Children's Literature Forum Part 1:

I attended a Children's Literature Forum at Utah Valley University on Thursday and Friday this past week. Shannon Hale (YA author), Robert Neubecker (illustrator), and Abby Ranger (editor) among several others spoke at the forum and participated in break out sessions and mini workshops. I didn't know what to expect b/c I had never attended the forum (they have it every year) or anything like it but was pleasantly surprised by how organized, informative, and well-executed it was.
The reason I attended is b/c I wrote a children's book about two years ago and wanted to know what to do to take the next step: illustrations, query letter (we'll talk about what this in a later post), which publisher(s) to send the manuscript to, what format to send the book, do I need a literary agent, etc!?
I have decided to create a series sharing what I learned during the forum for all of you aspiring writers out there :)

This is part one of the series...Creating a Successful Picture Book:

Top Six Most Common/Cliche/Over-done Picture Books (according to Abby Ranger):

• Ugly duckling stories
• Learning acceptance of death
• 1st day of school
• Barnyard animals talking in rhyme
• Retelling of fairytales (interesting that she pointed this one out b/c Shannon Hale has made her living by retelling fairytales)
• Anything overtly moralizing or instructional

Keys To Creating a Children's Book:

• Sparcity and Clarity--the diction, themes, and story line must be succinct and simple.
• The story should be perfectly put together but look as if it were created without any effort at all (isn't that the greatest challenge in creating any story?! Argh!)
  
• Singularity--in other words the story needs to be noticeably different.
  
• Read through your story and ask yourself: Would I buy this book? Is this a book that my children would want to pull off the shelf time and time again?
  
• Marketable children's books are often ones with a main character who has attitude, charisma, and potential to be included in a series of books.

I will post Part 2 later this week. Feel free to include questions or topics you would like explored in a comment.