[Ana K Posts: 7 Status: Offline Enjoying the world of PBs!]

Hi SCBWI. One of my critique partners suggested I turn some of my dialogue into speech bubbles...and I'm curious what that might look like when formatting the manuscript.  Neither he nor I know if that would require an illustration note OR if a speech bubble is something you would even indicate in a PB manuscript. Any thoughts?

[JulieM Posts: 996 Status: Offline]

Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus is a good example of a PB with speech bubbles. Your manuscript could have a short note at the top indicating use of speech bubbles, followed by indications of who's talking. Eg:
Joe: I don't want to eat that!
Marion: Me neither.

[Debbie Vilardi Posts: 7,068 Status: Offline Language is so cool!]

The dialog format that Julie gave you is used for scripts, which will indicate speech bubbles to an illustrator and editor. But It may not be necessary for you to format this way. If other options also work, leave this to the discussion about your vision for the book and let the art and design team make the final decision.

[JodyJS Posts: 1,319 Status: Offline Available for preorder! Out 12/12/23]

Hi Ana, For EMERGENCY KITTENS, my text looked like this:


Unfortunately, not everyone knows about EMERGENCY KITTENS.
Meet Sheldon.
“Hello.”
One day when Sheldon is playing, his ball takes a bad bounce.      
“My ball! Someone, help!”

The illustrator, Dave Mottram, did this: