Larissa Elliott Books

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...