by Pam Calvert
So, today you’re supposed to be eating lots of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, dressing, pies (emphasis on the plural here)…AND talking (not fighting) with your relatives. Enjoying your day! But still…it IS Picture Book Idea Month and so you’re also supposed to be thinking of a blockbuster picture book idea today as well. But I’m not thinking about today. No. I’m thinking about tomorrow.
BLACK FRIDAY!
Mwahahahaaaa!
And in honor of Black Friday, I’m going to veer off from the normal “how I get my ideas” blog post to a more material slant—something all picture book writers should have sitting with them when they’re about to brainstorm. Something you should ask for Christmas so you can weave all those good ideas into editor-loving stories. It’s something I bought myself (SPLURGED on) several years ago and it helped me brainstorm two of my upcoming picture books.
It’s called the Magna Storyboard Pad (pictured). Notice it has three areas where you can draw and lines for writing. “But WAIT!” you say. “I’M NOT AN ILLUSTRATOR!”
Well, I’m not either, but if you’re going to be a picture book author, you better be visualizing your story even before you start writing. This pad forces you to think in pictures. A lot of times, it’s easy for me to get swept away by my words when I should be visualizing my story first. And since I bought this pad, thinking in pictures has never been easier. And another secret?
No one has to see your pictures!
But I’ll show you some of mine so you’ll feel better about your artistic talent (because it’s gotta be better).
When I started on the sequel to my math adventure, MULTIPLYING MENACE, my editor told me I needed to meld one of my contracted stories with an earlier version of the sequel, MULTIPLYING MENACE DIVIDES. The contracted story was entitled, THE FROG PRINCE IN FRACTIONLAND. That meant I had to apply frogs throughout my original (that didn’t even have a frog in the background.) And I had to apply fractions throughout. This required pictures. Oh yeah, and I needed another villain. Panicking, I grabbed my math books, desperately searching for an idea. But then I remembered the storyboard pads. I hadn’t used them (even though it was at the top of my things to do list). I started with the new villain…
Her name was Diva Divine in a feeble attempt to use a play on words with division. Of course, through revision her name ended up being Matilda, but this is what she ended up looking like in the book:
There’s quite a bit of resemblance and I never had a talk with the illustrator, Wayne Geehan, about the witch. He suspected what she’d be like from her actions. But without my visualization on paper, her character may not have come out so well.
Now, the witch was the easy part. So much fun. I had her reading In Stye magazine and wearing Jimmy Ooze shoes (um…that never made it in the book…ha!).
The next part was thinking in fractions. So, I plotted out every element. Here’s one page example when I had to show how the division magic worked with dividing twelve kittens. I brainstormed some ways I could show this on the storyboard paper:
Not only did I brainstorm dividing the kittens into frogs, but I had to divide things by fractions, which makes a larger number. In the storyboard picture I used frogs, but they ended up being pigs. Here’s the finished page of the kittens.
After I completed this story, I was hooked! I would never again brainstorm without my storypad.
Here’s another example using my newest PRINCESS PEEPERS book entitled, PRINCESS PEEPERS PICKS A PET. These are the initial thoughts. Notice, I’m terrible at illustrating, but the ideas flow much more freely when I use it, and I can tell if my story would lend itself well to illustration. You need at least sixteen different scene changes for a picture book.
Here is Peepers trying to find a pet for the pet show:
She’s frustrated because she can’t find anything (that’s a frog on her head!) In the finished book, she does find the frog and it looks like this:
Before I leave you with your Black Friday find, I’ll show you my newest picture book idea brainstorm.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Pam Calvert has written picture books and stories for over ten years. Her picture books include MULTIPLYING MENACE: THE REVENGE OF RUMPELSTILTSKIN and PRINCESS PEEPERS, a Scholastic Book Clubs selection and listed as a Texas Mockingbird picture book pick. Her newest picture books will be out in the spring of 2011 entitled, MULTIPLYING MENACE DIVIDES and PRINCESS PEEPERS PICKS A PET. She’s writing new picture books as well as longer stories from her home in Houston, Texas.
28 comments
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November 25, 2010 at 10:08 am
tammi sauer
Pam, what a fun post!
Plus, I love getting the behind-the-scenes skinny on books.
November 25, 2010 at 11:18 am
Dana Carey
I love stationery in general so thanks for the very cool tip about these pads.
Enjoyed reading about your process. Very interesting!
Happy Thanksgiving!
November 25, 2010 at 11:24 am
Catherine Denton
Doodling AND writing? I’m excited!! Gotta find one of those Magna Storyboard Pads…
Catherine Denton
November 25, 2010 at 11:27 am
Heather Kephart
Pam! You are a genius! I’ve been looking for something like this forever! Yayyyyyyy!!! Love your tips and your charming drawings. Still giggling about the last three. Happy Thanksgiving!
November 25, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Linda Dimmer
I’m loving the storypad idea! Thanks!
November 25, 2010 at 12:56 pm
pam Jones
Very cool sharing this thought process..thank you! I always love to see how people sketch out their ideas and bring them into stories. I never heard of this pad and I MUST find one! 😀 Thank you!
