My Writing Picture Books class is building picture book dummies this week, so spread planning is on my desk and in my head. We had a great time folding paper and stapling up dummies in class last week, too.
If you’re new to making dummies, start with these two resources:
Picture Book Dummy, Picture Book Construction: Know Your Layout
As the students work with their dummies this week, I’ve asked them to assign a job to every spread. One spread, one purpose. Why? Weak spreads and soft page turns become hard to ignore. A dummy makes each spread’s job visible.
Use your dummy to shape spreads
Label the job for each spread, then place lines from your current draft that best serve that job. Keep only lines that serve a spread’s job. Move others to a better spread or copy them into a “cuts” file for possible reuse.
My spread job checklist
- Promise: who or what the book is about and the energy it carries
- Pattern: the everyday or plan we’ll soon disrupt
- Tilt: the first small change
- Escalate: effort increases or stakes rise
- Breath: a quiet beat to reset attention
- Surprise or Cost: the twist or the price of trying
- Climax: the most charged action or reveal
- Resonance: a final image that lingers
I tell my students to use this as a quick gut check while working on their dummies. When a moment is small, two jobs might even share one spread. If the book runs longer, the same spread logic applies. You can repeat Pattern, Tilt, Escalate, and Surprise or Cost until you reach the Climax and the final Resonance.
What editors and art directors notice
Here’s my advice for beginning and early career picture book writers. After two or three revision passes, make a quick paper dummy for yourself. Use that exercise to shape the manuscript you eventually submit because editors and art directors can tell when a story has been dummy tested. How do they know? Because it reads like a book.
-
Page turns feel intentional. The opening starts delivering the cover promise. A real breath appears where listeners need it. Reveals land on turns.
-
Lines leave room for pictures. You aim the feeling and the beat. The illustrator invents the staging.
-
Pacing fits the format. It reads cleanly in 32 pages because empty spreads were cut or combined.
-
The book is easy to picture in layout. Conversations move faster and decisions come easier.
That’s the point of making a dummy first, folks. It’s a simple craft step that signals professional readiness. Plus, it’s a good excuse to break out the glue sticks, scissors, staplers, and crayons and have some fun.