.
Many promising picture book ideas begin with a clever or interesting character or subject: A messy mermaid… a shy unicorn… a dragon who hates fire.
These concepts may spark curiosity—but on their own, they aren’t quite stories yet.
Story sonar asks the next, more important question:
What lies underneath this idea?
What is the emotional truth? What is the deeper tension or longing driving the character? What about this subject captures the imagination?
In other words, sonar helps us listen for the heart of the story.
When writers skip this step, manuscripts often feel charming but thin. The premise is delightful, but the narrative doesn’t quite resonate. When writers engage their story sonar, something different happens. The idea deepens.
That messy mermaid may actually be struggling with expectations of perfection. The shy unicorn might be navigating what it means to stand out in a crowd. The dragon who hates fire could be grappling with their identity.
Now we have something with emotional weight.
Young readers are extraordinarily perceptive. They recognize authenticity immediately. Stories that resonate most deeply often do so because they touch something universal beneath the surface. Story sonar helps us find that.
If you’re developing a new idea, try asking yourself a few listening questions:
What does this character want more than anything?
What stands in their way?
What emotional truth might this story be exploring?
Often the answers lead you beyond the clever premise and toward the story’s beating heart. And that’s where the most memorable picture books live.
So by all means keep your story radar active—stay curious, collect ideas, notice the world. But once you’ve found an idea worth exploring, pause for a moment and switch on your story sonar. You might discover that the most powerful story is the one waiting just beneath the surface.
