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You wanna know what’s great about PiBoIdMo? Besides the fact that Tara’s letting a non-picture book author like me make a guest post? What do you mean, you don’t think that’s so great??
The greatness of PiBoIdMo lies in its lack of limitations. This is the idea stage, where anything goes, babies! Do you want to write a book about a reclusive green alien named Melonhead who assuages his loneliness by routinely traveling to the planet Earth and kidnapping pigs from isolated farmhouses in rural America? BAM! Idea Number 1! Have you always had the urge to write a picture book about a pet rock that’s been stubbornly kept in a drawer by a mad scientist since the mid-seventies and gained sentience via an unexpected spill of that scientist’s insane-but-brilliantly-created vat of artificial intelligence serum? Yo, Idea Number 2! A picture book about talking laptop computers who have a wacky adventure when an IT staffer mistakenly leaves a bottle of super-fun shredder lubricant on the ergonomic chair next to the desk where they live? Crap, utter crap, but hey, Idea Number 3!
I’m kidding. Kind of. Not really. I don’t actually mean you should deliberately spend your energy coming up with a bunch of deliberately crappy and unusable ideas. But you could definitely choose to come up with ideas that display some eccentricity, fall outside your normal comfort zone, or feel impossible to actually turn into a book.
By the way, those are all real ideas that I’ve actually tried to turn into real stories. HANDS OFF.
See, I really did try to write this book.
I’ve tried to write picture books, you know, and I don’t know how you people do it—when I try, it feels like I’m performing a lobotomy on myself with a soup spoon and a pair of knitting needles. Picture books are hard. Picture book ideas are easier. That’s true for all kinds of books, isn’t it? I don’t say that to invalidate the worthiness of PiBoIdMo, however, because the fact that coming up with an idea is easier than turning an idea into an actual book doesn’t mean that coming up with an idea is just plain old EASY. These creative processes are infinitely malleable in nature, and unique to the character and proclivities of the individual pursuing them.
During my one feeble attempt at PiBoIdMo I found myself swearing roundly at the horribly mundane, hackneyed ideas coming out of my tortured braincase. At least I thought they were mundane and hackneyed—maybe they weren’t at all, but the fact that I felt that way was messing with my head, you know what I mean? My solution was to say “well then, I’m just gonna use AAAAAALL the crazy ideas. Gonna take the wraps off my inner weirdness and just go to Bizarro World for the rest of the month.”
In creative terms, I do believe there’s a big upside to just thinking about the most wacky ideas in your head, without evaluating them for plausibility, market-readiness, industry trends, or genuine viability as potential stories. I’m a believer in the power of unfettered brainstorming—by removing boundaries on what kind of things qualify as legitimate ideas, you’ll sink a tap into a bigger aquifer of source material than you might otherwise. Your free associations will have more building blocks to link together. You’ll stretch your brain. Maybe you’ll find some avenue of inspiration that you didn’t even know you possessed. And you might be able to take one of those off-the-wall ideas and recognize a sane, strong, usable core inside it.
Or maybe all those daring ideas will come to nothing, I don’t know. That would actually be okay, wouldn’t it? There’s a price to doing business in the marketplace of creativity, and it usually involves the dismissal of efforts that prove unviable or untimely. Then again, maybe one of those cray-cray, easy-to-scorn ideas will turn into something entirely new. Where would we be without the advocates of previously unembraced change, the children’s book creators who were willing to try things that no one else was trying? Where would we be without Scieszka and Smith’s THE STINKY CHEESE MAN AND OTHER FAIRLY STUPID TALES, or Ezra Jack Keats’s THE SNOWY DAY, or Dr. Seuss’s THE CAT IN THE HAT?
Go crazy, people. Test the boundaries of your conceptual world, write down those nutty, unrealistic ideas, and then see if they take you some place you might not have gone if you’d stayed within the borders of The Town of Reasonable Thinking. Me? I’m definitely writing that alien-and-pig picture book one of these days. Try and stop me.
Mike Jung is an author, library professional, public speaker, blogger, amateur musician, former art student, and geek, but his preferred title is “Internet Despot.” Mike blogs, Facebooks and Tweets. He lives in Oakland, CA with his wife and two children. GEEKS, GIRLS, AND SECRET IDENTITIES (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic) is his first novel.
Where do you get your ideas?
As soon as I call on a kid at a school visit and they ask this question, dozens of other hands go down. You’ll hear countless children’s authors say it’s the question they’re asked the most. I get ideas everywhere (yes, that’s a copout statement), and so can you!
