Welcome to day 1 of 40 craft lessons from 40 picture books. All well-crafted stories share one essential element. Whether it’s 32 pages or 300, readers keep turning the page because of it. In Monster Post, a beast finds a delicious-looking dinner: a child. The beast writes to his monster friends, inviting them to a […]
Day 1: Story Question Read More »
Not long ago, in the stories, the narrator was all-knowing, neutral, god-like, omniscient. The narrator freely observed the story’s world from above, reported all actions to the reader, and moved seamlessly from one character’s head to another, sharing their thoughts. For example, Only the omniscient narrator can tell the
Craft Books On Deep PoV Read More »
“Hook the reader’s attention as early as you can.” You’ve probably heard this piece of writing advice a gazillion times. But how often does it actually work? Especially in picture book biographies? I became curious. My Study I read only the first two spreads of seventy traditionally published
Hook in picture book biography Read More »
This blog post is not a summary of STORY. Claiming otherwise would be the height of naivety. STORY is a very dense book. You wouldn’t digest it by reading bits and pieces before falling asleep or on the train. It demands full concentration. Yet, every single sentence of the book is worth
What is a lead? How do I begin? Theoretically, I knew that the first lines (lead) have the crucial job of drawing readers into the book and capturing their attention. But practically, how to do so? If writing the first lines isn’t more difficult than writing the rest, it isn’t easier either.
Lead; hook reader’s attention Read More »
I knew one of my nonfiction manuscripts was mission something—something that I couldn’t identify! The topic was interesting, about a space telescope. The text wasn’t wordy; less than 800 words. The language level was appropriate for my target audience. Yet, I felt something crucial was missing, SOMETHING that should be in the blueprint of
Slant in nonfiction Read More »
Previously, in this blog post, I discussed the Narrative Structure. In a nutshell, the most used Narrative Structure is the Three Act Structure (Beginning-Middle-End). The term Narrative Structure is self-explanatory: a Narrative Structure constructs the Narration. Yet, this simple concept has been prone to many misunderstandings. When
Wrong Terms about Narrative Structure Read More »
What is Informational Fiction? Informational fictions are stories with the main purpose of conveying information and facts. They have the Narrative Structure as each story should have. Therefore, they are NOT non-fiction. They are NOT narrative nonfiction (biography or memoir) either. Because informational fictions have fictitious characters with made-up dialogues which narrative non-fiction doesn’t have.
Nature- and STEM-based Informational Fiction Picture books Read More »
Postmodern literature After World War II, a new movement in literature began: postmodernism. Postmodern literature rose to prominence in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This form of literature is characterized by the use of metafiction, unreliable narration, self-reflexivity, and intertextuality. Postmodern Picture Books The classic postmodern picture book
Postmodern & Metafiction Picture Books Read More »
INCOMPLETE Writing a book is one skill. Pitching is another skill. Previously, we looked at two main components of a query letter; Logline and comp titles. In this blog post, you will read the pitches authors used to sell the manuscripts we see now as picture books. I would love to
Pitch examples of quiet picture books Read More »
I will write here later
I read this book merely because of its title. My reasoning was that when an author is so careful with the title, the story will most likely be good. And it was not good, but brilliant.
Seven resin collectors
The story happens in a small, impoverished fictional village called Dukuh Paruk in the middle of Java Island. The main character, the 14-year-old Rasus, is in love with an 11-year-old girl, Srintil, whose grandfather believes she has a talent for Ronggeng—the Javanese dance. Moreover, in Rasus’s imagination, the girl is a replacement for Rasus’s mother, whom he had lost in childhood. A Ronggeng dancer isn’t a simple entertainer. The dancer is considered a sacred vessel for the village’s ancestral spirit and is expected to be available to the men of the village! I am not sure if it is comparable to the “sacred prostitute” in the temples that we read in the ancient Sumerian stories.
I read the first book in the trilogy in German—Die Tänzerin von Dukuh Paruk. Sadly, the other two volumes aren’t available to buy. In English, the trilogy is published in one volume with the title “The Dancer”.
The central conflict of the story is that Rasus has to emotionally put up with the tradition that everyone in his village believes in or benefits from. Rasus grows out of this calamity; he criticizes his village and its culture. In a nutshell, the story is the classic archetype: a boy becomes a man.
Tohari’s writing voice brings this archetype to life, especially his descriptions of nature and animals, which immerse me in the atmosphere of a Javanese village. The main theme of the story is the battle between tradition and humanity. In spite of the dire atmosphere in the story, it is very optimistic. Poverty and tradition cannot kill the humanity in Rasus.