Tag: PiBoIdMo

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PiBoIdMo: Keeping it Fresh

Posted on by beckylevine

So here we are, a mere 9 days away from PiBoIdMo 2014.

I have my notebook. I have my pen. I have my imagination. That’s all I need to spend 30 days having ideas pour out of me, to be ready on December 1st when I can start magically weaving them into amazing stories.

Right?

Well, um…

Yes, to a certain degree, that’s all I need, and that’s all you need. Honestly, the simplicity of PiBoIdMo is one its best features. (When I think of all the novel writers starting on NaNoWriMo in that same nine days, I want to toss rainbow confetti and four-leaf clovers their way and hand them large amounts of chocolate. Except I may need some of that chocolate myself.) You can do PiBoIdMo simply, easily, and I guess what I’d call the Down and Dirty way. I’ve done it myself, and it works. It works great. Every year, I’ve gotten 30+ ideas in that month, and at least a few of them have turned into possibilities and, some, into actual stories.

This year, though, I’m feeling a need to shake it up a bit. Just recently, when I went back to my lists for a new idea, I came up empty. Oh, the list was there, the ideas were there, but none of them grabbed me. I’ve been thinking about why, and I’ve come up with a few things I want to do differently this year.

  • Spend more time on “looking at” an idea. In past PiBoIdMo years, I’ve tended to rush through the idea-finding, kind of grabbing anything out of the air as it floats past me and tossing it into the notebook. It’s effective, yes, if I’m going for quantity–and I am–but I think I want a bit more this year. I want to bring a bit of mindfulness to each ideas–I want to give them some space to find me and a bit of attention as it drops into my brain. Yes, PiBoIdMo is about going fast, about gathering a big list, then looking for treasures. But I’m thinking I could slow down just a bit below Mach 5 (whatever that means!) and still be good.
  • Go for more than just an idea. I think part of the problem with my lists is that–with so many of the items–I can’t even remember (almost a year later) what I was thinking. Maybe for some of you younger whipper-snappers, this isn’t a problem, but for me…yeah. A gift for you: If you can figure out what I meant by “Salt, no pepper. Pepper, no salt. Ketchup, no mustard,” the idea is yours! I want to add a few details, think about a character, maybe toss in a problem. Just an extra layer or two of idea frosting, if you will.
  • Stay away from concept-book ideas and shoot for story-based ideas. This is not any kind of judgment on concept books; I am in awe of writers who do them well. But I seem to still need a story to keep me interested and to engage me in turning the original idea into a book. During PiBoIdMo, those concept ideas come at me like little sparkling fish–I reach for my net, grab them, and toss them in the tank notebook. And then, a month or three or eleven later, all they do is swim in circles and make goggle-eyes at me. Whereas stories…oops! Sorry! Got distracted staring out the window and thinking about all the places a story can take me.
  • Play with titles. There’s a rhythm in a title, a little bit of music, even–sometimes–that first taste of story. The picture book I’m working on now, which I’m pretty much head over heels in love with, started as a title. Who knows whether the title of that book will stick, or whether any will that I attach to a PiBoIdMo idea, but as a brain-grabber for me, as a lead-in to a character or a plot, they may be a new tool for me.

If this is your first year doing PiBoIdMo, don’t fret it too much. If you have a fun idea for doing a little extra, or if something in my list grabs you, then go for it. But, really, the best way to get started is to dive in, scribble something down, turn a page, and do it again. (Oh, ONE TIP: number our ideas. When you get 2/3 through the month and you start to panic about consider whether you have enough ideas, you do NOT want to have to go back and count them. You want to be able to look at the last page, read the number 25 and know just how close you are to the goal)

If, however, you’ve done PiBoIdMo before, maybe several times, think about adding something new this year. Maybe the title thing, maybe you want to come up with ideas only for concept books. Maybe you’ve got some great ideas of your own. Toss them in the comments to share!

