A Great Resource For Learning (And Understanding) How To Rhyme: Lane Fredrickson's Rhyme Weaver

A screen shot from Rhyme Weaver

SCBWI member and rhyming picture book author Lane Fredrickson writes

When I initially decided to try writing a rhyming picture book, I wasn’t really sure how to go about it, or what the rules were. I joined a critique group and SCBWI (The Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators), took some poetry classes, went to workshops, and even got a degree in English along the way. A lot of people tried to discourage me from writing in rhyme. If you are considering writing a rhyming picture book, some people will tell you that editors don’t like them, and that they are difficult or impossible to sell, and that agents won’t represent picture book authors. But mostly, people will tell you that you have to write “perfect” rhyme and meter to publish.  I wasn’t sure what “perfect” rhyme and meter were when I first heard this.  And there seemed to be a lot of conflicting opinions bouncing around about the elusive “perfect” rhyme and meter. It took a long time for me to realize that writing a picture book with rhyme and meter was not that difficult; there just wasn’t a really good resource that laid out all the details I needed to know in a way that was easy to understand.

Lane created that very resource.  If you've ever wondered what exactly Iambic Pentameter means, her site explains it all simply and with lots of silly graphics (making it pretty kid-friendly, too.)

Oh, and it's always fun to drop in words like acatalectic about someone's poetry, or be able to discuss the 46 examples of Headless Anapestic Tetrameter in Dr. Seuss' "The Cat In The Hat"... and know what it all means!  (I plan to use Elision at least once today, how about you?)

If you want to rhyme, check out Lane's RhymeWeaver.

Illustrate and Write and Rhyme On,
Lee