Writing a children’s picture book is a fun and creative endeavor. The joy that most authors feel after getting that first draft on paper is unmatched, and the sense of pride that follows after completing the draft is well worth celebrating.
After you have your draft complete, though, what comes next? Often, next steps include revisions. Learning how to revise a picture book is the next step in producing a quality story that can be enjoyed by readers time and again.
Revising your picture book might be reviewing your manuscript after ‘letting it rest’. You might spend sometime working with a critique partner or online manuscript swap group. Perhaps you’ve decided to hire an editor to help you revise your book. Either way, at some point you will find yourself revising your picture book manuscript.
After editing more than a thousand children’s books over the past fifteen years, I’ve seen the same revision mistakes appear again and again in picture book manuscripts. Even veteran and experienced authors need help with their revisions.
The picture book format is deceptively difficult and with only 500 to 800 words per manuscript on average, every single word counts.
There’s no room to hide a weak scene or a vague character motivation. Or to crowd your pages with too much description, transitional words, or excess details that will be seen in the illustrations.
The good news? In this article you will learn how to revise a picture book manuscript. Most of the mistakes listed below are completely fixable once you know what to look for. Here are the ones I see most often—and what to do about them.
1. The Story Starts Too Early
Most picture books open by ‘establishing the norm’ in the opening page or spread, before transitioning into the plot. Many new drafts or first-time authors spend too much time in these openings. Oftentimes new drafts open with a setup that the story doesn’t actually need. For example, a character waking up. Eating breakfast. Getting ready for the day ahead.
Writers often feel they’re giving the reader context, but in a picture book, context needs to arrive fast and through action, not scene-setting. While it’s important to show a little bit about your characters norm before the story begins, we don’t need the character’s entire background. A good rule of thumb is to establish the norm in relation to the story’s plot.
The fix: Ask yourself where the problem begins. That’s almost always where your story should begin. Drop the reader directly into the inciting moment and trust the illustrations to do the world-building.
Books that do it well: Notice how quickly the norm is established, and how the problem is stated by the second spread.
- Bike On, Bear by Cynthia Liu, illlustrated by Kristyna Litten
- Neck and Neck by Elise Parsley
2. The Main Character Doesn’t Drive the Story
This is one of the most common revision needs in early picture book drafts. Things happen to the main character, but the character doesn’t make choices that move the plot forward. This migh look like adults swooping in to solve problems. Maybe events resolve themselves. Sometimes, the problem is simply explained away by the narrator. Essentially, in all cases, the child protagonist becomes a passenger in their own story.
Young readers need to see themselves as capable problem-solvers. Your protagonist should want something, try to get it, face obstacles, and ultimately resolve the situation through their own actions—not luck, not adults, and not coincidence—by the end.
The fix: Go through your manuscript and circle every moment your character makes a decision or takes an action. If your circles are few or missing entirely, it’s time to restructure.
Books that do it well: Notice how the children notice the problem, then solve it on their own, or with little guidance by the adults.
- Dumplings for Lili by Melissa Iwai
- Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Christian Robinson
3. The Ending Is Rushed or Unearned
Early picture book drafts often have beautifully constructed beginnings and middles, then fall apart in the final few spreads. The problem usually comes down to one of two things: the resolution arrives too quickly, or the emotional payoff hasn’t been set up well enough earlier in the story.
A satisfying picture book ending should feel both surprising and inevitable—like the story couldn’t have ended any other way. It’s also a good practice to circle back to something established at the beginning, creating that deeply satisfying sense of closure that both children and adults respond to. Sometimes this is an emotional connection, sometimes the circle back relates to plot, and in some cases, the circle back is a set up for more, a suggestion that the ending is, in fact, just the beginning.
The fix: Look at your last three spreads. Does the resolution connect directly to your opening? Does your character’s growth feel genuinely demonstrated rather than stated? If you have to tell us your character learned something, you haven’t shown it yet.
Books that do it well: Notice the circular nature of the stories, and how the endings mirror the beginnings.