And I’ll see you all over at Tara Lazar’s blog for PiBoIdMo 14! Counting down: 9…8…7

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Friday Five: What I’m Doing During My MG Break

Posted on by beckylevine

So October is my step-away-from-the-MG month. I’m taking four weeks between finishing the first draft and starting to revise. Why? Well, mostly, because everybody (right?) says it’s a good thing to do. And you can probably add to that that I’m a bit nervous about this revision, just because it’s been a while and my head is telling me all sorts of things that could go wrong. Which will totally be cured by waiting a month to start (right?).

What am I doing with that month, though? Oh, several things!

  1. I drafted a new picture book and sent it off to my critique group. It was a new idea mostly because when I looked back at my past PiBoIdMo ideas, nothing shouted “This one! This one!” I’m going to look through again this weekend and actually, you know, think about some of them.
  2. Looking forward to PiBoIdMo 2014 and thinking about how I might want to do it differently. Like maybe I want to write down 30 titles. Because titles are so much easier than ideas. Ha. And buying this awesome 2014 PiBoIdMo notebook from CafePress.
  3. Watching summer turn into fall and thinking about how this will be the first year in many that I’ll be driving to and from work in the dark, thinking about ways to stay alert and productive once I’m home, at least a few nights a week, instead of just heading right for the pajamas and cat snuggles. Tips and suggestions welcome!
  4. Making some trips. Next weekend I’m going to KidLitCon in Sacramento. So excited to meet people who are part of a world I love and to hear more discussion on diversity in books and what bloggers can do about it. Then my husband and I will make a quick run up and back to see my son in his first college concert.  His latin jazz combo will be playing here. How gorgeous is that? And the acoustics are amazing.
  5. Reading, reading, reading. Right now I seem to be on a mystery kick–just finished and really enjoyed Annette Dashofy’s second Zoe Chambers novel, Lost Legacy, and moved on with a Yay! Finally! to Deborah Crombie’s newest, To Dwell in Darkness. Then, happy dance, I found two more books by favorite authors at the bookmobile today: Elly Griffiths’ The Outcast Dead (If you haven’t read Griffith’s Ruth Galloway series, start now) and Jill Paton Walsh’s The Late Scholar, a new one in her “Based on the characters of Dorothy L. Sayers” series (and, Sayers’ fans, Walsh’s books are a very, very good continuation of Sayer’s own books). So, you know. I’m set for at least a few days!

Happy October, everyone!

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I’ve Been Tagged: Picture Book Projects

Posted on by beckylevine

Okay, I was tagged almost two weeks ago, but I’m here! Thanks to Carol Baldwin for giving me the chance to talk about my project(s) and process. And, rather than tag anyone specific in turn, I’m just throwing out an invite. If the questions in this post look fun and you’ve got a project you want to talk about, drop the link into the comments so we can all see.

What are you working on right now?

Picture books! I actually have three picture books in the works. Partially because these stories called to me, partially because I have fallen in love with all the manuscripts, and partially because I’m learning that if I want to submit a picture book to an agent, I need to have more than that one ready to go. So the MG novel is set aside for now, even though it keeps sending out little peeps to try and get my attention. I’m promising it lots of time when these other manuscripts are ready and done.

I’m not going to share details about the picture books, because by the time I’ve told you anything about them, I might as well tell you everything. And I’ll hold onto that for marketing time, when/if that comes! But I will tell you that I feel like I have tapped into several different story modes, voices, and characters for the manuscripts. When I look at them, I’m not quite sure how they all came out of my brain and fingertips, but I think some of the credit has to go to Tara Lazar and PiBoIdMo. (Holy Cow! I have to start thinking up new ideas in TWO DAYS!). Something about the speed and craziness of coming up with one or more ideas, every day for a month, seems to let loose a randomocity of ideas, at least for me. It’s a challenge, because I have to shift neurons and synapses each time I turn from one to the other of the three manuscripts, but it’s also energizing and just really, really cool.

How do picture books differ from other genres?