But first, you have to get past Miss Midge and her like. Those nasty voices that say miserable things to you. Here she is in my journal (and right now she’s saying “You’re not an artist, what are you doing!?!”)
GAG YOUR INNER CRITIC!
If you’ve been moaning about being behind in your PiBo count—stop perfectionizing! (Since my dinobooks, I’ve thrown out the dictionary. We are all powerful. We create worlds. We can create our own words.) Write down ALL the ideas you consider. You don’t know what will piggyback on them or what new variation will emerge. Let in the misfits and barefoot ideas that blankly stare at you.
But, back to the coach in me who wants you to stop being so durned critical… Name that beast inside you and move on. Sorry, but you gotta be tough about this one. Stand up for yourself. No self-bullying allowed!
Done exorcising that evil shadow? (Not totally? Okay, we’ll visit this again a little later.) Let’s move on to your hunting training.
BECOME AN IDEA HUNTER!
Ideas lurk. They hide. They disguise themselves. It’s your job to hunt them down. You develop x-ray vision, you study playground shenanigans and never say Bah Humbug about any holiday that involves kids, chaos, and giddiness. You train your family and friends. You observe like a four year old. You and your trainees share knowing looks. Picture book? Picture book!
MINE YOUR MEMORIES & UNLEASH YOUR IMAGINATION!
I always say writing is part imagination and part memory—it’s just the ratio that changes. Open your eyes with this in mind and you’ll never lack for ideas.
While other four-year-olds were playing in their sandboxes, I sat on my dad’s lap and operated the levers on his backhoe. I helped him “build.” Those experiences inspired MONSTERS ON MACHINES.
I sailed with The Shifty Sailors (the motley crew below) from Seattle to Olympia, and we took the train on the way home… DINOSAILORS and ALL ABOARD THE DINOTRAIN.
You see? Memory and imagination.
Along with memories come emotions. That takes a little deeper mining, but that’s what makes prose sing. What keeps readers engaged, holding their breaths, laughing out loud, shedding tears. Feel as you write. Wring yourself out onto the page. Write the words that pour from that space that aches, that cries for joy. Replace your judgment with curiosity and write as if your words can save the world. Because they can.
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL WRITER!
Picture book creators must play! Go galumphing! (Says my good friend George Shannon—who is great at accessing his four year old). Twist those ideas, turn them upside down, pack them with surprises and yummy words until you’re clapping and Yay-ing! Be four!
So, little girl or boy inside that big grown-up writer, what do you want? What’s your big dream or wish? Write it. Write whatever “it” becomes. And big outside writer, let that four-year-old go where it’s going to go. Don’t wait for the tantrum. If Miss Midge hears the kicking and yelling, she’ll be all over me.
I promised you another try at quieting your inner critics. Ready?
Raise your write hand and repeat after me…
Note: Did you know some people are so controlled by their inner critic that they can’t even get their hands in the air? RAISE THEM! There. Was that really so tough?
Write badly! Write junk—and lots of it! You gotta dig through lots of rocks to unearth the gems. You clean the mess up later—not before it hits the page.
No excuses, no stopping, no perfectionizing…
Just do it! And may the Fours be with you!
Deb Lund is a picture book author, creativity coach, continuing education instructor, and writing teacher. In her past lives, she’s been a music and classroom teacher, an elementary librarian, and a school founding director. If Deb’s rambling sparked anything for you, check out more on her blog. She lives on Whidbey Island, but if you can’t make it there to hang out with her, you can find her on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
Deb is generously giving away one signed copy each of DINOSAILORS and ALL ABOARD THE DINOTRAIN! Just leave a comment to enter. Two winners will be selected in one week. Good luck!
Last year I was a lurker on the PiBoIdMo site. The posts were inspirational. But I couldn’t (more accurately, I wouldn’t) do the listing of ideas. I taught elementary school for 35 years. My days lacked flexibility and overflowed with structure. Bells rang throughout the day telling me where to go and what to do. Perhaps too many years in a classroom have left me seriously resistant to following directives. And even though I‘ve been retired for a few years, my mind and body bolt to such demands: “Gather an idea a day”. Ha! I’ll wait until they come to me!
I like my ideas to come from a place of trust. I trust that when I finish a manuscript, another idea will present itself. I let my ideas float in on a dream when they are ready for me. My favorite stories have come to me that way. The pad and pen next to my bed sits nightly hoping to be written on.
