Your Picture Book Doesn’t Start With an Idea. It Starts With Your Why.
The KidLit Creator’s Chronicle #47
There’s an exercise I do with almost every group of authors I work with. I ask them one simple question: “Why do you want to write this book?” I give them a few quiet minutes to write their answer down. And when they share in the chat, the responses are often some version of, “I think I have a story worth telling,” or “I love books and writing.” Those aren’t wrong answers. But they’re not the full answer either.
One author came in knowing exactly what her book was about: a little girl who struggles to fit in at school. When she first answered the Why question, she wrote, “I suppose I just want kids to feel less alone.” Beautiful. But as she worked through the exercise, she began to realise she hadn’t just observed this feeling in children. She had lived it herself. And the book wasn’t only for the children who’d be helped by it. It was also, in some way, for the little girl she had once been.
Then there was a gentleman (which is slightly unusual in my world, because most of my authors are women), let’s call him David . David wanted to write a funny book. Pure and simple. He wanted kids to laugh out loud. His Why seemed light on the surface, but when the exercise pushed him a little deeper, he told me his son had gone through a really hard year at school, and humour had been their lifeline. Laughter had held them together. Suddenly, “I want kids to laugh” became something much more profound.
Your Why Is Your Compass
What the authors I work with discover time and again is that beneath the surface answer, there is almost always a deeper one. And that deeper Why isn’t just something nice to know. It’s the thing that will carry you through the hard parts of this process.
Because writing a picture book is not a quick journey. There are days when the manuscript just doesn’t want to work when the words won’t come, when self-doubt creeps in and whispers, “Who do you think you are?” In those moments, a vague or surface-level Why won’t sustain you. But a real one will. It becomes your compass, the thing you return to when you’ve lost your direction, the thing that reminds you why this book matters and why you are the one who needs to write it.
Simon Sinek, in his well-known book Start With Why, makes a fascinating point. He studied some of the world’s most successful people and organisations and found that they all think and communicate in the same way. They don’t start with what they do, or even how they do it. They start with why they do it, and everything else flows from there. The what and the how are important, but they come second. I believe this applies to picture book authors just as much as it applies to any visionary leader.
Most authors start with the what. “I want to write a book about a boy who’s afraid of the dark.” Some think about the how. “I’ll use rhyme, I’ll make it funny, I’ll find a great illustrator.” But the Why, the reason this story matters to you, the thing that makes it yours, is what makes your story special and gives it soul. And your Why is what keeps you going when the process gets hard.
Your Why and Your Author Message
Something many authors don’t realise is that your Why isn’t just for you. It’s also the foundation of your author message, the thread that runs through everything you put out into the world. It can be included in your author bio, on your website, in the way you talk about your book on social media. When your audience understands not just what you wrote, but why you wrote it, they don’t just see a book. They see a person with a purpose. That creates a connection that no amount of clever marketing can manufacture.
So, your Why does double duty. It keeps you going on the hard days, and it draws the right readers to you when the book is done.
How to Find and Name Your Why
Here’s what I want to invite you to do this week. It won’t take long. Grab a notebook, or just open a blank document, and answer these questions honestly:
- Why do you want to write this book? Go beyond the surface. Write the first answer that comes to you, and then ask yourself, “But why does that matter to me?” or simply ask, “Why” again of your answer. Do this as many times as needed, until you feel you have your real Why.
- Who is this book really for? Is there a child, a situation, a memory, or a gap in the world that you’re trying to speak into?
- What would it mean to you to finish it? Not to publish it, not to sell it. Just to hold the finished book in your hands.
- What would it mean if you didn’t?
There are no right or wrong answers here. Your Why doesn’t have to be grand or poetic. It just has to be true. And the more honest you are with yourself, the more that truth will find its way into the pages of your book.
Your Why Will Evolve, And That’s a Good Thing
Here’s where I want to offer you a different perspective from what most writing advice will tell you. Most people treat the Why as something you define once, lock in, and move on from. A box you tick at the start and never return to.
But that’s not how it works. Not in my experience, anyway.
Your Why is a living thing. It deepens as you write, or at least your understanding deepens. It becomes more precise and more personal the further into the process you go.
So don’t worry if your Why feels a little vague or incomplete right now. Write down what you have. You can always return to it, refine it, and let it grow. What matters is that you start naming it, because a Why you haven’t named is a compass you can’t use.
When authors know their Why, their writing gets better.
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Over To You!
This week, I want to turn it over to you.
Let me know in the comments: what is your Why?
It doesn’t have to be polished or perfect. One sentence, a paragraph, a jumble of thoughts, all of it is welcome. I read every reply, and sometimes the answers I receive remind me exactly why I do what I do.
I hope this helps you a bunch, and I look forward to hearing from you!
