HAVE BAD IDEAS! Moira Butterfield

 It’s Yoda time on the blog this week. Read on for a simple but INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT truth about being a creative. And don’t just listen to me. There are some links at the bottom to press home the point further. 

 That title’s not a negative, by the way. It’s a positive, and by embracing this message you will become a much stronger creator. 

Have bad ideas to get better is the opposite of what many people imagine is the creative life. 

 

TRUTH: Creators do not come up with perfect work straight off the bat. They might pretend they do. They might quite like you to think they’re unusual geniuses with some kind of hotline to the muses. But the truth is, they will have made – and continue to make – bad work in order to get the best. They will have taken ‘wrong ‘pathways. The chances are they will have thrown stuff in the bin after spending ages on it. 

 

The view that good creators only make perfect things is not that surprising - because you may well have been encouraged to think that in school. There your writing/painting/creative project is judged good or not good. Right or not right. I think it’s why so many people give up on art early on and say ‘oh I can’t do that’. They didn’t do it ‘right’ first time and that was that.

 

But if you continue with that view you will struggle – I will go as far as to say you won’t make it – as a creator in any field.

 

Wrong is the fertiliser of right.  It’s the path you take to eliminate things, learn things and ultimately find the best way. 

 

Let me tell you something about myself. I’ve had many books published and I have many ideas in drawers and folders that aren’t yet right and perhaps might never ‘work’ as they stand. Through my agent I’ve done deals for many books, but there have also been plenty of ideas she has said no to, and plenty that publishers have said no to. There are also ideas I haven’t shown anyone because they didn’t gel. 

It all happens regularly. I’ve failed lots and lots. But, though it doesn’t look as if I’ve got anywhere with something, it doesn’t mean it won’t come back later and evolve, or feed into a different project. Maybe it will turn out to be ‘the wrong bit of the path I went down so I could find the right bit’. 

Ideas hiding in folders on my computer, some
of them bad! 

Yes, of course bad ideas can feel disappointing for various reasons – ‘I thought that was OK’, ‘I spent a lot of time on that’. it’s hard to bounce back sometimes, when work you’ve spent time on doesn’t make it through. But it has happened to me many, many times so I know that it’s actually a normal and recurring thing for a creator working seriously in their craft. Gotta dust down and go again. 

As Yoda says – The Greatest Teacher, failure is.

 

Now this only works if you’re prepared to learn from your setbacks. You need to be up for changing paths and continuing your journey from a different angle. If you meet someone who says ‘everyone else is wrong’,‘it’s all because gatekeepers are biased against me’, ‘I won’t change my idea. It’s great’. – then you’ve met somebody who won’t succeed because they won’t allow themselves to learn and try new angles. 

 

It's the same for mega-successful creators. If they decide they are geniuses who can’t be gainsaid and don’t need to alter anything then it quickly becomes obvious in their bloated unedited work. They forget they are on a learning journey, like everyone else, and get bogged down in the quicksand of self-delusion. 

 

For more on this subject (and other thoughts on being creative)  I’d like to recommend US picture book creator Andy J. Pizza’s podcast – Creative Pep Talk. He emphasises this blog’s point over and over. He calls it Booby Traps mean Treasure.  You’re on a journey and the booby traps you meet are proof that you’re still on it and still have a chance to succeed! Andy’s episode 349 lists 10 rules of creative practice, and he suggests it’s a good place to start listening and get a flavour of the podcast. He's super-enthusiastic and encouraging. 

Through that podcast I heard about Seth Godin – who says in his TED talk ‘if you want more good ideas have bad ideas’. 

 

He’s not wrong! 

https://ideas.ted.com/heres-why-you-need-to-have-more-bad-ideas/

 

Moira Butterfield is an internationally-published children’s author. This year her publications include The Secret Life of Bugs (Happy Yak/Quarto) Look What I Found By the River (Nosy Crow/National Trust), Welcome To Our Playground (Nosy Crow) and Does a Bear Wash its Hair? (Bloomsbury). 

 

www.moirabutterfield.co.uk

Instagram/threads @moirabutterfieldauthor

 

 

Getting in to a Flap! Garry Parsons lifts the lid on picture books with flaps and reveals some hidden surprises

The inclusion of flaps in picture books can undoubtably add an exciting extra level of interest for the reader. After all, who can refuse the temptation of lifting a flap in a picture book? Not me!