Unfortunately, I have lost more than one story when I was away from home and a pad was not nearby. As many times as I repeated that idea before slumbering off again, it was completely forgotten by morning.
Typically, I am hesitant to join things, even something as motivational as PiBoIdMo. But then I read one of the posts on this site…and I decided to look more carefully with my author eyes that day. As I left my health club after yoga, I noticed the person at the front desk was wearing an unusual witch costume. Yes, it was Halloween. I looked at her and told her she just might be the inspiration for a new story. I got home and started my PiBoIdMo ‘12 ideas folder. I wrote down my thoughts for that story. And in the days that followed, because of all the pouring out of picture book love and posts on coming up with ideas, I started looking more actively rather than waiting for a story to hit me over the head. I believe wholeheartedly, whether we search with intention or passively, that the stories that are meant for us will find us.
Picture books touch me. I used them daily when I taught 4th grade to enhance every subject, or to make a point when a social situation arose that needed to be dealt with. Picture books are a quick and sweet way to avoid lectures or a boring review. Just read a book! It can touch upon a myriad of bases.
I think about the many gifted picture book authors and pause to contemplate their stories and what I might learn from their work. Can I move others to tears like Patricia Pollaco does in many of her stories? She writes about what she knows. My favorite story of hers is THANK YOU, MR. FALKER. That was her story as a child. And when I read the amazing picture book, IS YOUR BUFFALO READY FOR KINDERGARTEN? by Audrey Vernick, it spun out a new idea in my brain. Yes, I’m gathering ideas while I’m reading other author’s picture books. That’s a creative thinking skill… it was called piggy-backing when I taught it. It’s not that different from Diana Murray’s clever concept “mash-up” from Day 10, which brought forth more than one listing for my 30 stories in 30 days.
Once I determined to take on this PiBoIdMo commitment, I began observing the world more intensely. As my husband drove us to NY one weekend recently, I sat with my laptop as billboard signs and store names brought forth more to add to my PiBoIdMo file. I watched the kids play with their iPods in a waiting room when I sat patiently to get blood drawn for my yearly physical. I was almost sorry when they called me rather quickly. I was like a detective on a case…there might be more for me to see! I jotted down a story title sparked from an article in the AARP Magazine. Anyone under 50 doesn’t know what they are missing! I was more open to collecting from the universe of ideas. Thank you, PiBoIdMo, for your push to participate in this structured activity that can only help me grow as a writer. I hope to start the seed of a story that will touch little lives.
After all, that is why I’m writing.
Carol Gordon Ekster’s first published book, WHERE AM I SLEEPING TONIGHT? A STORY OF DIVORCE, Boulden Publishing, Fall 2008, was an About.com finalist for best book for single parent families. Another story, “The Library Is The Perfect Place”, was in Library Sparks magazine, February 2010. A picture book, RUTH THE SLEUTH AND THE MESSY ROOM, December 2011, was part of the debut list by the innovative publisher, Character Publishing. Now retired from teaching, Carol is grateful that her writing gives her a way to continue communicating with children. She also hopes to spread her love of picture books, as she did earlier this month at the Literacy For All Conference through Lesley University in her presentation, Using Picture Books to Enhance Curriculum for Grades 3-6. She lives in Andover, MA with her husband Mark. Learn more at CarolGordonEkster.com
and follow her on Twitter @CEkster.
Carol is generously giving away a picture book critique to a lucky PiBoIdMo’er who completes the 30-ideas-in-30-days challenge. Leave a comment on this post to enter…and if you also take the PiBo-Pledge in early December confirming you have 30 ideas, you’ll be entered to win. Good luck!
I don’t write, illustrate, publish, or edit picture books. I don’t work in a bookshop or belong to a school library marketing team. So what do I do then? I read. I read. I READ.
I read thousands of picture books every year. I’m always searching for the next best picture book. When I find *that* picture book, I feel compelled to promote it during my annual road trip, purchase copies for strangers, blog and tweet about it, feature it on a #kidlit sticker, and encourage every child who enters my school library to add it to their to-read list.
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Mr. Colby Sharp attended children’s literature expert Anita Silvey’s session during the NCTE Annual Convention. He tweeted:
Anita Silvey succinctly sums up how I feel about children’s books. (If you’re not familiar with Anita’s work, you MUST follow her Children’s Book-A-Day Almanac.) Most of you reading this blog post are hard at work creating one of the most remarkable things on the face of the earth. Your picture book could change the way a child looks at the world, turn a dormant reader into an avid reader, and even win the coveted Caldecott Medal.
