Picture Book Voice
Voice is the combination of a writer’s stylistic choices, their protagonist’s essence, and their story genre. It’s how a writer tells their story, and one question I often challenge writers with in my editorial work is whether or not they have chosen the best way to tell their story.
The voice of a children’s book should sound childlike, just like the voice of a young adult book should sound like a teenager…
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Adults aren’t typically the POV characters in children’s books, just like a four-year-old isn’t the traditional protagonist in a novel marketed to adult readers. Since picture books have illustrations, less language has to be dedicated to describing the character’s surroundings. In novels for older audiences, however, without descriptive language we’d be left confused about where we are, who we’re with, and what we’re doing. Those choices, and then the specific words we use to execute those choices, are what make up voice.
What The Story Sounds Like
Your voice is unique to you. It’s how you talk; the combination of sounds, the words you choose, your sarcasm or humor, etc. Think of it like this: if one of your friends or family members were blindfolded and put in a room with you and nine other people and they had to identify you by the sound of your voice, what do you think would give you away? Those same idiosyncrasies factor into writing voice.
What is Picture Book Voice?
So, based on what I said above, we can break down what voice is and pinpoint what distinguishes picture book voice.
Style
Picture books are meant for younger audiences who aren’t yet well versed in sentence structure and syntax. To keep the narrative interesting and understandable for them, it’s best to use short simple sentences, which usually translates to a snappier pace. Additionally, the sentences themselves don’t have to say much because they’re accompanied with illustrations. The writing can focus on what’s happening, or what the character is thinking or saying – things that we can’t see on the page.
CHaracter’s Essence
Typically, at the center of children’s books are, well, children! Whether you’re following the life of a child in third person, or the story is being told in first person, the perspective of the story is going to be youthful. To nail this element of voice, you’ll have to think like a kid. If you’re writing a realistic child character then your narrative should naturally have a childlike voice, and the way the story is told should reflect the way a kid observes and interacts with their surroundings (and it should also reflect who they are and where they’re from). While simple sentence structure will be easy for kids to follow, it’s the child character and the youthful essence that they’re going to engage with.
Genre/Audience
Books for children aren’t going to approach heavier topics and themes (such as romantic/sexual relationships or drugs and addiction). They’re also going to have relatively low stakes that are relevant to a child’s life and what a child can handle (because in a book with a child protagonist, their growth and development has to fit within the agency of that age group). A four-year-old might go on a magic carpet journey to find their lost toy, but a MG character might have to travel by way of magic carpet on a quest to find their father after he’s abducted for practicing black magic. Again, notice how the description for the magic carpet picture book is shorter and simpler than the description for the magic carpet MG novel.
Learning Picture Book Voice
Take a line from a non-picture book (MG or older) and rewrite it as a line in a picture book. Similarly, take a line from a picture book and rewrite it as a line in an MG, YA, and/or adult novel. This exercise will force you to evaluate the distinctions between each voice, and how you’d tell a story to that audience and from that perspective. By familiarizing yourself with the distinctions between different voices, whether or not it’s your preferred genre, you’ll expand your writing practice.
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