The flap is not only about encouraging reader interaction, but it can also add another level to the storyline by revealing text as well as hidden illustrations and therefore, moving the story forward through the reveal. 

The flap acts as a mini page turn and has many options for the writer and illustrator to consider as a way of pushing the story forward. For example, when opened flat, the flap can alter the image it covers in a way that changes the action and in a very simple way, suggest the beginnings of movement, encouraging the reader to flick the flap back and forth quickly to animate the changes.

Exploring using flaps to change expressions -Work in progress. Garry Parsons

So, what at first appears to be a simple add-on can bring a whole new dimension and distinct character to the book and considerable enjoyment for the reader. 

Making the flaps work brings its own challenges for the illustrator and designer and poses some interesting questions about the purpose the flap is there to achieve? Are they necessary for enhancing or pushing the storyline forward, does the reveal change with the text or is the inclusion of flaps simply there as a sales lure from the publisher?

Technically, flaps can appear almost anywhere on the page so long as they are clear of the gutter (the centre fold) and can be relatively any size or shape within the book’s dimensions. The largest flap is the gatefold, a page that has been made double the size and folded back on itself on one side which when opened extends the spread out to the side, top or below. This can be single or double to extend the spread from either side.

The possibilities are many but what is certain is that the reveal needs to be satisfying for the reader. As a participant in the story, we want the flaps to be irresistible but more importantly, we want the reward of being delighted by revealing the secret of what’s hiding underneath. 

Having completed a few picture books with flaps myself and currently working on a another, I've had the opportunity to explore flaps in picture books again recently and come up with a few enticing titles to share, starting with books with small flaps and ending with, well…all will be revealed! 

Nuddy Ned's Christmas. Kes Grey.

Kes Gray's Nuddy Ned's Christmas uses small irregular shaped flaps to reveal and conceal at the same time. The story follows a young boy who, like many young children, enjoys running around the house naked, except here, oblivious to his lack of clothing, Ned leaves the warm confines of home to explore the town in search of Santa, but completely starkers.  However, each flap reveals something that also conceals Ned's modesty, turning the joke back on the reader.

Somehow, Ned's streak through town convinces Santa that being in the 'altogether' is something he might want to try. Our last flap to open is covering Santa's seemingly bare bottom. Lift the flap if you dare!

Meerkat Mail. Emily Gravett.

Leaving in search of some respite from a chaotic family life, Sunny leaves the desert but keeps in touch with the relatives via postcards and letters. In Meerkat Mail, Emily Gravett uses flaps as Sunny's communication home.  

Not only do we get to read Sunny's correspondence,  but the reveal also extends the action through the illustration underneath. On this spread, Sunny returns home to the closeness of the family that he's been missing.

Animalalphabet by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Sharon King-Chai.

Animalalphabet uses a clever combination of peep-hole pages and fold-out flaps to reveal and then hide animals. 

Stuck in the Mud. Jane Clarke, illustrated by Garry Parsons.

The tension for the farm animals in Jane Clarke's Stuck in the Mud build's and builds over each page turn with the inclusion of a new animal joining the throng as the story progresses. More and more animals arrive to rescue the helpless chick who is stranded in the mud. The single gatefold at the end reveals the story's punchline, that the not-so helpless little chick has been deceiving everyone all along, including the reader.

Jim, A Cautionary Tale by Hilaire Belloc. llustrated by Mini Grey

In Jim, A Cautionary Tale by Hilaire Belloc and illustrated by Mini Grey, the story includes an array of flaps, folded reveals and clever pop-up elements but begins with a potted outline of Jim's life.

A double gatefold extends left and right to reveal a giant spread of delicious indulgence.

Incorporated into the double gatefold are extra flaps which reveal the next lines of the text

with this one revealing the gooey pink inside the chocolate!

Flora and the Peacocks by Molly Idle

Flora and the Peacocks by Molly Idle is a wordless picture book, adorned with flaps which increase  in size and frequency.

Flora dances with a pair of peacocks who echo the movements of her fan. The reader is invited to lift the flaps of both Flora's fan and the flaps of the peacock's tails, encouraging a unique choreography. 

In the story, Flora (and the reader) dance with the birds until the fan gets broken. Disheartened, poor Flora is left annoyed and upset, but the peacocks have a a magical way of cheering her up.

More akin to a pop-up element than a flap and increasing the book size twice over, the reveal is too astonishing not to include.

So, Hooray for the delights of flaps!

 

For more about flaps from an earlier post, scroll or search the Blog Den archive or find it here...

