At the Young Alberta Book Society meeting last Sunday (a great day all-round), Carolyn Fisher gave a talk on storyboarding. It was intended for writers of picture books, as she had noticed a lack of understanding of how the text needs to be structured to fit the format of a picture book.
I’d brought a picture book manuscript for the critiquing session, so I was particularly interested in the storyboard discussion. After, I sat down with my story and divided it into 15 segments, (picture books are usually 32 pages long, which breaks down into 15 illustrated spreads). I thought about how the page breaks add pauses to the story that can be used to build tension, and checked how much text would be on each page. Then I edited, searching for a good flow for the story. It was exciting to take a new look at the story – to see it with fresh eyes and find ways, I hope, to make it stronger.
Carolyn’s graphic for storyboarding can be found on her blog, http://www.carolynfisher.com/.
Maureen
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