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by Congratulations on completing PiBoIdMo!
This activity generates such a feeling of abundance. Ideas everywhere! Some of these ideas have great promise, and some of them…don’t.
Photo: Daniel Plazanet (Daplaza)
I characterize ideas as pebbles or seeds. Pebbles are hard and immutable. They might be shiny, or pretty, or just dusty. But whatever they are, they’re rocks. They aren’t going to grow into something different.
Photo: Mrmariokartguy
But seeds…oh, seeds! Some look like pebbles. They seem hard and small and nondescript at first. But if you nurture them with questions, and time, and creativity, the seed ideas can grow into more—like a picture book.
So, how do I sort them out? I ask questions. I play around with answers. I try to be honest, even when I don’t want to. Here are some of the things I ask:
One premise from my PiBoIdMo list this year is: “I Won’t Come Down: Rhyming pb from pov of a kitten stuck in a tree. With a refrain? Who tries to get me down? Kid climbs up, but I climb higher. Fire truck? Where’s the fire? Need a personality for the kitten. Is she witty and clever? Scared to death? Sassy?”
1) Who is my main character?
Does my idea or premise suggest a particular character? Does she fit the situation perfectly? Or totally clash with it? In this case, as I re-read the idea, I know my main character kitten HAS to be a witty, clever girl. She appears to be stuck in the tree, but she’s really perfectly happy up there.
2) What is the conflict?
Easy-peasy. Everybody assumes she wants to get down, but she doesn’t. Sometimes the conflict isn’t obvious. Another of my ideas is about a pet cloud. Just an idea—but I don’t have a clue what the conflict would be (yet).
3) Does it make me ask more questions?
A good idea expands. It makes me want to explore possibilities. My treed kitten does that for me.
4) Has it been done a million times?
Uniqueness is key in publishing picture books. I’ve had manuscripts turned down recently that editors said they loved but that were “too similar” to books already published—even though the similarity is broad at most. In this tight market, publishers don’t want two “pet books” or whatever. I start on Amazon. I find 27 picture books including the words “kitten” and “tree” published over the past 25 years. Dang. That doesn’t mean any of them have the same premise, but I’ll need to do further research.
5) Can I see the book in my mind?
Picture books, of course, need pictures. Does my idea make me immediately visualize tons of images?
6) Is it a seed that will grow a short story instead of a picture book?
It can take years of reading to absorb the intrinsic difference between the two forms. Illo potential is part of it, but there’s more. If your idea depends on a twist/joke ending, it’s likely to be a short story. (The ending of a picture book should be surprising and satisfying, but not a joke/punchline.) If you can picture one great illo for it, but not 14, it’s a short story. If it involves complex plot points and many details, it’s a short story.
7) Does it stand up to repetition?
Will kids want to listen to this over and over? Will adults be happy to read it over and over? That’s a picture book.
As I play around with these questions, a seed idea will grow into the bare bones outline of a picture book. It will feel simple and essential enough to get a draft down in a single swoop. The manuscripts I’ve tweaked and tortured to death have just not cut it as picture books.
I’m not saying I don’t spend a ton of time revising! I do. I change points of view, try different main characters, etc. But if the essence of the conflict and character don’t fall into place quickly, I’ve come to accept that it’s probably just not a fantastic picture book idea for me to pursue.
So, read through your list of ideas. Play with them. Ask questions. Brainstorm conflicts and storylines.
Then, mark the ones that are ready to plant. They won’t all grow. But at least some of them are seeds, ready to bloom in the soil of your creativity, under the sunshine of your words.
As for the pebbles, don’t sweat it! They’ll make a nice little border around your garden of picture books!
Laura Purdie Salas is the author of many nonfiction picture books, but her first love is poetry and verse. Her newest book is BOOKSPEAK! POEMS ABOUT BOOKS (Clarion, 2011), and coming soon is a rhyming nonfiction book: A LEAF CAN BE… (Millbrook, 2012). She is also the author of STAMPEDE! POEMS TO CELEBRATE THE WILD SIDE OF SCHOOL (Clarion, 2009). You can learn more about Laura at her website (www.laurasalas.com), her blog (http://laurasalas.wordpress.com), and her mentoring service for writers site (www.MentorsForRent.com).
I bet you feel like a winner just because you have a journal full of ideas!
But hey, you get some swell SWAG, too. (Well, it’s not stuff WE ALL get, it’s stuff WE SOME get, but SWSG is too hard to say.)
All winners will be randomly selected on DECEMBER 8TH from the WINNER’S PLEDGE post. You must have SIGNED IN at the beginning of PiBoIdMo and SIGNED THE WINNER’S PLEDGE by DECEMBER 7th to be eligible. Your name must be in both places. (Sorry, there’s gotta be rules sometimes.)
Enough legalese; onto the prizes!
First, there’s THREE GRAND PRIZES:
Feedback on your best 5 ideas from three literary agents: Ammi-Joan Paquette, Jennifer Rofé and Kelly Sonnack.
Each grand prize winner will be paired with an agent. The winners will send their 5 best ideas (written as pitches) to their agent and the agent will respond with brief feedback suggesting which ideas are the best to pursue as manuscripts.
But that’s not all!
There’s MORE!
FOUR FIRST PRIZES!
Picture book critiques from Tara Lazar (who the heck is that?), Brenda Reeves Sturgis, Corey Rosen-Schwartz and Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen!
The following prizes have been generously donated, so please, if you like what you see, visit the shops and browse. If you don’t win on December 8th, consider making a holiday purchase from these lovely literary-savvy vendors!
MANY, MANY SECOND, THIRD, AND ELEVENTH PRIZES!