Hide and reveal - The irresistible joy of lift-the-flap books - Garry Parsons

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Garry Parsons is an illustrator of many popular books for children including the recent bestselling picture book The Dinosaur That Pooped Halloween by Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter. 

WARNING - This book contains SPOOKY flaps.

  

Visit www.garryparsons.co.uk and Follow Garry on instagram @icandrawdinos

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CAN YOU WRITE A PICTURE BOOK WITHOUT WORDS? by Clare Helen Welsh

 

Back in June, I wrote a blog post that asked if it was possible to READ a book without words. Now, here’s the sequel you’ve all been waiting for! Can you WRITE a picture book without words? Absolutely! You can! Can a story be told entirely through images? Can a picture book exist without words? Even if you’re the author only and not an illustrator? YES! Wordless picture books offer a unique and powerful way to tell stories. But for aspiring picture book writers, the prospect of creating a wordless story may seem daunting. In June 2024, my (almost!) wordless picture book, Moon Bear, published with Frances Lincoln. It’s about a girl called Ettie who is afraid of the dark. She meets a magical moon bear who is afraid of the light. I was not the illustrator on the project. I was the author only - my co-collaborator was the awesome Carolina T. Godina. Creating this book was an exciting and creative challenge, and because of that, I'd like to suggest to other writers that it's worth exploring. What I learned when writing a wordless picture book, is that all the usual picture book ingredients are needed – a strong hook, an interesting concept, compelling characters and a satisfying plot.  In this post, I’ll explore how to approach writing a wordless picture book as a writer only and offer some key tips to guide you in the process. Tips for Creating a Wordless Picture Book: 1. Plan the narrative arc A wordless picture book still needs a clear narrative structure. There needs to be just enough threads that the reader can interpret and co-create the story, and re-create it on subsequent reads, without there being so much going on that it’s impossible to pin down and follow one controlling idea.  To create a clear beginning, middle, try writing a mini synopsis, then write or sketch a storyboard of  key scenes like a film director would.  Here’s the short synopsis I wrote for Moon Bear. 2. Let the illustrations convey emotion In a wordless book, emotions need to be conveyed through facial expressions, body language, and colour. You'll need to dramatise the storytelling - show it, not tell it. Consider how you will emphasise the emotional highs and lows of the story in pictures alone. For example, maybe you’ll use darker tones and close-up compositions for scenes of sadness or fear, in contrast to bright and open happier and energetic moments. It might help to imagine an illustrator you'd love to work with. I imagined Briony May Smith when working on Moon Bear.  3. Create tension and resolve conflict Every good story needs conflict and resolution. Whether your story is about a lost animal, an exciting adventure or self-discovery, there should be a sense of tension that propels the story forward. The challenge in a wordless book is making sure that this tension is visible. Of course, much of this will become evident when an illustrator comes on board, but consider what you can do to strengthen tension and resolution in your written submission. When you present your wordless picture book, it will look like a collection of detailed illustration notes. Can you see how I helped my agent and editor visualise tension through the character's action? 4. Use repetition and pattern Repetition can be a powerful tool in a wordless picture book. By repeating certain visual elements, you can create rhythm and shape that helps the reader feel grounded in the story. It also encourages them to anticipate what comes next, adding depth and engagement to the reading experience. For example, in Moon Bear, Ettie’s bedtime scenes are repeated at the start and at the end. The first time she is afraid – she doesn’t want Mummy to leave. The second time, when she is no longer scared of the dark, she pushes Mummy out the door!   5. Play with page turns In a wordless picture book, the moment when the reader turns the page can be used to create suspense or surprise. Consider how you can use page turns to heighten, reveal, surprise or engage the reader at important moments. Here's a page near the end of Moon Bear that I think keeps the reader engaged and encourages them to predict what will happen next.  6. Use visual details to deepen the story Wordless picture books allow for rich layers of detail. Include scope for visual details that hint at backstory, character development, or future events. For example, have you spotted the cat in the opening spread of Moon Bear? And the clock that shows Ettie’s bedtime? It shows 7pm when Ettie is stalling, and 3:30pm when she is excited to meet Moon Bear again. These details invite readers to engage more deeply with the book and make new discoveries with each reading. 7. Share your story with critique partners One of the best ways to ensure that your wordless story works is to share it with critique partners. See if they are able to follow the plot. Do they understand the themes? Is anything unclear? Their feedback will be invaluable in refining your narrative. Wordless picture books are a challenge, a joy and a wonder. They can help children feel happy and confident to read at their own pace, making them an active participant in the storytelling.  Why not challenge yourself to write one? It’s a great lesson in showing, not telling. You’ll learn about pacing and what’s realistic in terms of page layouts and illustrations and the art of a telling a focused and satisfying tale. You can always try a version with words at a later date, and it might make for an interesting starting point.  There’s no right or wrong way to read a wordless story, and no right or wrong way to write one either. But hopefully the tips above will help.  Can you write a wordless picture book? Absolutely! You can! Clare Helen Welsh is a children's writer from Devon. She writes fiction and non-fiction picture book texts - sometimes funny, sometimes lyrical and everything in between! Her latest picture book is called 'Moon Bear,' illustrated by Carolina T. Godina and published by Frances Lincoln. You can find out more about her at her website www.clarehelenwelsh.com or on Twitter @ClareHelenWelsh . Clare is represented by Alice Williams at Alice Williams Literary and is the founder of #BooksThatHelp.

