by Estee Janssens via Unsplash
Yesterday I wrote about Candy Fleming’s idea that we should sharpen our writing persona.
I said I was going to go through my stories to see what elements I repeat.
I thought I would have alliteration, repetition, and questions.
I went through all my completed or mostly completed picture books and wrote down the writing style elements that I noticed.
Sesshu
by Sharon McCutcheon via Unsplash
One theme is “determination will get you there.”
Another theme is that you know who you are–even if other people don’t.
- repetition
- 3s
- asides to the reader
- interesting words/images
- mix of long and short sentences
Denver Superhero
The theme is “it’s all perspective.”
- repetition
- interesting words/images
- unreliable narrator
- comic end
- mix of long and short sentences
- statements with proofs
Denver Adoption
The theme is “sometimes we don’t know, but we can find out.”
- repetition
- interesting words/images
- comic end
- 3s
- mix of long and short sentences
- questions
Denver Training
The theme is “perspective makes a difference.”
- repetition
- interesting words/images
- mix of long and short sentences
- comic
Great House Adventure
The theme is “life is an adventure.”
- repetition
- interesting words/images
by Ray Hennessy via Unsplash
Happy As
The theme is happiness.
- repetition
- rhymes
- 3s
- performance focus
What’s That Noise?
The theme is “you can figure it out.”
- repetition
- 3s (sets of 3)
- questions
- interesting images/words
- mix of long and short sentences
- performance focus
by Free to Use Sounds via Unsplash
Stinky Fruit
The theme is “sometimes things are not how you expect.”
- repetition
- 3s
- short and long sentences
- interesting images/words
- comic end
Grama Bunny
The theme is love outlives memory.
- repetition
- interesting words/images
- parallelism
- mix of long and short sentences
by Christian Bowen via Unsplash
Rutabaga Conviction
- repetition
- 3s
- comic
- interesting words/images
- mix of short and long sentences
- performance focus
Love and Ducks
The theme is love makes us stronger.
- repetition
- mix of long and short sentences
- interesting images/words
- onomatopoeia
- statements and proofs
by Sarah Phillips via unsplash
Feeding Dragon
- repetition
- questions
- mix of long and short sentences
- comic
- interesting words/images
Who is Persephone?
The theme is that you know who you are–even if other people don’t.
- repetition
- 3s
- questions
- comic
- sneaky illustration
by Sara Codair via Unsplash
Best Friends
- repetition
- performance focus
- questions
- mix of short and long sentences
- interesting words/images
- compare/contrast
Pretty Moon
- repetition
Ghost in the House
- repetitions
- 3s
- questions
- mix of short and long sentences
- comic end
by Kathy Servian via Unsplash
My Real Name
- questions
- repetition
- rhyme
- alliteration
- interesting words/images
- mix of short and long sentences
- aside to the reader (breaks the fourth wall
Christian Bowen via Unsplash
Numbers for/from My Stories
As you can tell, what I expected isn’t exactly what I found.
17 have repetitions.
13 have a mix of long and short sentences.
13 have interesting words/images. That should definitely be all of them, not just 13.
8 have 3s.
8 include comic elements.
7 have questions.
4 have performance focus.
2 have asides.
2 have statements and proofs.
Only 1 has alliteration. That was a surprise to me. I love alliteration.
Only 1 has rhyme. That was not a surprise.
by Jari Hytonen via Unsplash
Other Points of Interest
8 have major character who are not clearly male or female. That was on purpose. (3 of those the main character is male but the child in the story is not identified as male or female)
7 have male main characters.
3 have female main characters.
5 have mixed cultural heritage.
7 (or possibly 8) have animal main characters.
13 of the main characters are only children or have been adopted as a single. (This obviously includes the animal characters.) Only Pretty Moon and Love and Ducks have more than one child and both of those have 2.
by Mathieu Stern via Unsplash
Other Ages and Story Ideas
My middle grade novel and my YA novel both have children with a single younger sibling, although the MG eventually gets another sibling (in book 2).
I do have 3 story ideas for larger families, but I have not written those yet.
I think that last is particularly interesting because I am the oldest of 4 and was only a singleton for 14 months.