Okay, the original question is how does your manuscript differ from other books in its genre, so feel free to answer that one in your post. But since I’m talking about three picture books, it doesn’t quite work. So I changed it! As I’ve talked about before, I’m fairly new to picture books, so they feel very different. I have always been a novel person, from the series books I read as a kid to the years I spent reading 700-page works of Victorian fiction in college. Dickens got paid by word-count; in picture books, you are seriously encouraged to reduce your word count. Which I love. Maybe I’m coming at it wrong (but don’t tell me if I am!), but I am finding that the tighter I can make the words in a picture book, the more clear the theme/vision/main problem becomes. It’s truly like trimming away the fat, or chiseling the marble away from the statue inside. As a reader, I have always loved spare writing, and while I’m not sure I’ve achieved this in any of my novels, I’m so there with my picture books. I have one manuscript that is down to 200+ words. Some of those still need to be replaced. Some will be cut. But I’m pretty sure I won’t be adding back a whole lot more.

The other difference for me, and the real challenge, is how tricky it is to create a truly active protagonist when they are, essentially, a very small child whose life is constantly impacted by bigger, older, theoretically wiser characters. You’ve heard that we’re supposed to read what we write. Well, I spend a huge chunk of my picture-book reading time tracing the actions and the behavior of the hero, seeing what techniques and steps the author has taken to bring their protagonist to the forefront of the story and give them some control over their lives. And then I go back to my protagonists and tell them to get their act together. Please. And again and again.

Why do you write what you do?

Well, obviously because I’m loving it. But I think there are two other reasons. One, frankly, is time. And impatience. I went back to work a couple of years ago, and started feeling like a completed novel was way, way, way down the line. (For those of you starting NaNoWriMo in two days, just ignore me! Seriously. Get out there and dump it all onto the page. And have fun!) I had some picture book ideas and while it was never easy, I could see progress in a way I wasn’t able–right then–to see on my novel. It felt good to be able to take time on a weekend and see some actual changes, get some new ideas and put them into effect…on the entire manuscript.

The other reason, I think, goes back to me and my lifetime of novel reading and writing. Picture books were new. I didn’t know the structure, I didn’t know the voice, and I really, really didn’t know how to tackle that super young protagonist. I felt my brain wake up, felt the areas that had been comfortable resting in the patterns of a 200-page manuscript, sit up and stare. What is this? We want to play! Something about having to learn a new genre, a very different genre, felt like magic–neurological magic, I guess. The last thing I want my brain to do is stagnate, and I have a feeling adding picture books to my repertoire is going to help it not do that.

How does your writing process work?

Process? It’s changed so much over the years, so much with every genre/project, and so much with whatever else is happening with my life. These days, unfortunately, it seems to be a lot of bringing myself back to a project. I haven’t been as good as I’d like at keeping the writing going every day, along with regular job-work things. So there’s pretty much always a gap between the last time I wrote and the next time, and not just a gap of 24 hours. So there’s fear. There’s that feeling of not remembering quite where I was and of not automatically knowing the next step I need to be taking. The only thing I’ve found for a cure is to get to the computer. Even if I am only looking at one sentence in a manuscript and thinking about it, I make myself do that. And if I can make myself sit and look, gently think, then I almost always hear the key turn in the lock. Ideas start coming. My fingers start typing. And something changes.

Other than that, I revise and revise. My first draft, especially on a picture book, is a wild dump. I am amazed at how powerful and complete I can think an idea is until I try to write it down. If I were going to give up on a manuscript, that would be the point at which it would happen. But I’m learning (again, thanks to PiBoIdMo), that junk doesn’t stay junk. And even when it does, for a long time, that core idea is still there, and something about it is valid. So, like I said, I revise and revise and revise. And I sent the manuscripts to my critique group. Again and again and again. They are saints. And I whittle, and I trim, and I substitute, and I go on wild rampages of totally new angles. And each revision gets me closer to something right. And something done.

Any departing words of wisdom for other authors?

