Thursday, May 16, 2019

B.J. Lee: The Poet and the Picture Book Writer


B.J. Lee's author signing at Barnes & Noble, Clearwater FL

Many of us poet-types also engage in other writing projects, like picture books, nonfiction, or novels. But are we always consciously aware of the changes we go through to make that happen? For me, the writer's transmutation—how we adapt one skill set to accommodate a different genre—is complex and mysterious.

How, for example, are the processes of writing poetry and rhyming picture books similar or different?
 
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or via Indiebound.org.

I posed this question to TLD contributor B. J. Lee, and she was kind enough to address the matter for me.

B.J. Lee is our resident expert on poetry forms, but with her debut rhyming picture book released from Pelican Publishing earlier this year, I asked if she might talk about how a poet who excels in poetry forms transformed into a picture book author.


So here she is, hungry readers— 
Chomp down on this appetizing article by B.J. Lee!



The Poet and the Picture Book Writer

This poet and this picture book writer are different artists. As a poet, I struggle with story structure. It used to be far easier for me to write an entire poetry collection of 20 or so poems than it was for me to write one picture book. Fortunately, picture book writing is getting a smidgen easier for me and it’s a good thing because poetry is a very hard sell. I still write lots of poetry but picture books call out to me as well.

So what is the difference between writing a poem and writing a picture book? The first and probably most important difference is arc. A poem needs no arc. A picture book relies heavily on arc.

Because I struggled with picture book writing, for the Gator character I had in mind, I was drawn to a form with a built-in arc. So how did I turn the structure of There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly into a picture book with my character, Gator?

I followed the built-in arc of There Was an Old Lady...which gave me rising action.



As Gator unwisely swallows a succession of hapless animals, he becomes increasingly uncomfortable. Something has to happen – a climax of some sort.

Text © 2019 by B.J. Lee. Illustrations © 2019 by David Opie.
From THERE WAS AN OLD GATOR WHO SWALLOWED A MOTH (Pelican Publishing)


I chose to change up the climax and not have Gator die. There is a trend in modern There Was an Old Lady... parodies, including those by Lucille Colandro, Jennifer Ward and Penny Parker Klostermann, to not have the main character die. I didn’t want Gator to die either. How did I set it up so Gator didn’t die? With my first stanza, and the moth/cough slant rhyme. Without including spoilers, perhaps you can guess how I used this rhyme pair to produce a better fate for Gator.

The other difference between poetry and picture books is that a poem it is about capturing one thing, with the exception of narrative poetry, but more on that later. A poem is about one moment, one feeling, one image. This begs the question: can you turn a poem into a picture book? While one moment, one feeling, one image, can be the start of a picture book, and perhaps a very good start, it will somehow need to be expanded into a story with an arc.

Here is an example of a poem about one thing.

Recently published in the Savannah Morning News.                                    



















I don’t believe this story is expandable into a picture book. It captures one moment in nature. It doesn’t go anywhere story-wise. Got story? No.

The following poem, on the other hand, might be able to be expanded into a picture book because it has a narrative. I have no plans currently to turn this poem into a picture book but, now that I think about it… hmmmm. I guess time will tell! Got story? Maybe.

Highlights, June 2018


So if you have a narrative poem, which includes the ballad, as I previously discussed in a TLD post, you can explore it to see if you can make it into a picture book. I have several narrative poems I did this with, including one ballad. Of course, it usually has to be expanded greatly. There are other considerations when writing picture books such as pacing. How do you spread a story over 32 (or more) pages. It’s also important to think about page turns.

Very rarely we do find existing poems that have been made into picture books, but there are a few. One that comes to mind is A Fairy Went a-Marketing. This is an older poem by Rose Fyleman, originally published in her collection, Fairies and Chimneys (a wonderful collection, by the way, if you are partial to fairies...and who isn’t?).

Some songs have been made into picture books, and I consider songs to be poems set to music, such as Octopus’s Garden by Ringo Starr. Incidentally, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly was originally a song and it has been published as a picture book by writers such as Simms Taback and Pam Adams.

