My agent contacted me and it seems that Knopf is going to make an offer on another book. YAY! It is so great to get good news these days, especially as these past few months have been devastating to me and my family and since so many publishing firms are cutting back on staff and titles.

The manuscript they want is for a very early picture book about two babies, one dog, and a pile of toys. It has only 11 ½ words. Ten and ½ of those words are the same word, and there is one “Woof!” from the dog. Now . . . anyone thinking about that may think, Geesh! That must have been easy to write. However, sometimes, what seems like the simplest thing takes a great deal of time and energy to produce.

First, I am used to writing longer picture books for the K—4 crowd, or novels. These have more words (the picture books usually 300—1,000 words), and I have more room to develop character and plot. Well . . . you guessed it, even books with only 11 ½ words (or less) need character development, and a plot arc.

It was my editor at Knopf who suggested that I try this kind of writing. I was very skeptical, at first. She had edited BRAVEST OF THE BRAVE with me and she felt I could go even younger. She sent me titles of her favorite early picture books and I studied them. I went to the library and bookstores and studied more early picture books, and thought about classic baby situations and problems.  REMEMBER:  you need a problem to have a plot.

I began to scribble. I had an idea, but I didn’t know how to resolve the problem without adult interference. And isn’t that the first rule of writing for kids? The child/children must solve the problem, not the adults! I knew that, but I couldn’t quite figure out how two babies, ages approximately 14 and 24 months could realistically bring a problem to a conclusion on their own. That was when I realized I needed a dog. Interestingly enough, it wasn’t until I was halfway through my novel, SPITTING IMAGE, that I realized I needed a dog in that book, too. Animals, even if the book is not primarily about them, can often act as plot triggers, or characters that propel a plot toward a desired conclusion.

The other thing that happened was that when I sat down at the computer to begin to write my story, I changed my mind about the resolution. This happens a lot to writers when they are in the flow. If your mind is open to other possibilities, sometimes a nudge comes from your muse and you know it would all work better if you went in a different direction. And so I did . . . and I like the outcome. Apparently, Knopf did, too.

There was a further obstacle as I approached getting this manuscript into shape. How do you present it on the page? If I simply wrote down my 11 ½ words—which are all dialogue— in alternating paragraphs, that would have been silly. No one could tell what was going on!  On the other hand, we writers know better than to give illustration notes. That’s a major No-no! So how to send it in? I decided to do it somewhat like a script. Under the title I have a line stating that most of the following is in note form as the illustrations carry the plot. I gave the two characters sexually ambiguous names (Chris and Pat) just to keep the plot understandable. (Thanks, Hope—a writing buddy of mine—for that suggestion.) Nowhere in the book will their names appear. I set up the situation, then I explained what was happening either just before/after each line of spoken dialogue. It ended up being a little over two pages long.

It was a real challenge and one that I was hesitant about at first. But challenges can be fun, especially when you think you’ve come through it with something substantial. Altogether, it took a little more than two months to write those 11 ½ words of dialogue. Now, I wonder how long it will take to edit it, and what form that editing may take. I suspect if there are changes, these will be not so much to the dialogue itself, but more to the flow of the plot as translated through the illustrations. So it will take just the right illustrator.

I know it has the right editor, she is as excited as I am. And I’m so glad she challenged me to stretch myself. It seems I will soon be covering a variety of audiences from the very young to teens. Knopf also has a fantasy chapter book of mine that we are in the process of editing right now (tentatively titled THOMAS AND THE QUEEN OF THE DRAGONS). With my range of picture books, my folktale (WHO TOOK MY HAIRY TOE?), and my teen novel (SPITTING IMAGE), I’ve got most of the bases covered from birth to fourteen. As I head into a new year, I am beginning to wonder “What’s next?”

 

Here’s to keeping all your options open!

Have a happy holiday season,

  

Shutta