Every picture book writer knows the difficulties that arise when an editor asks for textual changes - just the removal of a few words or a sentence or two added. Suddenly all those carefully balanced words, dovetailed in with images start to teeter and fall, leaving a jumble on the page. It can take a long time to build them back into a new shape.
Because the picture book text is so minimal, even the smallest of changes, like these made to spread 10 of
The Little White Sprite, can create a knock-on effect.
I decided to move 'up', from it's dominant position at the end of the first line and replaced it with 'high' ('up' had held that position in the previous spread and it was now the turn of 'high'). It was only when I removed 'hollow' because it's meaning was not precise enough - you can't climb a ' hollow' - and replaced it with 'So we climbed up inside the Warty tree' that I found 'up' had nudged its way back onto the page again. Although it was one 'up' too many I couldn't get rid of it. Reluctantly I allowed it to stay.
Small words can be bothersome. Read about 'but' at
http://www.paulcoltman.blogspot.com/
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