In conclusion, you might check to see if you have any poems that spark picture book ideas, particularly narrative poems. While Gator didn’t start with a poem, I was inspired to use a poetic cumulative rhyme structure to capture this larger-than-life character.

I feel very lucky to have had THERE WAS AN OLD GATOR WHO SWALLOWED A MOTH accepted by Pelican Publishing. When using cumulative rhyme as a picture book story structure, one really has to do something unique with it, because so many adaptations have been written. I had success with my version because it was regional and thus appealed to Pelican Publishing.

On my journey to picture book publication, the classic cumulative rhyme, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly inspired me to understand arc. I hope something in this post inspires you on your picture book journey.

Picture book publication has been such a blessing and I love how people are falling in love with my unfortunate character, whose appetite gets the best of him. My community is rallying around me and Gator in the form of a fabulous book launch.

"Gator Day" at Boyd Hill Nature Preserve, March 10, 2019.


Thank you, B.J., for another fabulous visit to Today's Little Ditty!
Read B.J.'s other TLD contributor posts: The Roundel and The Ballad.

AND thank you to Pelican Publishing for sending me a copy of There Was an Old Gator who Swallowed a Moth for one lucky TLD reader.

To enter, leave a comment below or send an email with the subject "Gator Giveaway" to TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com by Tuesday, May 21, 2019. The winner will be randomly selected and announced next Friday.


B.J. Lee is a former college music librarian turned full-time writer and poet. Her debut picture book, There Was an Old Gator Who Swallowed a Moth, released January 28, 2019 from Pelican Publishing. She is an award-winning children’s poet with over 100 poems and stories published/forthcoming. She has written poems for children’s anthologists Lee Bennett Hopkins, J. Patrick Lewis, Kenn Nesbitt and others, and appears in anthologies by such publishers as Bloomsbury, National Geographic, Little, Brown, Otter-Barry and Wordsong. Magazine credits include Spider, Highlights, and The School Magazine.



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Elizabeth Steinglass has challenged us to "write a poem giving instructions to an inanimate object about how to do its job."  This week's daily ditties included poems by Tabatha Yeatts, Diane Mayr, students Chloe and Madison, and Cindy Breedlove. Also don't miss the original instruction poems shared today by Molly Hogan, Mary Lee Hahn, and Christie Wyman. Add yours to the May 2019 padlet by the end of this month!
At Reflections on the Teche, Margaret Simon and her students are celebrating nature with "pi-ku" poetry. Never heard of it? Discover pi-ku and many other poetry wonders at this week's Poetry Friday roundup!





35 comments:

  1. I'm so excited for B.J. I've been following her on Facebook. What a fun picture book for our region as well as hers. I hope she makes it over to the bayou on book tour. We could have some fun in the bayou. I enjoyed hearing about how a poet creates a picture book. It's something I have considered. Thanks for this interview!

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    1. Thanks so much Margaret! Yes I know there are gators in Louisiana bayous and I'd love to make it out there at some point. It would really be great to meet you! I only ever considered writing picture books because I could rhyme well. You should definitely give it a try.

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  2. Love hearing from B.j. about her book which I adore & the ways poems could be turned into longer picture book stories. I grew up with an aunt singing that original song, and now reading about a gator is great fun. Thanks, B.j. and Michelle.

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    1. Thank you Linda! I'm glad you like my book. I also sing it – I figured out the cords from Burl Ives' rendition and accompany myself on piano. I'm not sure if I like reading the book better or singing it… :-)

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  3. Wonderful post -- BJ offered helpful and illuminating info about poem vs. picture book. I struggle with story arcs too. I also think poets make the best picture book writers -- aside from the challenge of developing a viable plot, the poet already has a handle on lyricism, rhythm, telling detail, and writing in a very concise, condensed way, where every word counts.

    Thanks, BJ and Michelle!

    (no need to enter me in the giveaway)

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    1. Aww shucks, thank you Jama. Yes it's true, poets do have a hand up with lyricism, rhythm and all the other things you mentioned. It's the story arc that's the bugaboo. It was a hard transition for me but one that I finally made with the help of great critique partners.