- Unstoppable by Adam Rex, illustrated by Laura Park
- Odd Dog Out by Rob Biddulph
4. Illustrating the Text Instead of Extending It
One of the defining features of a great picture book is the interplay between words and images. In strong picture books, illustrations and text work together to tell a richer story than either could alone. Sometimes first-time authors spend too many of their precious 500-words describing exactly what the illustrations will show. Not only does this leave little room for the artist to add meaning, humor, or depth, it also stifles the story’s potential.
If your text says “She wore a red hat and carried a yellow umbrella,” you’ve done the illustrator’s job. If your text says “She was ready for anything,” the illustrator can show us what “ready” looks like, and it might be funnier, more specific, and more visually interesting than anything you could have written.
The fix: Audit your manuscript for any descriptive language that tells us what a character looks like, what they’re wearing, or what the setting looks like. Strip it out. Let the illustrations do that work.
Books that do it well: Note how the text tell one story, the illsutrations tell another, and together, they tell an even different story.
- Sam and Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen
- They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzell
5. The Theme Is Too On-the-Nose
Picture books often have beautiful messages at their heart about kindness, inclusion or courage. Somtimes picture books explore the day-to-day foryoung kids, like going to school, making friends. Some are silly and fun, laugh-out-loud with a quiet lesson. And there are even books that deal deeply with difficult topics like grief or abuse. But when the theme is stated explicitly, especially by an adult character, the story stops working as a story and starts feeling like a lesson.
Children are perceptive readers. They don’t need to be told what a story is about. The moment an adult says, “You see, child, when we work together, anything is possible,” a young reader feels talked down to, even if they can’t articulate why. Children need to be the heroes of their own stories, and the stories should always come before the lesson.
The fix: Search your manuscript for any line where a character—especially an adult—explains the moral of the story. Delete it. If the story is working, the theme is already there.
Books that do it well: Notice how these books deal with difficult topics, but do not explain a lesson.
- I Am the Storm by Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple, illustrated by Kristen Howdeshell
- The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld
6. Forcing the Rhyme
Rhyming picture books are among the hardest manuscripts to write well—and forced rhyme is one of the most common challenges for first time authors. It happens when the rhyme starts driving the story rather than the other way around. The writer needs a word to rhyme with “day,” so they reach for “play” or “say” or “way”—and suddenly there are extra words on the page. Not because the story needs them, but because the meter did.
The result is lines that feel padded, inverted, or unnatural. “Into the garden bright did Maisie go” instead of “Maisie ran into the garden.” “She looked at the sky so wide and so blue” when the color of the sky has nothing to do with the plot. The rhyme is technically there, but the story has quietly bent itself out of shape to accommodate it.
Rhyme should feel effortless—like the story couldn’t have been told any other way. When it calls attention to itself, when a line exists only to complete a couplet, readers feel it even if they can’t name it. Editors certainly do.
The fix: Rewrite every rhyming line in plain prose first. If the prose version is clear, natural, and serves the story, then work toward the rhyme—not the other way around.
Books that do it well: Notice how smooth the rhyme is, how it takes us through the story without clunky interruption, and notice where the authors choose to intentionally break the rhyme.
- Dozens of Doughnuts by Carrie Finison, illustrated by Brianne Farley
- I Don’t Wanna Hibernate! by Anna Ouchchy, illustrated by Raahat Kaduji
One Final Thought
Revision is where picture books truly take form. The first draft gets the story out; revision is where you find what the story is actually about. You find a way to work your story into the format in the most effective way, and celebrating the format is one of the best ways to produce a strong, lasting picture book that readers will enjoy again, and again, and again.
If you’re struggling to see your manuscript clearly after multiple drafts, that’s completely normal. Fresh eyes from a critique partner, a writing group, or a professional editor can spot in minutes what months of closeness have hidden from you.
Your story is worth getting right. Take the time to revise it the way it deserves. Happy writing! And revising!
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