The craft, the structure, the rules – and the exceptions to the rules
Writing a picture book might seem, from the outside, pretty straightforward. You might think that because it’s short, simple, and illustrated, it’s an accessible form of writing – but it’s precisely because of those things that it’s a challenging art form. Every word is doing structural work, every line break is a decision, and the marriage between text and illustration is key to the success of the book. This guide covers what that craft actually involves; the structure, the rules, the common mistakes, and the question of when breaking the rules is the point.
(A caveat before we start: everything that follows is a framework, not a formula. The most beloved picture books often ignore these conventions entirely – and some of the most forgettable ones follow them perfectly. What’s here is worth knowing. But knowing it is the beginning, not the end.)
What a picture book actually is
Before writing one, it helps to understand the form precisely. A standard picture book is 32 pages, which breaks down into 12 double-page spreads of story content, plus front matter, end pages, and title page. Some publishers will extend to 14 spreads for the right book, but 12 is the standard to work to. It is a more constraining structure than it sounds. Twelve spreads means twelve story beats, and very spread has work hard to earn its place.
On word count: the standard guideline is a maximum of 500 words. Some of the most beloved picture books come in well under 200; I Want My Hat Back is fewer than 300 words; Rosie’s Walk tells its entire story in 32. Others push past 700 and get away with it. But 500 words is the right target to set yourself, for the same reason the spread count matters: the constraint is the point. A picture book that runs to 800 words is almost always one that hasn’t yet trusted the illustrator to carry part of the story.
The word count and spread count work together. If you have 12 spreads and 500 words, that’s roughly 40 words per spread, which sounds almost impossibly spare until you start reading picture books with that number in mind and realise how much work 40 words can do when every one of them is right.
The structure
Most successful picture books follow a recognisable structural arc, even when they disguise it well.
The opening establishes the world, the character, and the central want or problem, usually within the first two or three spreads. Some of the best picture book openings do this in a single line. The opening is not the place for backstory, context, or scene-setting. Get to the character and the problem immediately.
The middle is where the story should escalate, which each spread raising the stakes, deepening the problem, or complicating the situation. The spreads in the middle should not be interchangeable. If you can remove a spread without the story noticing, the story doesn’t need it. Each beat should feel inevitable in retrospect but surprising in the moment.
The turn is the moment when something shifts. The character discovers something, decides something, loses something, or finds something. It is the emotional hinge of the book. Many picture books have a single, clear turn; others have a series of small turns that build toward a final revelation. Either works.
The ending needs to satisfy the emotional promise the opening made, while also surprising the reader. The best picture book endings feel both inevitable and unexpected simultaneously. They often return to the opening image or line, transformed by everything that has happened in between. They close the circle.
The text-image relationship
This is hard to get right but crucial to master. Picture books are a visual medium in which the text is one of two storytelling channels, and when you write your text, you need to leave room, deliberately, for the illustrations.
Another thing to get right is that text and image aren’t trying to say the same thing. Instead, your text should be doing something the illustration cannot, like carrying the interior life of the character, moving the narrative forward, and setting up the next beat. If you remove your text from a spread and the spread still makes sense, your text is redundant. The most dynamic picture books create a gap between text and image, so the text says one thing, the illustration shows something that adds to it, contradicts it, or deepens it. This gap is where the magic lives.
While you’re writing your story, think visually, and add illustration notes to indicate what part of the story the illustrations will carry on each spread.
Illustrator Ian Smith on the Magical Relationship Between Text and Illustrations
Voice and language
Don’t forget that picture books are read aloud. Your text will be read by parents at bedtime or by a nursery teacher to twenty-three four-year-olds. It needs to work in the mouth, in the room, and often on repetition. So read your text aloud many times, and the awkward words will reveal themselves. The rhythm will either carry the reader forward or it won’t.
In principle, use language that’s age-appropriate. But at the same time, long words are not the enemy. Children love the weight and sound of an unfamiliar word (discombobulated, magnificent, preposterous) as long as its meaning can be guessed from context. Words that are funny to say are an asset. Words that trip the tongue are not.
Sentence length is pacing. Short sentences speed up, longer sentences slow the reader down, create a different rhythm, make space for breath and for the illustration to be examined. Varying sentence length is one of the most effective tools available to a picture book writer.
Should your picture book rhyme?
This is one of the most common questions in children’s writing, and the answer is more complicated than most advice suggests. The short version: most publishers prefer non-rhyming texts, for reasons that are both practical and aesthetic. But when rhyme is done well, it can produce some of the most beloved and commercially successful picture books ever published.
Read our full piece on whether your picture book should rhyme, and how to know if you can pull it off.
The formula, and its limits
Everything above is real, useful, and worth internalising, but what complicates matters is that many of the best picture books break all the rules. They are the ones that understood the formula well enough to do something unexpected with it.
I Want My Hat Back has almost no escalation. The Dot has no villain, no stakes, no external conflict. Goodnight Moon has no plot at all – instead it’s is a ritual, a lullaby. Where the Wild Things Are spends most of its page count in a dream sequence that has nothing to do with conventional story structure. None of these books should work according to the rules, but they’re all hugely popular.
What they have in common is not rule-breaking for its own sake. It is that each of the writers understood, precisely, what it was trying to do, and then made structural choices in service of that specific intention. Knowing the rules and choosing not to follow them is craft. Not knowing the rules and accidentally not following them is something else. So if you’re just starting out as a picture book writer, use the rules as your side rails. Once you understand them, you can decide where to go from there.
The practical checklist before you submit
- Does each spread in the middle earn its place? Could any be removed without the story noticing?
- Is there a clear turn?
- Does the ending satisfy the emotional promise of the opening?
- Have you read it aloud from start to finish, multiple times? Does your text have an enjoyable rhythm?
- Are you describing what the illustration will show, and leaving room for the illustrator?
- Is your word count within the appropriate range for your target age group?
- Does every word earn its place?
- Would a child want this read to them again tomorrow? Not “is it good for them” – would they actually ask for it again?
And as always, a first draft is almost never the book. Picture books improve dramatically in revision, so keep going, get feedback from other writers, write many drafts, and make each word magical.
Further reading:
Five Paths to Getting Your Children’s Book Published
Opinion: Who is This Book Actually For? – On the Gap Between Children Want and What Adults Give Them