Writing and illustrating picture books

Laurel Aylesworth

What are some resources for illustrators who also want to author their own picture books? (classes, blogs, idea prompts, etc)

Is SVS going to offer writing in the future? Thanks!

NicolaSchofield

@Laurel-Aylesworth SVS has a writing picture books course. I've been meaning to find the time to take it for a while!

https://courses.svslearn.com/courses/writing-picture-books-live-class

Laurel Aylesworth

@neschof Thank you - I do not know how I missed this.

xin li

I tried 2 months subscriptions at https://www.storytelleracademy.com
I stopped the subscription now due to I do not have time to do any courses at this moment.

My personal thoughts on the storyteller academy: I am not very used to the teaching style, but it does have useful information for newbie writers like me. I picked a few interesting techniques to tackle writing, some of them echo's with illustration techniques I picked up from David and Lee's illustration class. (such as techniques for divergent thinking regarding ideation for stories), I also remember an interesting technique from one of the courses, talking about collecting your own childhood memories, writing them down, use them in your own story.

The courses are taught by illustrators, writers, and editors. So the content is quite mixed. For me it was worth it. I might revisit the site at later point.

Laurel Aylesworth

@xin-li Thank you! I'll take a look and see what they're offering.

Heather Boyd

@Laurel-Aylesworth I just bought a book I will share next week (a page or two) it's called "Writing Picture Books" by Ann Whitford Paul that has great reviews (revised and expanded addition 2018). A hands on guide from story creation to publication roughly $20.00 US. I am going to read through the first chapter this week.

xin li

@Laurel-Aylesworth if you take the svs writing picture book course, you will need the book @Heather-Boyd mentioned. The course on svs is taught by Ann, and she uses her book as textbook for the class.

Laurel Aylesworth

@xin-li Just ordered it.