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  4. I love this comparison of poem to story. You have given us all lots to think about. And, best? You make me want to go write something. B.J. I feel like I've taken a class with you. Thank you...and Michelle for making it possible today.

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    1. Aw, thank you very much, Linda! Your comment touched my heart. I like sharing everything I have learned in blog posts. In this blog tour for There Was an Old Gator..., I have dissected the book six ways from Sunday, and with each guest blog request, I think, how can I possibly write anything more? LOL. But somehow I find another avenue to explore. I'm glad you were inspired and I hope you DO write something! :-) Keep us posted.

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  5. I love B.J.'s new book and I love this post. So much good infor in here. Thanks!

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    1. Thanks so much Rosi! I'm glad you like Gator and enjoyed my post.
      I appreciate you and so does Gator! :-)

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  6. Great advice and what a great idea for a picture book! I look forward to reading it.

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    1. Thank you Kimberly! It was such a thrill that my "idea" was accepted for publication! I hope you enjoy it.

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  7. A big thank you to Michelle for having me on Today's Little Ditty and that I was able to do a giveaway here, since TLD is a very special blog to me, and Michelle and I have been friends for a long time & cp's for a while. Thank you for all you do, Michelle, as far as nurturing poets and for helping me work out the kinks with my blog post idea at a time when I was fairly exhausted from book promotion. <3 In the end, it all came together. :)

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    1. Such nice words, BJ. Thank you. <3 Your post sure did come together! I knew it would. :D

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  8. Your "Katy did" poem is cute :-) I wonder if you could add some other critters to it to make a book? Earwigs, silverfish? Aw, those don't end in verbs. Well, I'll leave it to the experts. Thanks for a fun interview!

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  9. Michelle, thanks for sharing BJ's wonderful thoughts on poetry and picture books. BJ thank you for providing us with a look inside a poet and picture book writer's mind. Katy Did would make a delightful extended story for children. I'm off to capture one moment for an instruction poem and am still pondering a picture book on our amazing Ugandan project, Creating Hope from Paper.

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    1. Hi Carol and thank you! I see your juggling poem versus picture book as well! Good luck writing your picture book. It sounds interesting.

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  10. Before being a PB writer, I wrote children songs.I have thought from time to time tu take some of my songs and have it published as a story. But I never thought about not keeping to the words just as they are in the song. I have another vision now ! And I lve the idea of this gator coughing big and loud !

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    1. Hi Nicole, that's interesting. I guess my motto is, whatever works :-) I hope your new vision works out for you and thank you for the kind words about Gator.

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  11. BJ's book proves that there "is always room for one more" no matter what the genre. While there are tons of takes on this old song, she managed, very creatively, to offer kids another tale. Good going! And continued success!

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    1. Thank you Dianne! Yes, it's true. There are tons of takes on this old song. I think my regional focus helped me get this published.

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  12. What an adorable book! I love the variations of "swallow a fly" books. I love the art in this book, too.

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    1. Thanks so much Jean! Yes I think David Opie, the illustrator, is brilliant. It was a perfect match up as far as I'm concerned and I thank Pelican Publishing for making it happen.

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  13. A great looking adaptation of an old favorite. I also love that Roseate Spoonbill poem.

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  14. Thank you nasturtiumgirl! I owe the "looks" of this book to my fabulous illustrator, David Opie. I'm glad you like my spoonbill poem. I'm partial to that one myself :-)

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  15. Looking forward to reading this delightful book!

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  16. Thank you, BJ, for sharing with us your thoughts about poetry vs rhyming picture books. I dabble in both forms, so was interested to hear what you had to say. Congrats on your Gator book! It sounds like fun.

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    1. Thanks Evelyn! Best of luck with your writing!

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  17. Congratulations BJ on the publication of your book! I really appreciated understanding the difference between a poem and a book.

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  18. Thank you, Cheriee! Glad you could stop by & best of luck with your writing

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