I am thankful my second through fifth graders (150 students) have checked out over 5,000 picture books during Picture Book Month. Treasures that have not circulated in over two years are taking a much-deserved trip in a child’s backpack. I get goose bumps whenever I spot a fifth grader checking out a book he loved in first grade. He usually hugs it and says, “I love this book.” I always pretend the book smiles and whispers, “Hey, I love you, too.”
I wish I found a magic wand in my mailbox with the following note attached to it:
Dear Mr. Schu,
Thank you for supporting and believing in picture books. This colorful wand allows you to send five 2012 picture books to everyone hard at work writing and illustrating picture books. I know you will select books that will inspire individuals to “create the most remarkable thing on the face of the earth.”
Thanks for all you do for picture books.
Your friend,
Picture Book
BOY + BOT. Written by Ame Dyckman. Illustrated by Dan Yaccarino. Random House, 2012.
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HELLO! HELLO! Written and illustrated by Matthew Cordell. Hyperion, 2012.
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GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS! Written and illustrated by Jeff Mack. Chronicle Books, 2012.
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Z IS FOR MOOSE. Written by Kelly Bingham. Illustrated Paul O. Zelinsky. HarperCollins, 2012.
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THE THREE NINJA PIGS. Written by Corey Rosen Schwartz. Illustrated by Dan Santat. Putnam Books, 2012.
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I cannot wait to share your picture book with my students.
Happy reading, writing, and Thanksgiving!
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John Schumacher (aka Mr. Schu) is a teacher-librarian at Brook Forest Elementary School in Oak Brook, Illinois. John graduated from St. Xavier University with a Masters in Teaching and Leadership and from Dominican University with a Masters in Library and Information Science. He has taught English in Seoul, South Korea, and is in his ninth year at Brook Forest. John serves on AASL’s Best Websites for Teaching and Learning, the Monarch Readers’ Choice Selection Committee, and the 2014 Newbery Committee. He was a judge for School Library Journal‘s 2011 Trailee Awards and recently became a FableVision Ambassador. In his spare time (ummm…what’s that?) he reads, travels, and blogs at Watch. Connect. Read. John is a 2011 Library Journal Mover and Shaker.
Mr. Schu is giving away not ONE, but TWO books: HELLO! HELLO! and Z IS FOR MOOSE! Two winners will be selected in one week. Just leave a comment to enter (one entry per person). Good luck!
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Your PiBoIdMo caption challenge: Any suggestions for what the children’s book writer on the right should say? Post your caption suggestion in the comments section—I’ll pick one. The winner gets a signed copy of I’M BORED with a hand-drawn doodle inside. If you already have a copy of the book (yay, thank you!), I will inscribe the book to anyone you’d like and send it to them. Even if you DON’T win, all commenters will be entered in a random drawing for a hand-drawn doodle.
Sadly, the comic was inspired by a real-life comment by someone who didn’t appreciate how difficult it is to write a good picture book. Has anyone else encountered this sort of attitude?
But to the topic at hand: PICTURE BOOK IDEAS. Kudos to Tara Lazar for PiBoIdMo. I’m currently writing and illustrating a picture book for Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers which came about because of last year’s PiBoIdMo and NaPiBoWriWee (Paula Yoo’s National Picture Book Writing Week). (Tara’s Note: Another PiBoIdMo success story! Sadly I have lost count of how many deals y’all have made!)
My process for coming up with picture book ideas:
- Brainstorm. I keep a paper book idea notebook, a Scrivener idea notebook and I also jot down quick ideas in Simplenote via iPhone or iPad if I don’t have time to do anything else.
- After I’ve collected a bunch of ideas (after PiBoIdMo, for example), I’ll go through the most lame ideas and cross them off.
- I’ll examine the remaining list of ideas and realize that pretty much every single idea has already been used in some published picture book.
- Massive insecurity sets in. I wonder if there’s any point to trying to write a picture book if all the good stories have already been taken. Or what if I write a story I think is original but then it turns out that it’s already been written?
- More angsting. Self-deprecation. Chocolate.
- Take a deep breath, stop obsessing about failings and focus again on pure brainstorming. I set aside some regular time when I sit and focus completely on coming up with words, phrases, paragraphs, scenes, titles, situations, characters. I try to focus on elements that appeal to ME, not the market.
