Let’s apply this to the Grimm’s version of Little Red Rding Hood. What things need to be in a story? Character, Quest, Conflict, Choices, Complications, Crisis, Conclusion, and Change.

Act 3: Shows the now-transformed protagonist, and deals with the sub-plot.

Think: Chutes and Ladders (Snakes and Ladders). Attempts to solve the story problem might succeed and bring the protagonist closer to a solution, or fail, and move the protagonist backwards. 1: Who is the protagonist? 2: What is the setting? 3: What is the external story problem (plot)? 4: What is the internal story problem (sub-plot)? 5: Act 1 ends when the protagonist is irrevocably committed to solving the external problem? Act 2: Follows the protagonist’s attempts to solve the main story problem. Let’s look at the text, and we’ll begin by looking at some ideas about the structure: THREE ACT WORKSHEET. This example is for a book with end-papers, the other alternative is to have self-ended book, but just to keep things straightforward let’s do a 24 page picture book with endpapers.Īs you can see, the story doesn’t begin on page 1. Once we’ve made the blank dummies we’re going to put them to one side, and turn our attention to what is going to go inside them.įirst let’s just look at a 24 page layout to get an idea of the shape of the finished product This illustration shows how close your 24 page dummy is to a printed 24 page text block. The result can always be scanned into a computer and turned into a digital pdf at the end of this process if you wish––and I can help you with that if you need help. Ultimately you can Make a 32 page book if you like, but for the purpose of this exercise let’s stick with 24 pages. When I’m working on a picture book I usually work with paper dummies, as they can be glued together and then taken apart in order to give a really good feel of how the finished book will look.ĭue to the expense of the printing process picture books are usually made in standard page lengths––usually 24 or 32 pages. These days picture book dummies tend to be digital, but in order to learn how picture books work I think it helps to actually create a dummy using the traditional method.

Picture book creators make a mock-up of their project, known as a dummy, for submission to publishers.

Stop That Pickle! by Peter Armour