THE CHILDREN'S BOOK ACADEMY
  • Home
  • WRITING
    • Mastering Great Graphic Novels >
      • 2023 Mastering Graphic Novels Registration
    • Craft & Business of Writing Childrens Picture Books
    • The Chapter Book Alchemist
    • New!! Middle Grade Mastery Instant Access
    • 2022 Kidlit Palooza >
      • 2022 Palooza Program
      • 2022 Palooza Faculty
  • ILLUSTRATION
    • NEW!! Craft & Business of Illustrating Children's Books Instant Access
    • Never a Dull Moment Workshop
  • TECH
  • About Us
    • Why Us?
    • Meet the Faculty, Lives & GT Judges
    • Testimonials
    • Books by Students
    • Our Bookshop
    • As Seen In
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
  • Blogfish
  • MN Course Access
  • Community
    • Our Bookshop
    • Come Play With Us!
    • Resources
    • Course Scholarships >
      • Yuyi Morales Picture Book Scholarship
      • Andrea Davis Pinkney MG CB Mastery Scholarship
      • Rafael Lopez Illustrating Childrens Books Scholarships
      • Larissa Marantz Merit & Need Scholarship

Pacing Picture Books with Mira Reisberg

6/21/2015

1 Comment

 
A bit over a month ago when I set out to write about some of the most important elements of writing (focusing on picture books because of our upcoming picture books course) this week's turn was about pacing. Well it turns out that Miranda Paul wrote a wonderful post on one of our other blogs with great examples right here and rather than reinvent the wheel I figured that I'd just build upon what Miranda wrote a little. I encourage you to read this first and then head on over to Miranda's post.

So what is pacing?
Pacing is how you get your story from the beginning to the end. It's how you set up a foundational structure from when you introduce your problem or important topic, to why it's important, to the obstacles the hero/protagonist must overcome to solve the problem, to finally solving the problem, to the great consequences of this and then the ending followed by perhaps a twist on the final page. It's the rhythm you use to create your story.

There are structures that you can use like geographical structures moving from East to West, North to South, from one neighborhood to another, from one country to another, from one room in the house to another, or traveling out to space and then back again. If you are bringing it back again or referencing where you started at the beginning, this is an elegant way of creating a circular structure.

There are also chronological structures that happen from waking in the morning to going to sleep at night, from the days of the week, to the months of the year, to aging over years.

There are also lists where you count down or count up to create another delightful foundational structure to help pace your story. Counting backwards is great for bedtime stories as it can be a de-accelerant, slowing down the pacing for kids winding down for sleep. Counting upwards tends to be more exciting with bigger numbers as you go but it can really work either way.

Pacing is also how you set the speed for the story by either speeding it up or slowing it down with language choices - shorter words will make it go faster, longer word will slow it down. And let's not forget how you use sentence structure - longer or shorter sentences will do the same thing as your word lenghts. Repetition will also slow it down and engage kids in joining in the fun repeating the words or phrase.

Page turns are another great part of pacing, where you end or break your sentences (with ellipses... ).

White space or negative space is another important element of pacing. Having pages with minimal or no words is a powerful pacing tool. Try breaking up your manuscript to include page turns. Have a look at where you can create some white space or negative space by having few to no words on a page. And while it's often the illustrator who decides where the page breaks happen, you can influence this by how you create your paragraphs. Pacing your story can be tons of fun.
Picture
Mira Reisberg has helped MANY authors and illustrators get published. She has worn just about every hat in the industry including art director, editor, illustrator and author, and literary agent. Mira holds a PhD in Education and Cultural Studies with a focus on children's literature. She is also an award-winning children's book illustrator and writer. You can receive a rare live one-hour critique with Mira (or her co-teacher the fabulous Kelly Delaney, an acquiring assistant editor at Random House/Knopf) in the upcoming Craft and Business of Writing Children's Picture Books.
Please leave a comment below and share if you found this helpful and don't forget to check out Miranda's post on the same topic.
1 Comment
JEN Garrett link
7/25/2015 02:11:05 am

This reminds me of an episode I saw of "The New Worst Witch" (inspired by the books Jill Murphy). In it, the headwitch explained that time doesn't always go in a straight line. When you're having fun it flies by, while it seems to go forever when you are bored or impatient.

Well, when I play with pacing in my picture books, I feel like a time witch trying to decide the best way to manipulate the page turns for my readers.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    We are so excited to be mixing things up at CBA, beginning with some delicious additions to the Blogfish. Meet our  awesome bloggers!!

    Here's our lineup:
    1st Mondays begin with awesome multi-published former student Shirin Shamsi who will be focusing on Muslim and cultural kidlit.

    2nd Mondays will feature super smart Melissa Stoller whose career is taking off with several new books.
     

    3rd Mondays will feature
    Bryan Patrick Avery, published writer, man of mystery, and professional magician among other things.

    4th Mondays will feature STEM, STEAM & SEL obsessed author Kourtney LaFavre sharing delightfully dorky, quirky, and fun info.

    And 5th Mondays we'll be taking a break

    Enter your email address to follow this blog:

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012

Picture
Discover
Why Us?
Courses
Blogfish
Book Shoppe
About Us
Meet the Academy Faculty
Community
Contact Us

Privacy Policy
Join Us
Social Media
Join our Community and receive a fabulous free gift, yummy newsletters, scholarship info, contests, and more!

Like us on Facebook 
Join our interactive FB Group  
Find us on Twitter 
Follow us on ​Instagram  
Look for us on Pinterest
​
Watch us on YouTube
© 2012-2021  All content on this website is copyrighted. Sorry, all courses are non-refundable.
  • Home
  • WRITING
    • Mastering Great Graphic Novels >
      • 2023 Mastering Graphic Novels Registration
    • Craft & Business of Writing Childrens Picture Books
    • The Chapter Book Alchemist
    • New!! Middle Grade Mastery Instant Access
    • 2022 Kidlit Palooza >
      • 2022 Palooza Program
      • 2022 Palooza Faculty
  • ILLUSTRATION
    • NEW!! Craft & Business of Illustrating Children's Books Instant Access
    • Never a Dull Moment Workshop
  • TECH
  • About Us
    • Why Us?
    • Meet the Faculty, Lives & GT Judges
    • Testimonials
    • Books by Students
    • Our Bookshop
    • As Seen In
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
  • Blogfish
  • MN Course Access
  • Community
    • Our Bookshop
    • Come Play With Us!
    • Resources
    • Course Scholarships >
      • Yuyi Morales Picture Book Scholarship
      • Andrea Davis Pinkney MG CB Mastery Scholarship
      • Rafael Lopez Illustrating Childrens Books Scholarships
      • Larissa Marantz Merit & Need Scholarship