Nothing brilliant. Read Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. She will tell you about the pain and anguish and joy and delight of writing much better than I can. But basically, if you want to write, write. Somehow, make some time for it. And be incredibly patient with yourself. When something matters as much as writing does, then worry, fear, and struggle are going to come along for the ride. But so can stubbornness, determination, and moments of absolute light and inspiration.

And, something I learned for myself this past year, if you’re not happy with the project you’re working on, stop. I don’t mean worried or stressed or confused. But if every time you come to sit down with that manuscript, you’re grumpy and sad and unmotivated, take a look around. Is something else calling to you? Work on that for a few days. Do the grumpies go away? Even while the challenges hang around? Maybe that’s where you need to be. Writing is too important to be truly, steadily unhappy while we do it. Truly.

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Friday Five: Why I ALMOST Quit PiBoIdMo

Posted on by beckylevine

It was close. Yesterday, I almost tucked the notebook away and just let it go. I was telling myself that this wasn’t the year for me, that it wasn’t a big deal, that I could just choose to stop. Why was I considering backing out of the month’s goal?

1. I haven’t really been “there” this year. Last year, my writing time WAS PiBoIdMo. I carried that notebook everywhere with me, and I scribbled ideas right and left. This year, the notebook has spent more time away from me than with me, at the very least in my briefcase, rather than on my desk. For whatever reason, I haven’t been focused on picture book ideas this November.

2. I started (FINALLY!) writing scenes for my YA. That old question/debate has raised its head: What exactly are you writing? Can you even handle multiple projects, or are you just doing all of them a disservice by trying to multi-task? If you spend time on more than one manuscript, will you actually FINISH any of them?

3. I’ve been working. I know–this is so NOT an excuse, but totally a “princess problem.” I love my job, I WANT my job, it’s totally not cool to BLAME it. Still, it does take my brain to different places during several hours of a day–I’m actually supposed to be focusing on job stuff. I mean, yeah, you know–they’re PAYING me! Like I said in number 1, I do drop the PiBoIdMo notebook into the briefcase during the morning, but it’s often still there when I drive home, and then…yeah, it doesn’t levitate itself up into my hands by itself.

4. The ideas I have been throwing into the notebook are, let’s face it…BLAH. Flat. Boring. Stupid. I know, get rid of the evil editor, but I also try to be honest with myself sometimes. I’ve been dipping into the shallowest part of my imaginative brain the last couple of weeks. I’ve been grabbing at those ideas that float there on the top, that I don’t even need a net or fishing line to catch hold of. And I’ve been saying. Good. Cool. Done for the day. I’ve been…LAZY.

5. I’m at a kind of stuck point with my current picture book drafts, the ones I did develop from ideas last year. Stuck as in, yeah, so, what do I do now. Stuck as in, Geez! I have to get SO MANY OF THESE “ready,” before they’ll take me anywhere in terms of publication–nobody wants just one or two. Stuck as in, you know…THIS IS HARD. Whine, whine, whine.

I was “this close.” I had the notebook in my hand–I can’t even tell you whether I’d gotten as far as concretely formulating the choice: 1) Put it away or 2) Sit down with it one more time. All I know is that I was standing there with it, not moving, not heading in one specific direction or another, and (here’s the kicker) NOT DOING ANYTHING ELSE.

And here came the idea.

I love this idea. I can see the character, I can see her problem, I CAN SEE THE PICTURES. (Don’t shoot me, all you illustrator-types, I know better than to actually tell you about them–they just float happily around in my brain helping along the happy-dance factor.) I want to write this picture book.

I’m remembering how big a haystack can be, and how teensy-weensy that needle can be inside it. I’m remember Anne Lamott’s shitty first draft and remembering how that applies to a whole pile of shitty picture-book ideas. And I’m remembering my overall philosophy about NaNoWriMo and PiBoIdMo: No matter how little you actually GET DONE in November, you can pretty much bet it’ll be more than it would have been if you hadn’t signed up.

