Larissa Elliott Books

Below is my entry for Susanna Leonard Hill's Holiday Contest . The challenge is to write a children's holiday story about a holiday treat in 250 words or less. This story was inspired by my family's love for gingerbread cookies (super special delicious family recipe). Enjoy! Photo by annca from Pixabay Gingerbread Family 227 words The warm scent of ginger and cloves tickled Isabel’s nose. “Mami, the timer’s going off!” “Okay, stand back, Isa. It’s hot.” Mami pulled the pan out. “Oh no!”  “What’s wrong?” Isa climbed up on a stool to get a closer look. The cookie dough had spread! All the little gingerbread men were plump and lopsided. Mami put her hand on her hip. “They’re ruined. We can’t serve these.” “Why not?” Isa licked her lips. They still looked yummy. “Christmastime with family is special. I want everything to be perfect.” “Can we make new ones?” Isa asked. Mami shook her head. “We don’t have enough ingredients.” “Can we fix them?” ...

I came across a great new resource recently. Pam Calvert's blog features a "Picture Book University". It's a group of blog posts with wonderful info on writing picture books. I love how she gives examples using published books. And I really love her storyboard idea. Check it out: Pam Calvert's Picture Book University

Here's my submission for the Kidlit Fall Writing Frenzy. Don't know what I'm talking about? Find out more here ! UNICORN CANDY  This is the bestest time of the year when the unicorns come out to play! If we’re lucky, we might get to see one. The best way to do it? Unicorn candy! Unicorns love unicorn candy. You mean you’ve never heard of unicorn candy? Unicorns only love the sparkliest, most purpliest candies. Look at these that I got. See how the sugar sparkles! And so many different shades of purple. I’m sure to attract a unicorn this year. I just know it! Once we have our unicorn candy, we have to put it outside so they can see it. There has to be sun so the candy really glitters. And there has to be white puffy clouds that look like cotton candy. Unicorns love cotton candy too. And now we sit and wait.  Shh. Don’t scare them away. Be patient. Keep an eye out. Wooooow!  Did you see it? Wasn’t it beautiful? Wait. Don’t t...

The writing community is so supportive! I have only been in the picture book writing community for about six months, but there have been many opportunities to win critiques or mentorship. The latest chances for critique are super exciting! The first of these is #PBCritiqueFest. You really don't have to do anything to enter. You fill out the application form which asks for lots of different info to match you with the best person if you are randomly selected to receive a critique. If you want, you can boost your chances by sharing the news with your friends and supporting the participating critiquers. Narrowing down my favorite authors and agents to list as my ideal matches was the hardest part of the whole thing. I was excited to see several agents that I had already queried and others that are on my list to query. How cool would it be to receive feedback from a potential agent that might want to rep my story in the future? Find out more and enter here:  https://www...

Language, rhyme, meter--words have never been difficult for me. Plot, however has been my nemesis for years. I started out as a novelist. I still write novels, or attempt to at least. Plot was (is) a difficult thing for me to nail down. 80,000 words that nead to have a logical progression and cause/effect. I'm still battling that challenge. When I began dabbling in picture books, I thought it was wonderful to only need to come up with 500 words that related to each other. Easy peasy! BUT it isn't so easy. Plot is still a challenge for me. I can't just willy nilly write cute rhyming lines that sorta paint a scene. I've been reading some books about novel plotting. The funny thing is, they mention how plotting is universal, whether you're writing an epic fantasy over 100,000 words, or writing a romance novel, or a screenplay, or writing a picture book of a mere 500 words. You need structure. People expect story in a certain way. Many of my early picture book dra...

Did you know that lots and lots of elementary music teachers use picture books in their classroom? They go way beyond the typical read-aloud. There are all sorts of ways music teachers can link musical activities to books. Sound Effects When the characters in the book make noise, kids can use musical instruments to bring the sounds to life! Clicking sticks together, dinging a triangle, thumping a drum. You don't have to mention the sounds in your text for this to work, but vivid verbs can help: "Eliza stomped up the stairs" or "the dog swished through the tall grass" or "the thunder boomed." Character Themes If you've watched Star Wars , you know character themes. Princess Leia has a beautiful melody. Darth Vader has a menacing theme. Luke Skywalker's music is triumphant. If you have several distinct characters in your book, a music teacher could reinforce each one's appearance with a different instrument or a different tune. Dic...

Some resources will say to strive for perfect meter, but in reality, a lot of rhyming picture books will not have perfect lines with exactly the correct number of syllables. You can actually add or subtract syllables for "metrical variance." This will help you fit words you wouldn't have been able to fit, or to change up the feel a bit. HOWEVER, once you've established how many feet you have in each line, you should not vary the number of STRESSED syllables. You can add or subtract unstressed syllables with care. As a musician, I thought rhythm and meter would be easy to do in my writing. But I fell into one of the major pitfalls. Reading picture books is not the same as listening to a song (or even singing a song). In music, the beat and meter prescribes where the stresses go. You can sing words longer than a beat. You can have "rests" where you pause your singing and the beat will remain constant. But there isn't any sheet music to read or recordings...

Let me say that again. STOP COUNTING SYLLABLES!!! When you write a rhyming picture book, rhyme is only part of the challenge! First and foremost is story. Make sure your story is strong! And, yes, it should have decent rhyme. BUT! Rhythm and meter is a big part of making a good rhyming picture book. Many beginning rhymers start by counting syllables because it's relatively easy to do. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Shakespeare's famous sonnet has 10 syllables per line. But the reason it feels good when you read it is because of where the stressed syllables fall with weak syllables interspersed. It is in iambic pentameter, which means it has 5 "feet" of iambs (weak-strong pairs of syllables). Here are a few lines of my own that also have 10 syllables per line: Shall I envy thee on a spring evening? Thou ar...

As a musician, the rhythm part of rhyming picture books seemed easy to me. But in reality, picture book rhythm has it's unique intricacies that took me a while to learn (and I'm still learning!!). Some of what I've learned has been through trial and error, and through reading other's works. I also follow picture book writers on Twitter and they share tips and tricks. But some resources have been especially helpful, and I want to share those with you! Josh Funk Books Josh Funk is a fun author with an amazing website. If you are a beginning picture book writer, start with his site (I did)! He leads you through, step by step, of how to write any picture book. And he'll tell you not to rhyme!!! Seriously, though, writing a picture book in rhyme is not for the faint of heart. It is hard to do well. Many agents and editors will shy away from manuscripts in rhyme because they've seen so many that weren't ready yet. (I won't say they were bad. I think a lo...

I started writing picture books in 2018. It started with a tiny dose of inspiration and a desparate need for a break from revising the YA novel I was working on at the time. I worked on a few different picture book ideas, sent them off to a couple of agents, and then went back to my novel. A few rejections and many months later, amidst revising another YA novel (I'm a master procrastinator!), I came back to picture book writing and discovered I was really good at rhyming! I found a new passion for picture book writing and the rest is history! Growing up, I had a passion for poetry. Simple poems with a good story to them. I wasn't serious enough to write profound metaphors and pursue being a poet. But I thought maybe I could one day write some song lyrics or something. I had a love for music as well, so that seemed like a natural progression to link the two. Music won out as my career of choice (I'm a high school music teacher), and writing was mostly forgotten for m...