For those writers who shy away from writing an entire novel in 30 days, over on Verla Kay’s Blueboards, picture book writers have another idea for November: one story a day for 30 days.

I’m taking it one step further…or one step back, I should say. I’ll be generating one new PB idea a day for the entire month. By December’s start, I’ll have 30 concepts to share with my critique partners. They’ll help me pick the best three to flesh out, while the rest remain in a file for future inspiration.

While I understand the attraction of NaNoWriMo, getting a rough draft down quickly, I think forcing this avid walker into a marathon will cause a collapse. Yes, it would get me over the painful hump of a novel’s beginning without months spent agonizing over its direction. That’s a definite bonus. But I think those moments of doubt are often what fuel my creativity. Can I make a rich stew with a can of condensed soup? Have I mixed too many metaphors in this paragraph?

But as a mother of two, I have to be realistic. With a daughter’s birthday, Thanksgiving travel, and performing my duties as family entertainment director, I’d have to give up hours of coveted sleep in order to complete 50,000 words by December. And I’d have to desert other projects that I feel too passionate about to set aside for a month.

Natalie Goldberg, please forgive me. I enjoy your zen-like philosophy of writing with abandon, without my critical internal editor impeding progress. But two thousand words a day? Maybe if they don’t have to be in a row. (What? This post was already 346 words? OK, I get your point, wisegirl.)

So yeah, this one PB idea a day is much more my pace. It’s a challenge, but one that I can complete while I work on my other manuscripts. I’ve already got four new ideas and it’s the 3rd of November. One day ahead! Maybe I ought to spend some time writing now, huh?

So how about you? Has NaNoWriMo influenced your November writing plans?