And I’m remembering: it’s all about time and space. Just a little bit. Just that tiny moment of taking hold of your attention and pointing it in that direction. Yes, I’m busy. Good god, we’re ALL busy, and my level of it is so NOT the top of the crazy-schedule-meter. So, no, I’m not going to get 30 good ideas. I think I’ll get 30 ideas, but who knows. It’s okay.

Because in that blip of quiet time, that bubble of emptying out my brain of all the other goop, I did it. I opened the door, just a crack, and my imagination did step up to the light and offer up the silver platter. With lacy doily.

I have one story possibility. So, no, I’m not quitting. Not today. And probably not this month.

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Zen and the Art of PiBoIdMo

Posted on by beckylevine

True confession one: I’ve never read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I know people who’ve read it, though, so that counts for something. Right? And I’m certainly no expert on zen as a practice. I think about it, though. So that counts…

Oh, never mind. It’s just a good title for my blog post.

I’m pretty sure that one aspect of Zen, at least, is the concept of living in the moment. Of not spending too much time or energy regretting the past and re-living things you can’t change or fix. Of not worrying about the future or grasping at events or opportunities or dreams that may be out of your control.

JUST LIKE PIBOIDMO!

What?

Okay, listen. Here’s how my morning went.

I took my notebook into work with me, and get three ideas for the day. So far. They were even “problem” ideas, which I’ve decided is what I’m shooting for–an idea that actually comes with a problem for some hero to solve.  And here’s what went through my mind as I wrote down the ideas.

  • Awesome! I already have my idea. I could stop right now and not bother thinking of any more ideas today. (Trying to make a decision about the future.)
  • Ha! Two ideas. I could count one for tomorrow, and then I could take a PiBoIdMo day off! (Again, projecting what I’ve just succeeded in doing into the future.)
  • Oh, shoot. I didn’t leave any space after that first idea. What if I have more thoughts on it, and then I don’t have any room to jot them down? (More future worry–definitely my particular skill.)
  • You know, that idea I wrote down an hour ago isn’t so hot. I mean what kind of kid would have a problem like that? What was I thinking? (Regret over a past action.)
  • This is feeling like last year, when I plopped down any old idea. Do I want to keep doing all November this year?. (Angst about past and future. I win the worry contest!)

Okay, I’m joking. Sort of. But, truthfully, the little, crazy, is-any-of-this-writing-stuff-really-good-enough voice did toss these thoughts into my head. No, they didn’t linger, because I know that voice, and I know better–usually–than to listen to it. Still, it made me realize–PiBoIdMo has to be about not just living in the moment, but about celebrating the moment. So, come to think about it, does NaNoWriMo. Because they’re both about speed and instant acceptance and randomocity. If you give credence to your doubt voice for more than that fleeting second, you risk throwing yourself off. You risk putting down the PiBoIdMo notebook or the NaNoWriMo file on your computer–putting down your project. You risk pulling the rug out from under yourself and just losing that all-important momentum.

So don’t. No, we can’t shut the voice up for good. But we can push it away, into the past or future if it has to go somewhere, but out of the now.  For all our writing, yes, it’s best to stay present, to be focused on the time we’re putting into our manuscripts at the moment. I think, though, that it’s even more critical for these events. Yes, they’re about quantity, rather than quality. Yes, they’re about racing to get words on the page. What they’re really about, though, is freeing our minds up in a way we rarely do, in a way that gets us out of the self-critical place and into the place of flowing creativity.

I still haven’t done NaNoWriMo. Some day. This is my second year for PiBoIdMo. And I’d like to say thanks, here, to both Chris Baty and Tara Lazar for bringing them both into my world. And wish the best of luck (and FUN!) to all of you participating this year.

Posted in PiBoIdMo, Picture Books

In Which I Look Into the PiBoIdMo List and Find it…Not ALL Heffalumps and Woozles

Posted on by beckylevine

It’s mid-January, which means 2012 is well on its way. Which means, yes, that I should be doing something with that list of ideas I came up with last November, in Tara Lazar’s PiBoIdMo. How easy would it be for me to let this all go? Oh, too, too easy.