- An original painting by MONSTORE illustrator James Burks
- Beautiful coptic stitch journal and accessories from The Nib and Quill
- Gorgeous die-cut greeting cards from Christina Peressini at Nib & Tuck
- Colorful “Make Believe” print by Lily Moon
- Two practical and pretty book necklaces from JanDa Jewelry
- Two whimsical book photos of your choice from The Maple Tea House
- Super-Duper Reading Girl Hero brooch from Jam Fancy
- Lovely vintage Picture Books from La Brocante Magique
- A pile of picture books from my publisher, Simon & Schuster
Apples and Pumpkins
The Snow Angel
Fairly Fairy Tales
Catch that Baby
Aliens Love Panta Claus
Dinosaurs Love Underpants
Four Friends at Christmas
The Christmas Sweater
The Monster Princess
The Little Girl with the Big, Big Voice
Hootenannny! A Festive Counting Book
PHEW! I think that’s it. I might find more stuff under my bed, though. Speaking of bed, goodnight PiBoIdMo’ers! And thanks once again for making this event a huge success. Give yourselves a nice pat on the back—and speaking of bed again—a good night’s sleep! You deserve it!
OK, time’s up, PiBoIdMo’ers! (PiBoIdMo’ites? PiBoIdMo’igans?)
Do you have 30 new picture book ideas?
You do? Excellent!
Time to take the PiBoIdMo winner’s pledge to qualify for one of our amazing-Ringling prizes! (Sorry, there are no circus animals to give away. I just felt like rhyming. I know, I shouldn’t rhyme.)
I do solemnly swear that I have faithfully executed
the PiBoIdMo 30-ideas-in-30-days challenge,
and will, to the best of my ability,
parlay my ideas into picture book manuscripts.
Now I’m not saying all 30 ideas have to be good. Some may just be titles, some may be character quirks. Some may be problems and some may create problems when you sit down to write. Some may be high-concept and some barely a concept. But…they’re yours, all yours!
You have until December 7th at 11:59:59PM EST to sign the pledge by leaving a comment on this post.
Remember, this is an honor system pledge.You don’t have to send in your ideas to prove you’ve got 30 of them. If you say so, I’ll believe you! (But for the record, I have no interest in purchasing a bridge at this time.)
Those whose name appears on both the kick-off post AND this winner’s pledge will be entered into the grand prize drawing: feedback on your best 5 ideas by a literary agent. There are three grand prizes! Thanks to Ammi-Joan Paquette of Erin Murphy Literary Agency plus Jen Rofe and Kelly Sonnack of Andrea Brown Literary Agency, Inc. for volunteering their time and talent to PiBoIdMo.
Other prizes include picture books, manuscript critiques, jewelry, journals, greeting cards and MUCH MORE! (Prize announcement post coming tonight!) All winners will be randomly selected by Random.org and announced on December 8th. And from now until the 7th, more guest bloggers will inspire you to develop your manuscripts.
But lucky you, you get your first prize now! This winner badge for your website, blog or social media site, designed by Bonnie Adamson. (If you display the badge, please link back to the PiBoIdMo page. You can make the badge larger or smaller…size it to fit anywhere.)
So what are you waiting for? Start signing…
…and start writing!
Thousands of children are depending on you!
by Pat Miller
It was the third week of January and I had asked my kindergarten students what special day was coming up on February 2. They guessed Valentine’s Day, Halloween, and Mother’s Day. So I gave them a hint. “It’s the day when a small, furry animal pops up out of its hole to tell the weather.”
The five year-olds were stumped. Suddenly, one boy pumped his arm and said, “I know! I know!” When I asked him which animal popped up, he replied with enthusiasm. “It’s the armadillo!”
Not surprising for a child from Texas where there are no groundhogs. I jotted the conversation in my idea book, but left it there for two years until I needed to write a book for credibility in my local SCBWI. After 33 rejections and two more years, Substitute Groundhog popped up out of its hiding place in my writer’s journal and went on to become a Junior Library Guild selection. It was reissued as an audio book, and was translated into French. Not bad for a “wrong” answer!
So, you’ve made it through November and jotted down a lot of ideas and sparks of stories. Perhaps you’ve even earned your PiBoIdMo 2011 badge of completion. So why this post on December 1? (There will be another tomorrow.)
First, let me ask if you know the story of Petunia. She was a goose who thought that carrying around a thick book under her wing was enough to make her smart. It wasn’t till she deciphered the word “dynamite” as “candy”, that the disastrous results blew open the book. Only then did Petunia realize that she had to begin the hard work of reading the book to become smarter.
For us it’s now time to begin the hard work of writing or illustrating the book. It’s not enough to be smug about the ideas we have tucked under the wing of our writing journals. Today is the perfect day to take the next step.
Turn back to your idea(s) from Day 1 and add something to it. Extrapolate a plot point. Describe the main character. Write down what could go wrong for the character. No need to fully flesh out the story—unless it insists you do so. Repeat the process on December 2nd with your second idea. In spite of the holiday busyness, keep going to your desk each day, fanning each spark a little more until one catches fire.
This is the process that will take your November ideas and carry them through to possibility. Mining your ideas each day will eventually lead you to gold. You never know what will pop up out of the ground until you dig for it. Good luck with your own armadillos!
Pat Miller is the author of Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution, Substitute Groundhog, We’re Going on a Book Hunt, Library Monkeys, and A Pet For Every Person. She and her husband live near Houston where the heat has finally broken but the drought persists. Her three adult children are still readers and are busy raising toddlers who also love books. Visit her Pat at www.patmillerbooks.com.
Writing for Kids (While Raising Them) 