Piboidmo Day 22 Audrey Vernick And Olugbemisola Rhuday

by Audrey Vernick and Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich Tara, Gbemi & Audrey at the 2011 Princeton Book Fair Alike in nearly every way, we are polar opposites in our attitudes toward novels and picture books. Olugbemisola approaches novels bravely while Audrey cowers. Audrey is undaunted by the prospect of writing picture books while Olugbemisola is daunted and then some. Our post is a public discussion of these weak spots and strengths (which we’d never call strengths in reality, but we don’t want to start off by sounding insecure). ORP: What are the easiest elements of picture book writing for you? How do you think in a picture book way? AGV: First, thank you, Gbemi, for not asking this question in the way you surely mean, which is  Why is it that you’re so scared of writing novels but the same doesn’t hold true for picture books?  I appreciate that. Statement of obvious: with picture books, I set out knowing I will ultimately be using a very limited number of words. That takes the scare away. It is, in large part, the length of novels that frightens the bejeezus right out of me. I start to tell the story. I try to find its arc, work toward an ending, and I don’t panic when it’s getting really, really long, because I know that’s part of my process now. I know some picture book writers are very successful using a sort of formula, but that’s not part of my process. The first step is what I think of as weighingâ€"does it have enough to go from being a fragment of an idea to being a picture book. Often, it doesn’t. I don’t throw away the fragmentsâ€"they could still develop. But I don’t usually push too hard in that first attempt if it’s not happening naturally. If it feels like it has legs, I’ll usually get a first draft in a single sitting. And then I’ll revise the hell out of it. Picture book revision is about cutting away everything that is not essential.  Duh, you all say.  That’s what revision is. And I know that’s what we all  say  revision is, but with picture books, I really mean it. I cut away more than I leave. Then I try to sculpt what remains. I find the story and, perhaps more importantly, the voice, by figuring out what doesn’t have to be part of the story. AV: Does this all sound scary to you?   Or just very different from your process? ORP:  It makes sense, of course, because you are a very sensible person.  Maybe kind of a show-off too, Ms. First Draft In A Single Sitting. AV: And here I interrupt to point out that, as Gbemi, a writer, knows, my first draft does not often resemble whatever it ultimately turns into. So shh. ORP: Humph.The idea that I have a set