As an editor for children’s literature, I work on manuscripts for all ages from picture books to young adult, but most of my work comes from editing picture books and coaching picture book writers. Why? Because picture books are short and delightful — two qualities that inspire many people to write them.
How hard can it be to write 500 words after all?
Quite hard, it turns out. I often joke with my clients that writing a (good) picture book is harder than writing a novel—try and pen a captivating story with an engaging beginning, thrilling middle and satisfying ending in just 500 words. Go on, try. I dare you.
Not so easy, is it?
There’s also a great chance that what you’ve written is actually a short story, and not a picture book. This is a very common issue I flag when editing picture book manuscripts, and is a pitfall that writers need to watch out for and guard against.
You’re probably wondering, “What’s the difference, and does it matter?” To that, I’ll answer that yes, it matters very much. Here’s why…
While both picture books and short stories are written for the same audience, and may even have the same word count, they are very different forms published in completely different places. Quite simply, there is no short story category for children’s writers in book publishing. You’ll find board books, picture books, early readers, chapter books, middle-grade and young adult but, look high and low, you won’t find short stories. So, where do short stories for children live? In print magazines, webzines and story contests. That’s it. Here’s a list of children’s and teen magazines looking for writers if, by the end of this article, you realize that you would rather write short stories than picture books for this audience.
Here are the most important differences between short stories and picture books:
- Readers don’t need illustrations to understand a short story. A children’s magazine will often have at least one illustration on the page to make the story appealing to a young reader, but all the details a reader needs to understand the story can be found in the words. Picture books, on the other hand, need artwork on every page for the story to make sense. If you read picture books (and you should if you want to write them), you’ll probably have come across some you can understand from the pictures alone! In picture books, the illustrator is responsible for expressions, setting and description, freeing up word count for you to write an engaging story. If you study a picture book, you’ll notice that the artwork doesn’t simply mirror the text, but gives readers more information about the story that doesn’t even appear in the text.
- Dialogue in short stories resembles the way we speak. Sentences are longer, there’s place for more back and forth, whereas dialogue in a picture book (if there is any), is very short, snappy and often rhythmic.
- A short story is designed to be read once. An ending that relies on a punchline, or a surprising twist works well for them. But in a picture book, your ending needs to be more multi-layered with hidden depths. Good picture books have a re-readability quality to them that short stories don’t need. Picture books are pricey, and if you’re aiming to write a book that makes parents, teachers and librarians willing to pay a lot of money for a mere 28-32 pages and only twenty minutes of reading time, then your ending must be one that brings readers back again and again because of the discussion, discovery or enjoyment it evokes.
- Picture books are quite simply for an audience who cannot read. Yes, they cover the 3-8 age range, but a lot of children older than 6 normally move on to early readers or chapter books when they learn to read. So, short stories you’ll find in magazines are normally for children who can read silently to themselves, whereas a picture book manuscript is meant to be read aloud. This means that there’s an element of performance going on, making picture books more dramatic whereas short stories are ‘quieter’.
- Page turns are part of the picture book medium and, if done well, can make an average story sing. They’re used to pull readers through a story, build suspense, introduce new scenes, create AHA moments, make children laugh… but short stories can’t use this practical element of storytelling to help tell the story as they often take up only one page in a magazine.
- Picture books are often described as poetry because you need to show readers what happens in the story by playing with poetic techniques like word play, rhythm, metaphor, onomatopoeia, alliteration… The delight that is those poetic techniques are actually part of the story, and you might even find picture books that are simply all about those elements and nothing else! Short stories, on the other hand, are all about WHAT happens, and less about HOW it happens.
- The current industry-standard sweet spot for picture books is 500 and less, except for nonfiction. Short stories for children are generally longer and can be between 800 and 1500 words. They’re easier to write than picture books, and easier to find publication for if you know how to write them and where and how to submit them.
Use this list of differences between picture books and short stories as a checklist
If you’re aiming to write a picture book, and it turns out you’ve written a first draft of a short story (or vice versa), then write a second draft with these elements in mind. Neither a picture book or a short story is better than the other; they both have an important place in children’s literature, but be sure that what you’ve written is what you set out to write. And if not, revise. There is no published text that didn’t go through (manymanymany) revisions before it found its way into the world.
There’s no shame in — and no escaping — revision!
