Lesson 2: Planning Your Book.
In this lesson, we'll be looking at the building blocks of books.
Themes and Ideas.
Characters.
How to Plan Your Book.
Specific Level - Picture Books.
Supplement: Anatomy of a Specific Picture Book.
W.I.P. Section. Planning Your Book.
Exercise and Bibliography.
Themes and Ideas.
When planning a children's book of any age level, genre or length, there are several elements you will need to consider. It is difficult to look at each element in isolation, because each one affects and can be affected by each one of the others.
The major elements include:
Idea. Plot. Themes. Characters. Style or format.
Because all these elements need to be properly balanced, it is important to plan your manuscript in a reasonable amount of detail before you begin to write.
Writing a children's book without planning at first makes about as much sense as cutting out a dress or a pair of trousers without using a paper pattern, or building a house without using architectural plans. You might end up with something readable, wearable, or liveable, but it's just as likely the structure and the fit will be wrong.
When you are an experienced writer, you may be able to put a book together with less initial planning. After all, if you give an experienced cook eggs, flour, sugar and margarine, s/he will know "instinctively" how much of each should be added to make a cake. S/he may not bother to measure the ingredients. If the mixture looks too stiff, the cook will add milk, if it’s sloppy, the cook will add flour. It is quite likely s/he won't bother to set the oven timer, but will still know when the cake is cooked.
If you analyse all this, you'll discover that the cook is not really acting by instinct, but according to experience. S/he has baked cakes before, and so knows how the batter should look, how long to bake, and the way it will smell when it is done.
An inexperienced cook will not be able to do this with so much confidence.
Beginning a Plan.
Most authors begin their book plans with an idea.
An idea is the central point of the story, the seed that grows into the tree. Here are some ideas that became children's books. Some are questions, and some are facts or theories. Some are speculations. Some are actual happenings. You will notice that more than one idea can contribute to each book. You can write a PB with one idea, but for longer narratives you usually need more.
Facts and Observations
The Bronte sisters and William Shakespeare have no direct descendants.
The higher a person’s educational and socio-economic standing, the fewer children s/he is likely to have.
Modern medicine preserves people who would have died in earlier generations.
Healthy foetuses are sometimes terminated while less fertile couples use extreme measures to bring a less healthy embryo to term.
Health and intelligence can be inherited from parents.
Theory and Speculation
Could these facts eventually lead to a slight fall in the average health and intelligence of the human race?
Idea for Story.
If so, what would happen if someone from the future decided to reverse the trend?
These were the ideas that eventually lead to the YA science-fiction/thriller “Trinity Street”.
Another Example
Real Event
A mother and daughter went to a commune. The mother was bitten by a python.
Theory and Speculation
Pythons aren’t poisonous, but they can give a nasty bite. What if a timid person had been bitten? What if it had been the child?
Idea for Story.
Timid child encounters python at a commune. She must try to be brave.
These were the ideas that eventually lead to the RS novel “Sweetwater Surprise”.
Themes are related to ideas, and can arrive in a book without conscious effort from the author. It is often easier to identify an existing theme than to choose and insert one.
In children's books, themes generally become more complex as the age level rises. For example, the theme of “Sweetwater Surprise” is simple. “Sometimes you are braver than you think”. The themes of “Trinity Street” are rather more complicated. These have to do with trust, morality, personal responsibility, individual rights, changing attitudes, justice and acceptance.