Mindful Picture Book Writing by Chitra Soundar

As a writer and with someone who learnt meditation as a child and had forgotten its benefits until recently, re-visiting the basic concepts of mindfulness has been very useful. Especially as a picture book writer – paying attention to the story and words, using a word with intent and not judging our own work critically until it is ready to be judged are all mindful things we do and we can do in our writing practice. 

So what does it mean to be a mindful picture book writer?

a) The first step is always showing up – setting aside a time for the writing and actually showing up. Regardless of the incessant chaos of our lives, we show up to write. 

b) The second step – especially useful for writers – is to be mindful of your own self and the surroundings. Most mindful practices start with mindful breathing. You quietly say In and Out as you breathe in and out deeply. Then observe the surroundings and try and write the five senses about the surroundings – from your noisy keyboard making clickety-clack noises to the smells from the kitchen or how cold or warm you are. What can you see – colourful posters or a bland white wall? Acknowledge all of those mindful observations.

You must wonder how this can help. It helps because the more you do this, the better you get at observing spaces around you and consciously remembering the five senses about those spaces. What can be more useful to writers than training your brain to consciously record details of life to use later in the writing?

c) The third step – is to imagine your characters mindfully in their space. Deliberately allow them to wander in their space. Even if you’re not an illustrator, you might have an idea where your character is at any point in time in the story – consciously wander and add sensory details that you have been accumulating by doing step (b).

It is easy to get distracted – your character might go off to different places, go with the flow. Perhaps the story might be led in a different direction. Or you might get distracted about what to cook for dinner or which book you’re going to read next. When that happens, bring your character back to where they were before your mind wandered off and start again. 

Step (b) and (c) are really hard to do when you actually begin doing them. Start with 1-minute exercises and build up your stamina to do longer durations. 

d) Now when you write your story or rewrite – channel all those experiences your character had with all their senses into the words. Because you travelled with your character into those spaces and felt what they felt, smelt what they smelt and tasted, watched and heard everything, perhaps your verbs will be active, your nouns specific and the emotion strong. 

Picture books especially with a smaller word count are acts of intention. 

You have a specific shape to the story. You have to choose precise words that invoke visuals and emotions in the editor / illustrator’s mind. And when you pay attention and do it with intention, you will slowly start seeing much stronger text on the page. But it is going to take time. Entering this space without judgement is the third aspect of mindfulness. 

Writing is often like the critic and doubter in us trying to wrestle control from our creative energy. As most writing books will say, and I can vouch for it as a writer myself and you can too, there is a place and time for everything. So when you’re writing mindfully, park the critic and doubter outside. Pay attention to the task, do it with intention and without judgement.

Then when you have got your draft on the page, bring the critic in and again pay attention, edit with intention and without judgement. Just because you can’t wrestle a story into shape doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer, it means this particular story needs more time – thinking time, imagining time, resting time and maybe rewriting time. If you get judgemental about it, it will cloud your intention of making it better and try to reject the writing.

So, the critic must be mindful as well – they are critiquing the words, not you the person. They are doing it with intention – this morning they are only critique structure, maybe a few days later, the critic can return to review just the words. Put intention into your edits. 

And you will end up repeating this process of mindful writing and mindful editing over and over again for the same story. But as you keep practicing the mindful way, perhaps you might not need that many rounds. 