So…

This weekend, I went back to step 1 on my post-PiBoIdMo to-do list: prioritize my ideas. Honestly, when I thought about putting my entire list of 50+ ideas in order, it was a bit overwhelming. I mean, I knew without looking that some of those ideas were pretty awful, and I just didn’t feel like spending much any time debating which of them most deserved pride-of-last-place. You know?

I came up with a compromise. I would build the list, and then I would prioritize my top 10. Seems rational, right? Realistically, how many of these ideas am I really going to have time to develop into a full story before next November, and PiBoIdMo 2012, rolls around?

I opened up each file and took a look at the idea, reminding myself what the file name I’d assigned it actually meant. And I have to tell you, as I worked my way through each and stuck them on a list, I was fighting back the slightly nauseating feeling that I wasn’t going to find ten story ideas I could even tolerate. You know, once that PiBoIdMo glow had worn off.

But guess what? Ten is just not that big a number!

I have my list. And that short-list is actually not horrible.  When I looked into the pit and dug around a lot, instead of heffalumps and woozles, I think I found a little honey. Most, if not all the ideas spark at least an image or a bit of character in my imagination, and the couple that don’t–well, they make me at least want that spark. Which is more than I can say for some of those ideas that would have ended up at the bottom of the list.

And the idea that landed at the top? That took the #1 post. Yeah. There’s a story in there I want to write.

How are you doing on your post-PiBoIdMo work? Found any honey yet?

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PiBoIdMo: A Wrap-up

Posted on by beckylevine

A few days before November, I took the PiBoIdMo pledge, promising that I’d do my best to come up with 30 ideas in 30 days.

How many ideas did I get?

57!!!!

Which means, I get this!

I also treated myself to one of the PiBoIdMo mugs, with Bonnie Adamson’s darling art, from the CafePress store.

Yes, I’m proud of myself. Especially because I definitely got a bit muddled there with the stupid sickness that hit the family in the middle of the month. And, you know, some of those ideas are pretty…meh. But there are a few, maybe a half-dozen, that sparkle. At least for me. One of my critique partners who also did PiBoIdMo, has ranked his ideas, in order of how strongly they call to him. That’s next on my PiBoIdMo to-do list. To identify the ideas that I want to work on, or–I guess–that want me to work on them!

Because it’s not really time for pride yet. Happiness, yes, that I have way more ideas than I would have had if it weren’t for Tara Lazar and her awesome challenge. What really matters, though, is what I do with these ideas. What’s important is that I don’t simply shut them in a drawer, or drop them into that folder on my computer and forget about them.

Ideas aren’t stories. Yet.

One of my critique partners, who also did PiBoIdMo, has gone ahead and ranked his ideas–putting those that really call to him up at the top. I think this is the next task on my PiBoIdMo to-do list. I know I have maybe a half-dozen ideas that are sparkling for me, and the first thing to do is identify them.

The next thing is to grow them. I need to give them characters–characters with problems. I need to find settings and voices. I need to turn those ideas into plots. What I have is just what Laura Purdie Salas talked about in her PiBoIdMo post–I have seeds. I need to tend them–with my imagination, my creativity, and–here’s the most important: my time. This is the kind of gardening I can get behind.

This is the notebook I bought in October.

Pretty, isn’t it. It’s also something else…just the beginning.

Here’s my commitment to my PiBoIdMo idea list. That I will take at least one of the ideas on it and turn it into something more. Into a story that I will pass along to my critique group, a story that I will revise. And revise.

Who’s with me?

Posted in Friday Five

Friday Five: Restart

Posted on by beckylevine

Yesterday was a catch-up day. My to-do list had gotten pretty long while we were out of commission, so I plugged myself in at my desk and slogged through, checking things off and moving on.

Felt good.

I have dipped a toe back into my writing & reading, too. Just a bit. And today felt like clearing the decks on things that were getting in the way of doing more of that.

For this week’s Friday Five, a peek at the baby steps I’m taking back into my word world.