- Then I go through the list and start matching up elements, purposely trying for unusual combinations. Inevitably some of these combos will spark a longer picture book idea.
- When I’ve come up with this second list of ideas, I fight the urge to get angsty when I find that some of the plot ideas are already out there. Instead, I try add my own unique twist instead, perhaps in voice, character, setting or ending.
Good luck with those ideas, and I look forward to seeing your caption suggestions! (Please keep suggestions family-friendly.)
Debbie Ridpath Ohi is the illustrator of I’M BORED, a new picture book written by Michael Ian Black and published by Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers. Her current and upcoming projects include two books for S&S (one of which she is also writing) and illustrating the new RUBY ROSE series by Rob Sanders (HarperCollins). Visit her at DebbieOhi.com and follow along on Twitter @inkyelbows.
How do I inspire creativity? Just like the Nike slogan, I “Just Do It”.
Write, draw, paint, read, dance like a fool…whatever it is that I want to do better, I do as often as I can.
Create experiences. Being out in the world inspires ideas. Travel is wonderful. I love to travel. But if traveling isn’t in your budget, just open your eyes to your own neighborhood. I love living in Brooklyn. I just walk out of my door and I’m hit with experiences. In one three-block walk to the subway I’ll see a nanny waiting on the corner with a little boy, his arms wrapped around her leg and his head resting on her thigh. The comfort between the two makes me think she’s cared for him since he was an infant. There are the dogs I recognize but always forget their names. There’s the Vietnam Vet with the prosthetic leg and a sign in his window commenting on the state of politics (it changes weekly). There’s the guy whose garden of ceramic animals grows by the day…and the “can man,” who collects a shopping cart full of bottles and cans—the sounds of him sorting them at night ring though my window. All of these things inspire creativity.
Once you’ve taken the time to experience, then create. And don’t be a critic. I’m my worst critic. So the only way I’m going to create is if I don’t stop and analyze it. If I do, then analyzing turns into criticizing and before I know it, pen is down and no more writing. I have to get my ideas out and not edit myself. First, I write it all down and walk away. Then I look at it later that day or later that week. If the idea still calls to me, then I start to edit. Sometimes that edit turns into a complete rewrite. And if I’m drawing, I draw with a Sharpie pen as often as possible so I can’t go back and erase. Often I’ll find those first lines with a Sharpie are so much better than the refined and cleaned up picture I end up with after reworking it a hundred times.
In a nutshell, to inspire creativity: pause, take it all in. Look, read, walk, socialize, experience life. Then don’t “try” to write, draw, create.
Just do it.
Write, draw, and create. As often as you can. Every day if possible. Do it for yourself. If you have something to say, say it. Don’t worry about what others will think or if it’ll sell. Just do it.
Diane Kredensor is thrilled to set her second OLLIE & MOON adventure in the city she calls home, where they make the best pizza pie in the whole world. FUHGEDDABOUDIT! Diane is an Emmy Award-winning artist for her work on such hit shows as Pinky and the Brain, Oswald, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and WordWorld, to name a few. She runs her own animation production studio and happily makes her home in Brooklyn, New York, with her family. Keep an eye out next summer for her third book in the series, OLLIE & MOON: ALOHA!
Diane is represented by Jen Rofe of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Follow Ollie, Moon & Diane’s adventures on Twitter @OllieandMoon.
You can also follow their adventures when you win a signed OLLIE & MOON book! Just leave a comment to enter (one comment per person). A winner will be selected in one week. Good luck.
Man, you guys are more than half-way there! You’re at mile 19! And though it seems like there’s crazy amounts of marathon metaphors floating around PiBoIdMo, I’m going to add one more.
THE WALL.
That point where you’re tempted to say:
- November 19th – girl finds dog and learns to dance
- November 20th – girl finds chicken and learns to dance
- November 21st – girl finds sunglasses and learns to dance
- [Repeat until November 29th]
- November 30th – girl finds dog, chicken, sunglasses, hot sauce, tape dispenser, colored pencil, 1990’s car phone, empty cardboard box, car tire, chicken nuggets and wrist watch and learns to dance!
BOOYAH. Done.
But I’m here to say—don’t cheat yourself.
True, nobody will know if you don’t come up with all thirty. And nobody will know if you’re truly inspired by all thirty thoughts/ideas or if you play fill-in-the-blank from now on.
But you’ll know. And aren’t you the most important part of this process right now?
