Picture Books is an Intensive, meaning it happens in a short time span (1 day in NYC, or 2 days on Zoom). It's open to writers of any level. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.
The first books that children encounter are picture books, which are distinctive for their merging of art and words to tell a story. They may look easy to conceive and write, but it’s quite challenging to create one that truly excites kids and publishers.
Picture books are typically geared for kids 3 to 7, with varying degrees of complexity, to meet the interest level as kids grow older. Some are designed to be read to kids, some designed with vocabulary to ease kids into reading. They can be fiction, like Judi Barrett’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, or nonfiction, like Allen Say’s Grandfather’s Journey. (There are also very simple board books for kids younger than 3.)
Here you’ll explore the craft of creating children’s picture books, gaining insight into this form’s unique requirements…and wonders.
This course gives an overview of the basics of writing children’s picture books. Course components:
- Brief lectures
- Writing exercises
Topics:
- Intro to Picture Books
- How to Start
- Plot
- Character
- POV/Voice
- Theme
- The Market
About
- Zoom classes happen in real time.
- The Zoom classes unite students from all over the world at Gotham—New York City’s most well-established writing school.
- The Zoom classes happen on videoconference, in “real time.” Very much like an in-person class except everyone is on a computer or device in their own space. The Zoom software is free and simple to use.
- You can take a Zoom writing class from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection. The majority of our Zoom students are located in the U.S. but we also draw students from practically every country in the world.
- Tech support will be available. Out of respect for everyone’s privacy, the Zoom sessions are not recorded.
