The Importance of Consistency in Picture Books
Writing a picture book is a delightful yet challenging endeavor. One of the key aspects that can make or break your manuscript is maintaining consistency in tone, style, and character. These elements are crucial for creating a cohesive and engaging story. So, let’s dive into some practical tips to help you achieve this consistency.
Understanding Tone, Style, and Character
Before we get into the nitty-gritty, it’s essential to understand what we mean by tone, style, and character.
- Tone: This is the overall mood or feeling of your story. Is it whimsical, serious, edgy, lyrical?
- Style: This refers to the way you use voice and language, including your choice of words, sentence structure, and literary devices.
- Character: These are the individuals who populate your story. Their personalities, actions, and dialogues need to be consistent throughout the manuscript.
Tips for Maintaining Consistency
1. Define Your Tone Early On
The tone of your story should be evident from the very first page. Whether you’re aiming for a light-hearted, humorous tale or a more serious, educational story, make sure your tone is clear and consistent. One way to do this is by using specific language and imagery that evoke the desired mood and/or reflect the events, setting, or style of your story.
2. Create a Style Guide
A style guide can be incredibly helpful for maintaining consistency. This doesn’t have to be a formal document; even a simple list of guidelines can work wonders. Include things like:
- Preferred vocabulary, including any vernacular specific to your subject
- Sentence length and structure
- Use of literary devices like metaphors or similes, wordplay, etc.
3. Develop Detailed Character Profiles
Your characters should feel like real people, with consistent behaviors, speech patterns, and reactions. Create detailed profiles for each character, including their background, personality traits, and even their likes and dislikes. This will help you keep their actions and dialogues consistent throughout the story. (Bear in mind, though, that unless it’s germane to your story, surface-level character details like hair color or choice of clothing are the purview of the illustrator.)
4. Create a Dummy
A picture book dummy is like a storyboard. It serves as a visual aid to help you see the flow of your story. It allows you to map out each page/scene and ensure that the tone, style, and character actions are consistent. This is especially useful for picture books, where the interplay between text and illustrations is crucial. Author/illustrators work this way automatically, but it’s equally important for authors only to create a dummy draft to ensure that there will be enough visual progression in the storytelling and that they have given their illustrator enough to do.
5. Read Aloud
Reading your manuscript aloud can help you catch inconsistencies in tone and style. It also allows you to hear how your characters’ dialogue sounds, ensuring they remain true to their personalities. Better yet, have someone else read it aloud to you – ten times! Does it stand up to re-reading? Where does it lag, or where does your reader stumble?
6. Seek Feedback
Sometimes, we’re too close to our work to see its flaws. Sharing your manuscript with a critique group, a trusted friend, or an independent editor can provide valuable insights. They can point out any inconsistencies you might have missed.
By following these tips, you’ll be well on your way to creating a picture book manuscript that is consistent in tone, style, and character. Happy writing!
