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...
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If you’ve been writing picture books for a while, you may have noticed that ideas sometimes arrive in bursts—and sometimes they don’t...
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Every writer eventually encounters a creative rut. The ideas feel flat. The enthusiasm fades. The work that once felt exciting begins to feel...
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At some point in every writer’s journey, a quiet voice begins whispering a dangerous question: Why them—and not me? Maybe you see a debut...
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Every writer collecting submissions will eventually collect something else as well: rejections. They arrive in many forms—polite passes, form responses, the occasional champagne...
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Every writer I know has encountered writer’s block at one point or another. Sometimes it arrives quietly—a vague resistance when you sit...
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In the writing world we often say there are two kinds of plotters—outliners, who work from a carefully planned story map, and...
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One of the most common issues I see when reviewing picture book manuscripts is this: a story that’s pleasant, charming, or even...
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Many writers assume that depth comes from complexity—that richer stories require more plot, more explanation, more moving parts. But picture books teach us...
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Picture books are often thought of as "simple." Short sentences. Only so many pages. A quick read. But anyone who has ever tried...
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