StSo what if you’re looking at “girl finds 1990’s car phone and learns to dance” and thinking, “well, that’s better than what I got today…”
Then I say, it’s time to explore!
Inspiration doesn’t just come from within. Inspiration comes from the larger world. So when was the last time you:
- Went to a museum
- Saw a great (or terrible) play
- Took a trapeze lesson
- Learned a new dance
- Tried a new food
- Laughed until your cheeks hurt
- Scared yourself silly
- Made something with your hands (illustrators: build, knit or otherwise non-illustrate something)
- Went to the batting cages
- Watched a documentary
- Attended a non-book related, public lecture at your local college
- Shopped a thrift store
- Did anything that required dressing up (either costume or fancy-pants)
- Sat around a campfire
- Ran through a corn maze
- Rode a rollercoaster
- Gave an unexpected gift
And now you’re thinking—this woman is ridiculous. How can I have time to take my kids to soccer practice, watch a documentary and come up with a brilliant new picture book idea?
And to that, I hope you all say:
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Stay strong, PiBoIdMo-ers. You’re almost there.
Tracy Marchini is a freelance writer and editorial consultant. Before launching her own editorial service, she worked at a literary agency, as a book reviewer and as a newspaper correspondent.
She’s the author of Pub Speak: A Writer’s Dictionary Of Publishing Terms and can be found at tracymarchini.com and on Twitter as @TracyMarchini.
Today I get to interview one of my favorite picture book peeps—Aaron Reynolds. His latest book, CREEPY CARROTS, is a NY Times Bestseller with the phenomenal Peter Brown.
PiBoIdMo is all about ideas. CREEPY CARROTS features a rabbit who’s paranoid that carrots are after him. How did that idea seed get planted?
I remembered as a kid how much I like to be scared. I loved scary TV shows and books. Don’t get me wrong…not REAL scared, not NIGHTMARE scared, but a little scared. I remembered watching shows like The Twilight Zone and how much fun it was to creep yourself out just a little. So I began thinking about ideas that were a little bit scary but mostly silly and an idea sprang to mind about a rabbit who loves carrots…until the carrots start following him. From there, the story came together pretty quickly.
In the book, there’s a question of whether or not the carrots are really following Jasper, or if it’s in his imagination. The grownups in the book don’t believe him…as is so often true in life. It was always clear to me that the carrots were real, they were really following him, and they had a plan.
So did you have the grownups who would be reading the book in mind when you wrote the story? Do you include something in your books to entertain parents and caregivers?
Yep, I always like to have double layers of humor in everything I write. If you look at Shrek and some of the best kids and family stuff out there that Pixar and Dreamworks are doing, there are always gags and jokes that go over kids heads that the adults bust a gut over. That’s the stuff I love and it’s definitely the kind of thing I like to do in my stories. Plus, it keeps me entertained along the way. Don’t get me wrong, I have the sense of humor and maturity of the average 7-year-old, but the subtle references keep my adult self happy as well. 🙂
Peter Brown illustrated the book with a film-noir feel, mostly black and white with the orange of the carrots in a starring role. Was the “classic movie” treatment part of your original concept?
My editor and I talked a lot about the look of the book early on. I was definitely inspired by 1950’s style hokey horror movies (being weaned on Mystery Science Theatre 3000 from early on) and always saw it as a mock-horror picture book, which isn’t exactly something you see every day and felt a little risky, but exciting to me. So a black and white feel was something I was really excited about. I talked about it with my editor, the idea of doing black and white with a single carroty accent color, and I was thrilled to find out that he really resonated with that, and further thrilled to find out that Peter really loved the idea, too. Peter definitely brought his own take on it, and you see that with the rounded corners (throwback to old TV screens) and extreme dramatic lighting, not to mention his homage to Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” on one spread.
How did you know CREEPY CARROTS was a winning concept? Did you sit down and write it immediately after it came to mind, or did you let it marinate a bit?
I didn’t know it was a winning concept at all. As often is the case, I felt like this idea could be a little too far out in left field for most editors to get excited about. Some initial responses were not only unreceptive, but downright offended at the story! But….you only have your own voice. If I can’t trust my own voice, who’s can I trust? I had to believe that the right quirky, goofy editor would snatch this up and that others would just have to be offended. In the end, it worked. But sometimes you think you’re crazy. You think “Can I truly be the only person in the world who thinks this is hilarious?!”
I didn’t sit down and write it immediately. It stewed for about a year before I finally sat down to put it to paper. But once I did, it came out pretty quickly.