1. Ran through a very rough draft of a kind-of concept picture book. Made a couple of little tweaks, and then sent it out the door to my critique group, with a request that they give me feedback on the overall (if any) viability and any ideas for creating that viability if it doesn’t exist. Yet.

2. Completed PiBoIdMo with more than 30 ideas, took the PiBoIdMo Winner’s Pledge (which means I am officially entered for some awesome prizes!), and ordered my PiBoIdMo 2011 mug, with Bonnie Adamson’s fantastic art, from the CafePress PiBoIdMo shop. The big victory for me here was not just finishing the month with enough ideas, but not letting the last few days of the month slide away without any ideas, after I took a couple of days off for being sick. I wanted to actually, actively complete the challenge, and I did. Yay, me. Yay, anyone who also won or participated. Yay, everyone who spent any time writing speedily for NaNoWriMo, too. November is really about doing more than you would/could have, if you hadn’t tried to take the challenge. So kudos all around!

3. Opened the Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook again. Got started on the next exercise. Picked a scene to view from the other way around. And today I’ll dig in and really start looking at the YA historical. Again.

4. Read something other than an Agatha Christie mystery or a Terry Pratchett novel. All of you know with what high esteem I seriously hold both these authors, but they are also restful for me in a way that goes well with being ill, or tending the ill. So I’ve been reading a LOT of both. Yesterday, I started and finished Ruta Sepetys’ Between Shades of Gray. It felt great to pick up something new, something intense and powerful. Okay, probably not the smartest choice for a cold day when the sun set by 5:00, but definitely a read to recommend. And, again, a historical novel with tight, short chapters–something I want for my own YA and something I am really going to have to push myself to get right.

5. Critiqued pieces from two of my critique partners. Lovely to get back into reading good stuff and digging in for helpful feedback. Have I mentioned that my brain was starting to atrophy?

What little pieces of reading and writing did you keep going in your life the last week or so. Did you push through for NaNo, pass the great number THIRTY in PiBoIdMo, or even just get an hour in here or there to move words from your mind to your computer’s? Whatever you managed, you have my admiration and my congratulations!

Posted in PiBoIdMo, Picture Books

PiBoIdMo & My Lightening-Fast Reactions

Posted on by beckylevine

It’s November 10th. Ten days into the month that is PiBoIdMo.  It’s been an interesting week and a half. The guest posts at Tara Lazar’s Writing for Kids (While Raising Them) blog have been great! And it’s as much fun as I thought it would be to just open up my senses and imagination for picture-book ideas.

So far, in terms of numbers, I’m being successful. I’m pretty sure I’ve had more than one idea on every day, and many days in my notebook have three or four ideas jotted down. Are they any good?

Hmm…

What I’ve found is that, apparently, PiBoIdMo turns me into something an awful lot like this:

No, it doesn’t make me eat spiders. Ew.

It does make me quick. Quick to snatch up any idea that comes into my brain–be that an image, a question, a phrase, a character. I don’t know if it’s the anxiety that I won’t get any ideas that day, or the determination NOT to get anxious about that possibility. But I am not spending a lot of time filtering the possibilities through any questions about whether I can actually develop this idea into a story, or whether this idea has already been done.

I think this is okay. I think it’s probably the right way to go. It’s not that different from the idea behind NaNoWriMo–you’re shooting for quality, not necessarily quantity.

With the assumption, the commitment to yourself, that you will take some of that quantity and actually turn it into quality. No matter how hard that transformation is.

Do I have any ideas that actually feel like winners? Winners to me, yes. I do. There are a few that come with a spark, a smile, a thought that this one is going on the post-PiBoIdMo list of things I want to spend time with. That makes me feel a lot better about all the others that don’t—yet—have that pop. Plus, I have a sense of even more as starting points–ideas that need a twist, or a reversal, or a quirky angle that will turn them from unlikely to likely.

If you’re participating in PiBoIdMo, what have the first ten days been like for you? What have you discovered about yourself, about the way you search for ideas and how they feel when they do come into your brain?