Write Picture Books with Impact Using Fewer Words

Writing a picture book is a bit like packing for a trip in a tiny carry-on bag. You have limited space, so every item you choose—every word—has to earn its place. The challenge isn’t just about keeping the word count low; it’s about making those words powerful enough to carry half the story while leaving room for the illustrations to shine.

Picture books today are getting shorter. Most traditionally published picture books land somewhere between 500 and 700 words, spread over 32 pages less front and back matter. That’s around 16 words per page—just enough to guide the reader while sparking the illustrator’s imagination. And, just as important, enough to hold a young child’s attention without asking too much of their developing focus.

So how do you make those few words count? Here are a few tricks.

Less is More--Why Fewer Words Matter

If you’re used to writing longer forms, the word count for a picture book can feel cramped. You might be used to describing every detail or be tempted to explain every action. But here’s the truth: your words and the illustrations are partners in storytelling. Words don’t have to do all the work—they need to do just enough to move the story forward, set the tone, and spark emotion.

The illustrations can handle the heavy lifting of description and mood. For instance, a sentence like “Max crashed through the tangled branches, his face red with fear” might be reduced to just “Max ran for his life.”The illustrator can show the tangled branches, the panic in Max’s expression, and the movement of the moment.

“The writer that prunes ruthlessly is the one who becomes published.”
– Margot Finke, How to Make Editors Eager to Read Your Picture Book

Cross-Examine Every Word: Be the Bouncer at Club Story

Here’s a tip from writer George Saunders that I love: treat every word as if you’re a bouncer at the door of Club Story. If a word isn’t contributing—if it doesn’t move the plot forward, deepen the emotion, or delight the reader—it’s out. No exceptions.

Picture books thrive on rhythm and economy. Sentences with multiple clauses? Split them. Big, abstract words? Swap them for simple, concrete ones.

The result? It’s cleaner, more rhythmic, and leaves space for the illustrations to tell the rest.

Pro Tip: Keep an eye out in your manuscript for sentences joined by “and”. That could be a sign that your sentence could be shortened and condensed.

Seasoned picture book writers know the maxim is less is more.

For the past couple years, my critique group has set aside the first half hour of every meeting to chat and share our favorite new picture book finds. We fawn over stunning illustrations and beautiful prose, we marvel at hilarious new concepts, and try to dissect each illustrator’s process and media. As we pore over these books a couple themes we always come back to are:

1) The author’s economy with words

2) The illustrator’s ability to illustrate more than the words on the page.

Rarely does a picture book writer complain of not having enough words. More often than not, most of us are working on ways to cut down to the seemingly arbitrary 350 word limit and to let the illustrations speak for themselves. (Show, don’t tell, right?)

How do other successful illustrators and author/illustrators pull this off? Many of us turn to well-reviewed and successful picture books as a source of study. However, I find it difficult to focus solely on what the illustrations in these books convey when the words are in right front of me.

We all recognize words in our peripheral vision. Literate adults process words so quickly that it doesn’t really require our conscious attention. So what to do? You can always ask someone else to cover the words with post it note for you, but this often removes part of the image as well.

An interesting solution presented itself at one of my critique meetings. I was delighted when a critique group member brought in a couple books by a Russian author and illustrator. (Russian happens to be her native language.) She shared these books because the quality and tone of the illustrations was something she was trying to achieve in her own work. However, I found myself fascinated by the fact that I could understand the entire story from the illustrations alone. I realized what a great tool these books could be because the words weren’t in the way.

Since then, I’ve been checking out foreign language picture books at our local library. Large metropolitan library systems often carry many of these books, though smaller library systems may not. The advanced search function of your library’s catalog will have options for language and collection (picture books).

If you’d like to try it yourself, here’s how I recommend you “read” a picture book in a foreign language:

The first time, page through the book slowly and tell the story you see aloud to yourself, the way a pre-literate child might. “Once upon a time, there was a mommy and a daddy and a little girl. The mommy was going to have a baby very soon. They all loved each other very much.”

On your second time through the book, examine the illustrations and ask yourself the following questions:

What is my eye immediately drawn to on each page?

How would I describe the mood on each page and how does the emotion conveyed change from beginning to end?

Is there a correlation between the amount of text on the page and the amount of action in the image?

If there seems to be a big jump in the action between pages, what words would have been necessary to smooth this transition? Should this have been two illustrations?

Practicing this has helped me focus on the minimum number of words needed to effectively impart the story and to ensure each chosen word packs in as much meaning as possible. Not only that, but it sheds a light on the experience of our preliterate and early readers, too.

Ellie Peterson is an author and illustrator of many picture books including HOW TO HUG A PUFFERFISH and SCHOOL IS WHEREVER I AM. Find out more about Ellie and her work at elliepetersonart.com.