I first combined meditation and writing in 2010 when I went on writing retreat run by Natalie Goldberg because her book Writing Down the Bones had brought me back from “not writing at all” to writing. It had a profound impact on me and still is my go-to cure for I can't write conditions. 

Nestled in the mountains of New Mexico, inside a Buddhist monastery, we did silent practice, sitting for meditation and writing with intention. It may not be connected, but in 2012, three of my picture books got accepted. 

I don’t always remember to be mindful, for sure. Especially as a children’s author, I’m doing events, I’m writing and working on multiple things and I have 100 different new ideas I want to write. But when my mind is busy and I feel like I’m hopping from one lily-pad of obligation to another, I find a quiet day just to sit with myself and my notebook. 

Also, when we were all confined inside when the plague hit us again, I started Write30. A bunch of us gather together every Friday (most Fridays), virtually, for 30 minutes and write to a prompt. The writers who join have already done the first step – finding the time to write. Then we pay attention to the prompt and we write. We write with intention on the prompt – but still engaging our individual creativities. I’m sure that even with a single prompt, all of us would have come up with different stories or passages or poems. Then we are non-judgemental. We talk about the experience of that writing, but we don’t read anything aloud, we don’t mock ourselves, we don’t criticise ourselves if the prompt didn’t work. We just reflect. If you want to join our #write30 meetings, email me and I will add you to the invites. 

If you want to delve deeper into mindful writing, then I’d recommend another book that will guide you step by step through the process and also provide exercises. Check it out. 

I realise this mindful practice of writing is not just for picture book writers. But personally, I feel picture book writers have a bigger need to be purposeful and intentional with their words and pictures. They need to pick their words with intention to tell the story and what can be more mindful than that?

If this resonates with you or if you try mindful writing, then do share your thoughts with us in the comments. If you want to join the weekly #Write30 session, do message Chitra directly.

Colours as a Picture Book Theme, by Pippa Goodhart

 

Colours! 

                  Colours are one of those concepts that young children learn early, along with numbers and opposites and shapes. We adults have a natural instinct to tell and reinforce colour labels in order to teach children these things. I’ve just been sharing books with my one-year-old granddaughter, and observed myself asking her, ‘Where is the blue elephant? Can you see a pink bird?’ even when the text of that book makes no mention of colour. 

    For that teaching reason, colours as a theme are a natural match for a very young audience. But of course they are also visual, and perfect for picture book treatment.

                  Picture books focussing on colour play with colours in different ways. There are those simply naming and showing coloured objects. And there are those which use colour within a story context. I’m going to show two of my favourite examples of colour-based stories, but first of all I want to show off my own new board book, Colours of Things! 

                  My text is a simple rhyming one –

‘Red cherries, a red door, red jam and a parrot.

Orange bunting and T-shirt, marigolds and a carrot.

Yellow banana and crayons, and bright yellow hair.

Green grass, a green dress, green grapes and a pear.’ … And so on through blue, 

purple, pink, brown, silver and gold, to …

‘White mittens, a kitten, a snowman, a cup …

And all sorts of things that just mix colours up!’

 

But its Emily Rand’s gloriously rich array of coloured objects in her illustrations which offer so many everyday examples and so much to notice and talk about. 

 

 

 

                  ‘Wow!’ Said The Owl by Tim Hopgood is a beautiful board book story in which a curious little owl stays awake during the day, and sees colours she hasn’t experienced at night. 

A pink dawn sky, a yellow sun, blue sky, green leaves, red butterflies, grey clouds and rain, all seen from her tree, and all eliciting a ‘Wow!’ reaction. 

 

Then, best of all, …

 

And the night has ‘Wow!’ wonders too. Such a lovely book.

For slightly older readers, and in paperback rather than board book format, is The Colour Monster by Anna Llenas. With wonderful, almost 3D seeming, collage and scribbly oil crayon artwork depicting characterful characters with energy and humour, this is a story that equates colours with moods. 

Colour Monster is very confused, and doesn’t know why, so the capable girl narrator of this story takes him in hand and sorts him out. 

 

He needs to recognise and separate his colour moods. Happiness ‘shines yellow like the sun and twinkles like the stars.’ Sadness is ‘gentle like a blue rainy day’. And so on.

 

Look at fear …

 

All get firmly sorted. But then another colour appears that the fierce know-it-all narrator girl is confused by …

 

Profound, beautiful and funny. A brilliant book. Perfect as a starting point for children to make their own mood colour collages. 

 

                  How else has colour been used in picture books? Do, please, add and share examples in the Comments below.