When I first wrote this picture book, I composed a word list — a brainstorm of all possible kid words (and a lot of made-up words) that dealt with my topic, FOOD. Thankfully I still had that word list stored safely in my files. I don’t remember how I’d ever gotten to the text I’d originally submitted, because my list turned up a wealth of stronger words.
With word list in hand, I highlighted my favorites with a focus on illustration strength and humor. Which words would a kid love? Plus, my editor and illustrator offered several winners I hadn’t thought of, so I added them too.
Next I coupled my rhymers. Because my text is written in an ABCB rhyme scheme I wanted to make sure I had rhyming words with “payoff.” Payoff at the page turns is important to young readers. So the rhymers became the spine of my story and I plugged them into an Excel spreadsheet — a terrific way to play around with the text. And that’s when the fun began.
