How to Write a Lyrical Picture Book: A Self Study by Tina Cho

Last year I wrote a picture book manuscript about an event I took part of. This manuscript eventually snagged my agent last December. To revise it, she suggested making it lyrical and dreamy. Sounded good to me. But how does one make a manuscript lyrical and dreamy? In this post, I share my hunt for writing a lyrical picture book. Maybe this will help you in your quest as well. 

Merriam Webster defines lyrical as "a lyric poem" or "the words of a song." To me, a lyrical picture book is one that is poetic. I find these kinds of picture books being rich in beautiful words. But the kid in me in the past found them boring. And I am no poet.

I searched my library collection and found a mentor text titled Red Kite, Blue Kite by Ji-li Jiang, published by Disney Hyperion, 2013.

 The first page reads:
I love to fly kites. But not from the ground. My city is crowded, and the streets are skinny. Baba and I fly our kites from the tippy-top of our triangle roof. We are above but still under, neither here nor there. We are free, like the kites.

I noticed the beautiful language and the comparison of themselves with kites.

Then I googled how to write a lyrical picture book. Some good blogs posts surfaced which led me in my hunt for how to write lyrically. I want to share them with you.

Who better to start with than--Jane Yolen?! Emma Walton Hamilton wrote a post titled "Jane Yolen's Ten Words Every Picture Book Author Must Know." The first word on the list is lyricism. Emma elaborates here.

My critique partner, Laura Sassi, featured a post written by author Dianna Murray on lyrical picture books. Dianna describes qualities of lyrical picture books and has written one herself. Check this post: "Examining Lyrical Picture Books with Dianna Murray."

One of the best places to find mentor texts is at ReFoReMo. (Reading for Research Month) There is a list of picture books for many types of writing. March 15, 2017, aired "Linda Vander Heyden Sheds Light on the Lyrical Side." She listed five mentor texts for lyrical picture books. Excellent!

What I've noticed is that lyrical picture books employ all poetic devices such as similes, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia, and more. Author Rob Sanders wrote a post on "Poetic Prose in Picture Books," and listed more mentor texts.

Some other links I discovered:
"Studying Lyrical Language for Prose" by Renee La Tulippe on Marcie Atkins' blog. This post addresses lyrical language in MG novels.

Lyrical Picture Book Endings by Michelle Markel 

Many of these links had one thing in common: Jane Yolen's Owl Moon. I don't own this, and so I listened to it on You Tube and wrote down ALL the words and studied it. I learned that it was written in free verse with illustrative, descriptive words, some repetition, with a refrain, lots of emotion, alliteration, simile, metaphor, and written in first person point of view.

Lastly, I got out Ann Whitford Paul's book, Writing Picture Books. Chapter 14 "Making Music with Your Prose" not only talks about poetic devices, but it talks about the sounds of letters and how certain sounds are more apt for lyrical picture books. I examined my picture book draft and highlighted sounds that needed to be softened and changed. If you haven't read this chapter for a while, get it out and reread it! 

After I gave myself a Lyrical Writing 101, I rewrote my picture book draft adding poetic devices and lyrical sounds. I sent it to my critique groups several times, bless their hearts for putting up with me! Lo and behold, I added too much figurative language, go figure. That has been fixed, and my manuscript is as good as gold. (had to add a simile) There is a happy ending for this manuscript which will be shared in due time. Meanwhile, I wait with silent lips.

I hope you found something in this long post that will help you as your revise your WIPs. 
If you have other advice, do share in the comments! Thank you!