Did the title CREEPY CARROTS come first or after you wrote the story?
Actually, the original title was EVIL CARROTS, and it came first, before I wrote the story. But my editor told me that people don’t buy picture books with the word EVIL in the title! Probably for good reason…
And CREEPY CARROTS made the NY Times Bestseller list! How did that accomplishment feel?
Woozy. I literally almost fainted. In the back of your head you dream that something like this might someday happen, but don’t really expect it to. So it was an amazing day.
What’s your best advice for PiBoIdMo participants as they go about capturing ideas?
Hmm. I guess it would be that there’s a fine line between a crazy, out-there idea and a really brilliant one. Who would have thought that a book where a pigeon is begging the reader to let him drive a bus would be a hit? If you’d pitched that to an editor at a conference before Mo Willems wrote it, most probably would have nixed it.
So many picture books out there seem to play it really safe. But there are editors out there that think like you do. So trust your voice. Trust your ideas, even if (and sometimes especially if) they seem out-there and crazy. This is a world where even a crazy story (or a creepy, carroty one) can become a success.
Aaron Reynolds is a New York Times Bestselling Author and has written many highly acclaimed books for kids, including CREEPY CARROTS!, CHICKS AND SALSA, BACK OF THE BUS, and the JOEY FLY, PRIVATE EYE graphic novel series. He has a passion for kids’ books and seeing kids reading them. He regularly makes time to visit schools where his hilarious hands-on presentations keep kids spellbound. Aaron lives in Chicago with his wife, 2 kids, 4 cats, and anywhere between zero and ten goldfish, depending on the day.
Hey, everyone! You can win a signed copy of CREEPY CARROTS! Leave a comment to enter. A winner will be randomly selected in one week. Good luck!
It’s November 17th and I only have four ideas on my PiBo list. You know, little things like “no power for a large chunk of November” got in the way of starting on time. My kids were home from school for two solid weeks and spent a large part of that time crying because Halloween in NJ was canceled for the second year in a row!
But am I worried? No! I’ve been through this before. In fact, this is my fourth time participating in PiBoIdMo so I consider myself quite a pro. I will have no problem getting to 30 ideas by November 30th and here is why… I brainstorm in themes. I pick a topic or concept and run it to ground.
2011 was the year of the MONSTER.
My list looked like this:
- Monster – Mistaken identity?
- Monster Mash (Monster Math?)
- Midnight Monster
- Monster in the Middle
- Mister Monster
- Monster who really wants a brother
- Attention Hog (yes, other things creep in! ☺)
- Monster who has bad dreams?
- Monster who is not ready for something? To move from under a crib to under a bed?
- Mini Monster
- Mini Me
- Monster who eats vowels
- Piwate Twouble
- Monster who is over-scheduled
I am currently working on #9 and #13.
2010 was the year of the DINOSAUR.
- Piratosaur – or Pira-saurus? Plundersaurus?
- Pizza-saurus or pasta-saurus – picky eater?
- Diapersaurus – toilet training?
- Tumblesaurus – dino who is the worst in her gymnastics class (Pike-a-saurus, stretch-a-saurus, bend-a-saurus, tuck-a-saurus) – handsprings, somersaults, cartwheels, splits- they nickname her bumblesaurus
- The Drama Queen
- Add-a-saurus, Minus-saurus
- Dino-snores
- Tyrannosaurus Specs – dinosaur who wears glasses
I took at stab at #8, but my real “winner” that year turned out not to be a dinosaur story after all!
2009 was the year of the FAIRY TALE
- Three Ninja Pigs sequel with Little red Riding Hood? Ninja Red?
- Technology- twisted tale with email, cell phone, digital camera. Goldilocks? Goes to three bears’ house and fixes all their gadgets?
- Fractured fairy tale with a surprise twin? Goldilocks has a twin sister, or Little red? Little Pink? Tawnylocks?
- Princess who is the bad guy? Could she be the villain in a surprise twist? A princess who is a pathological liar or something?
- Goldilocks and the Three Pirate Bears
- Goldi Rocks and the Three Bear Band
- Goldilocks shows her daughter an album of the three bears and daughter decides to pay them a visit? (tied to #24?)
- Using fairy tales to teach fractions. Goldilocks and the three and a half bears? How can you have half a bear? Bear in Mommy’s tummy? Could mama bear deliver right in the middle of the story?
- Coldylocks and the Three Polar Bears
- Little Red Gliding Hood
So far, three of these 2009 ideas have sold.
