Jane Yolen, veteran author of both picture books and young adult novels, details the process of developing her current project, a picture book about Ben Franklin and his son William. She's posting about the process on her online journal; scroll down to "Interstitial Moment: 1 of 3 on Writing A Picture Book" for the beginning of her journey. Yolen writes:

Difficult? A picture book? O, ye of little knowledge. To remind you: a picture book is usually 32 and occasionally 40 pages long. Half or more of it is pictorial. The trick of writing one--so far as there is a trick--is to be a prose writer with a poet's sensibility. Or a poet who is comfortable with story. Furthermore, an historical picture book needs to be able to boil down a biography or a part of a biography into a followable line with illustrate-able pages.

And the rest of the post is just as interesting. If you're an aspiring author or a fan of Yolen, this is one post you won't want to miss!

[via the ever-fabulous Fuse #8]