Happy Thanksgiving! Eat an extra helping of pie, you’ve worked hard at this post! 😀
November 25, 2010 at 2:29 pm
Jessica Stanford
Wow! Where has this pad been my whole life? Brilliant! I think I might be in love!
And Pam, I adore math themed books. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for your’s. At one time, I thought that my goal in life was to be the next Marilyn Burns, but that fizzled out. I’ve attempted to write two math themed books, but they never quite turn out the way that I’ve planned. Bravo to you for being able to pull it off!
November 25, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Catherine Johnson
Ditto Jess! I’ve never come across them before. Very impressive notes for the math book btw.
November 25, 2010 at 7:15 pm
Corey Schwartz
I can’t wait for the next Princess Peepers book!
November 25, 2010 at 7:31 pm
Marcy Pusey
Tough job being assigned THANKSGIVING DAY for your post! But Im so glad I took time out of the festivities to read yours! Thanks for the idea!!! Im gonna give it a shot! 🙂 Im thankful for you!
November 25, 2010 at 8:34 pm
Joanne Fritz
Love your post. And what a great idea that pad is! I’m especially thankful that your books are all linked to Indiebound. Yay for Indies!
November 25, 2010 at 8:55 pm
Lynda Shoup
Great post, Pam. I am anxious to try this method of writing.
November 25, 2010 at 9:14 pm
ccgevry
Oh yeah, I am getting myself one of these. I picture my stories in my head too, but this would be a perfect way to get it down on paper. Santa needs to bring me this.
Thanks for the tip.
Wishing you continued success.
Cheryl
November 25, 2010 at 11:07 pm
Rebecca Gomez
Great idea!
November 26, 2010 at 8:13 am
laurasalas
I love charts and forms! I use the Moleskine Storyboard notebooks occasionally, but they’re SO crowded on the page (both the pocket and the large size). I think I’m going to have to try this storyboard pad even though I haven’t used Day-Timer in almost 20 years! Thanks for the recommendation.
November 26, 2010 at 11:00 am
Linda Lodding
Super post, Pam! Just wondering — when you submit your work to an editor do you indicate your page breaks? I generally try to work in page breaks after I’ve written the story to make sure there is flow and enough action/page etc. but I usually don’t include the page breaks in the subbed manuscript. What about you? (And I love your illustration style! Just like mine 🙂
November 26, 2010 at 4:45 pm
Pam Calvert
Thanks, Linda:
No…you should let your editor do the page breaks for you, but it is a good idea to see how it might break up to see if it fits (dummy out your ms). Never put in page breaks unless the house specifically asks for this (some do, but not many.) The reason is that your ms could change during revision. It’s not until they’re satisfied with the finished piece will they break it up (and then it STILL is not done!) LOL!
November 26, 2010 at 11:26 am
Janice D. Green
Great writing concept for PBs. I never buy something I can create on my own computer, so I made up a storyboard sheet using your image as an example. It prints 8.5X11. Should it be printed on larger sheets of paper?
I’ve made it available to writers by putting it on my web page. Find the small link at the bottom, “Files for Sharing.”
Janice Green
http://www.janicedgreen.com
November 26, 2010 at 10:39 pm
Jessica Stanford
Thanks, Janice, for making this! You rock!
November 26, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Pam Calvert
Thanks, everyone! This was a fun post for me…and I picked Thanksgiving (by looking at the October calendar when I set it up with Tara!) LOL!
November 26, 2010 at 9:42 pm
Beth Crist
My niece will love the idea of a story board….she LOVES to write!
Talk to you soon…I hope!
Beth
November 26, 2010 at 10:35 pm
Sheri A. Larsen
I’m loving how there are three sections to that board. Loved this. Thank you for sharing!
November 27, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Diana Murray
OK, I’m DEFINITELY getting one of those. Thanks for explaining your process. That’s really helpful. (Love the Jimmy Ooze shoes!)
November 27, 2010 at 1:38 pm
Angela De Groot
Ooh! I’m adding those storyboard pads to my Christmas list. Can’t wait to give them a whirl.
November 27, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Linda
I’ll definitely be adding the storyboard pad to my xmas list. Thanks for sharing!
November 28, 2010 at 2:03 am
Dorina Lazo Gilmore
I love this reminder to think in illustrations, pictures and spreads. This always helps me in the editing process. Now I’m challenged to use this in my brainstorming process too. I hope the person who invented that pad has a Black Friday sale going!
November 28, 2010 at 6:02 am
Mona Pease
Pam,
Thanks for sharing. Great tool. Great post.
Mona
PS somehow I deleted having this feed income nto my email, so I’m 3 days behind…thank heavens I had sense enough to figure it out and come back(manually!). This has been a wonderful boost for the month of November.
November 30, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Hallee
Pam,
My family LOVES Princess Peepers!! We are big fans. THanks for sharing. Can’t wait to get Princess Peepers Gets a Pet!!!