I finished another coloring page for the holidays, this one celebrating Fall and Thanksgiving. A few years ago, a series of sketches inspired me to illustrate in a wimmelbook style with landscapes that seem to stretch across the entire page. So I decided to start an ongoing series.

Thematically, they all focus on nature. For this one, I drew on nature close to home. So you can find Junipers, dead Black-Eyed Susan's, a mountain lion, a turkey, a fox, a rabbit, a squirrel, and a cold-weather bird.

Complete your manuscript first and build the dummy from your text. The text requires the least revision effort in your dummy process. It is easy to move text around, cut it, and add to it.

Furthermore, avoid jumping ahead or multitasking. Your dummy won't get done any faster by getting ahead of yourself.

Organize your manuscript across the pages of a physical dummy. Avoid working digitally at this stage. Now is the best time to finalize critical decisions, like how many pages you need to tell the complete story, where your page turns are, and how you are building drama with the text placement.

When you've finished your "text dummy," review and revise it carefully, then move on to the art.

All artists have influences. Nothing is new under the sun and all that. Everything they experience will influence them in one way or another.

An excellent BBC sitcom called Red Dwarf is about the ragged crew of a deep space mining vessel, aimlessly wandering the universe. In one episode, "Legion," a highly intelligent being, defines itself by the sum of consciousnesses in its field. If only one consciousness is available, then the being manifests itself as an exact original copy.

This year I participated in Mab's Drawlloween challenge in a limited capacity. One of my favorite things about Mab's Drawlloween is that there are prompts for those who want to participate on as little as a weekly basis.
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I was left wondering what I would do with the art I created over this period, and I decided to convert them to Halloween coloring pages. I will offer these for free below.

At my house, the vampire is a tickle monster. I hold my fingers up to my mouth like fangs and wiggle them around as my kids giggle. I make slurping sounds and cover them in kisses.

Focused Drafts are, in my opinion, the most effective way to revise a manuscript because they allow you to examine a single aspect of your manuscript in isolation.

That focus will help you finish the editing process quicker, with more excellent quality than editing everything at once.

If you decide to map out your Focused Drafts, then they can also give you a sense of direction and progress during your revision process.
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Keep a checklist handy, such as my Picture Book Writing Cheat Sheet, as you revise.

To a picture book, every word matters. Just like a poem, a picture book is short and sweet, leaving little room for superfluous content.
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Consider the importance of a word in We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom and Michaela Goade.

The best bit in Writing Radar, by Jack Gantos, appears in the book's last chapters. Jack tells a story about when he learned the concept of "Focused Drafts" from a teacher in grade school and how it helped him craft a captivating story. The instructor was there to encourage him and criticize him constructively and give him the tools to improve. He stuck with Jack through the entire process.

That experience was a gift in Jack's life. An invaluable leg up. I greatly appreciate teachers who take time outside of their usual activities to mentor a child in their care.

Growing and developing is all about getting outside your comfort zone and challenging yourself regularly.

Ideas are overvalued. There is no such thing as a good idea or a bad idea. A good writer can use one concept or another, and perhaps a great writer can use any old idea without a hitch. But, on the other hand, a poor writer will make poor use of even the best idea.
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In my opinion, it is better to have many ideas and treat each one as if you can easily toss it away at a moment's notice. They are a dime a dozen.

Picture books can appeal to a broad audience, but it is essential to remember that at least a fraction of that audience is still learning to detect tone.
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Fortunately, you are not alone in this effort. Picture books are often read aloud to young children, meaning they will learn to detect tone from the affect in the reader's voice and facial expressions. A good reader will use pitch, volume, inflection, and speed to help convey the tone. Your job is to make it easier for the reader to understand.

Straightforward storytelling, diction, and details can give all the context clues an experienced reader needs to determine the tone, but they are not the only tools in your toolbox as a picture book creator.