Most of us grew up listening to Mother Goose rhymes like Jack and Jill:
Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after.

We also loved hearing stories like Goodnight Moon:
In the great green room there was a telephone and a red balloon
 and a picture of the cow jumping over the moon.

And those of you who work with kids know that young children LOVE rhyming books.

So, why do agents and editors caution authors NOT to write in rhyme? The last time I looked, there were LOTS of new rhyming stories on bookstore and library shelves. Obviously, publishers are buying them.

There are TWO main reasons why editors discourage writers from writing in rhyme.

The first is that it is difficult to translate rhyme into other languages and if an editor is looking to acquire world rights and publish a book in other languages for other countries, prose is much easier.

The second, more important reason, is that there is a lot of BAD rhyme going around. Writing a picture book in rhyme is more than just making sure the last word in each line rhymes. Here’s a list of nine rhyme crime examples:

1.  Too simple or cliché.
     The mouse is small.
     The man is tall.
     He throws a ball.
     And that is all.

2.  Frivolous or forced, which means if you didn’t need that particular word to make the rhyme, you       wouldn’t have used it.
      I went to visit Henny Penny
     She is my friend, just like Jack Benny. (doesn’t make sense unless your story is about Jack Benny)

3. Inverted speech:
     I hop around on my left foot.
     And on my head my hat I put.

4. Seussian rhymes…which isn’t to say you can’t make up words, but they’d better be part of an amazing story because your manuscript will be compared to the master of invented words, Dr. Seuss.
     The tiger is loose
     He rides a caboose
     And shares a cage with a young falla-noose.

5. Near-rhymes. You might be able to get away with one if the rest of the manuscript is perfect in every other way. And yes, I know there are published books out there with lots of near rhymes.
     Down the road we both did amble
     In my hand I held a candle.

6. Regional rhymes. This is a big problem because depending on where you live (in the U.S. for instance), people pronounce words differently. For example, in Boston ‘park’ is pronounced ‘pack’.
     I put the car into park
     And picked up my sack.
So, someone in Boston will read that as a rhyme, but in Florida, maybe not so much.

7. Poor rhythm. Rhythm is an important element in anything that needs to be read aloud, even a political speech. Picture books, especially, need to have pleasing rhythm, whether they are prose or poetry.
     Rain, rain, go away
     Come again some other day.
That sounds fine, right? But how about:
     Rain, rain, go away
     Don’t come on February 11th which is my birthday.
There are way too many beats in the second line…if they are couplets, each line has to mirror the matching line in stressed beats. What are couplets and stressed beats, you ask? Well, that’s a whole other blog post. 😊

8. Unnatural stress. When we speak or read aloud, each word in the sentence is stressed or not. When we want things to rhyme, sometimes we purposely read in a way that isn’t natural. But our readers won’t know what we had in mind. I’ve put in bold the syllables that should be stressed. Even though ‘slide’ and ‘side’ rhyme, the stress for those words is on the first syllable and ‘land’ and ‘lake’ don’t rhyme.
     There's a landslide
     By the lakeside

9. Using the same word.
     I saw the ship had run aground
     While masts and sail lay on the ground.
 
 
What should you do if you love to write in rhyme?

• Keep writing!
• Read lots of rhyming books that have been published recently. Use them as mentor texts to help you craft your own story.
• Check out online poetry classes like Renee LaTulippe’s Lyrical Language Lab (free mini-lessons available on her website) and places like Rhymezone.com and Thesaurus.com that will help you find the words you need.
• Most importantly, make sure your STORY is there. Because the story is what it’s all about.
• Some experts advise that you write your rhyming story in prose first. Then, when you have a fabulous story, see if it is even better in rhyme. Or, if you get stuck when you are writing in rhyme, try writing that one line or verse in prose. How would you say it? How could you change it up, while still staying true to the story line?
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The good news is that publishers ARE buying rhyming stories. I wrote a rhyming manuscript back in 2013. I revised it. I shared it with critique buddies. And revised some more. When I thought I had polished it sufficiently, I sent it to a publisher…who passed on it. I put the story away and took it out again last year and showed it to another critique buddy who fell in love with it and brought it to her long-time editor who fell in love with it. I’m thrilled to say that Pippa’s Passover Plate will be published by Holiday House on February 5, 2019.

I love the idea of goal setting and a fresh start/blank page/clean slate! As a child, September and the start of a new school year made my heart happy. As a mother and an elementary school teacher, I looked forward to starting anew each year and all the brand new school supplies. January 1st affords the same opportunity to look back at the previous year and set a purpose for the year ahead.
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My 2019 goal setting has been aided by participating in two new-to-me free writing opportunities. Julie Hedlund’s 12 Days of Christmas (12Days4Writers) encouraged me to record successes, disappointments, and learnings from 2018 to prepare for 2019. I also joined Tara Lazar’s StoryStorm which is a brainstorming, idea generating month-long journey to start the year with a bank of story ideas. I shared my successes on my personal blog and it was gratifying to look back on 2018 as a year of accomplishment and growth as a writer and a reader. My StoryStorm list of ideas is growing and I feel confident it will be include more than the goal of 31 ideas by the end of January.

I publicly shared that my two writing goals for 2019 are:

1. Polish four manuscripts that are close to being ready to query. As of 1/4/19, I have finished one of the four.
2. Compile a treasure trove of ideas in January as I participate in StoryStorm. As of 1/4/19, I have 10 ideas on my list so I am 1/3 of the way to my goal.       

I have two main goals for ALIANA REACHES FOR THE MOON, which releases 2/19/2019. First, I'm setting up school, library, and other author events including CCIRC and The Children's Festival of Stories. Second, I'm connecting with picture book bloggers and reviewers to help with promotion. I've created two spreadsheets to record progress on each of these goals so that I can keep track of what I've accomplished and what needs to be done next. I was worried about the organizational part of this, but I'm feeling confident that I'm on the right path.

​Aliana Reaches for the Moon is available for pre-order now and releases February 19th!