Then I sold #1.
And… are you ready for this?
Tara sold #10!
Tara had given me the idea for my Ninja Red story and I knew Tara used to skate competitively, so I suggested Little Red Gliding Hood to her one day. She loved it, wrote it and sold it to Heidi Kilgras at Random House.
So, if you’re stuck, pick a subject you love and run with it!
What’s my topic for 2012? Maybe… the year of the BLACK OUT.
Corey Rosen Schwartz is the author of HOP! PLOP! (Walker, 2006), THE THREE NINJA PIGS (Putnam, 2012), GOLDI ROCKS AND THE THREE BEARS (Putnam, forthcoming) and NINJA RED (Putnam, forthcoming). Corey has no formal ninja training, but she sure can kick butt in Scrabble. She lives with three Knuckleheads in Warren, NJ.
Corey is giving away a RHYMING picture book critique to a lucky PiBoIdMo’er who completes the 30-idea challenge. This is a fab opportunity for rhymers—after all, Corey’s one half of The Meter Maids!
Leave a comment to enter. If you also complete the challenge and sign the PiBo-Pledge in early December, you’ll be entered to win.
Good luck!
I write books and I have children. These things seem to go together, and yet at the same time, they do not.
True, the children are inspiring, they say funny things, they’re occasionally cute, they help me remember my own childhood, but here is the not part—they take up a lot of time.
Because of the above graph I do two things.
1.) Furiously write notes on anything handy so I won’t forget them.
2.) Operate in a constant state of repressed creativity.
This I think is my secret to being productive, because when I finally get to sit down to work—I work. I don’t open emails, I don’t answer the phone, and I don’t shop on Etsy—though I’m very tempted by all those things. My work time is precious and scarce, so I can’t afford to be distracted. On most days I get up at 4:30 a.m. to write. I love my mornings, the house is quiet, dark, and when I start the chore of getting the kids to school, I already have some work done. It feels sneaky and clever, like I’ve cheated the day. It’s not a perfect schedule, but for now it works. And strangely, I’m more productive now, than before I had kids.
I read somewhere that it’s important to take breaks while you’re being creative. I guess I’m lucky—my days are filled with breaks, and each one is a surprise. It could happen mid sentence or mid thought. Suddenly I’m out of my chair and off to deliver a snack, a drink, change the channel on the TV, replace batteries in an electronic game, or play referee. If I can get forty minutes of uninterrupted work done while the kids are home and awake, it’s nothing short of a miracle.
But I’m pretty versatile; I can work in short bursts of twenty minutes, or long luxurious stints of three hours. But I wasn’t always this way, it’s taken years of training, but they did, the kids trained me.
There’s no one secret work pattern that is going to work for everyone, but if you are creative and consistent you can certainly find what’s best for you. If you want to reorganize the way you work, ask yourself some questions, it might help you get started. Here are some questions, and I plugged in my answers.
When am I most creative?
I like my early mornings, and I save these for writing, but I can also work in short bursts when the kids are around. I have illustrated more than one book while listening to SpongeBob and Pokemon cartoons.
Where am I most creative?
Sometimes I like a change of scenery. I’ll go to a coffee shop for a few hours, and then one day a week I really get away—I go into NYC and work at the Bryant Park Library.
Am I motivated by a deadline?
You bet! Nothing motivates me more than a looming deadline, and if I don’t have one, I give myself one.
Am I motivated by rewards?
Yes, who isn’t? In fact there’s a delicious piece of chocolate waiting for me when I finish writing this post. But if I’m not I the mood for sweets, I’ll cuddle with the cat, play with the dog, or go outside for a quick stroll around the yard.
And then at the end of the day, take stock. What worked? What didn’t? And if you had a success, repeat, and if not, try something new.
RECIPE FOR CREATIVITY
- Think
- Make notes
- Think some more
- Think while doing something completely different
- Think some more
- Think some more
- Write
My kids make fun of me, and they are right.
I am always looking for the next book idea. Eyes open and ears listening—you never know where it is going to come from. About six months ago I was listening to my son and his friend complain about getting their ball stuck in some bushes. They were arguing back and forth about whose fault it was, and who was responsible for getting the ball out. It was cute, and listening to them made me smile. It was just a little moment on a sunny afternoon, but it stuck with me, and later became the basis for a story about two friends. The book is called Bean Dog & Nugget and it comes out this spring.
I want to close with two things. The first is this running tally.
This is how many times my kids interrupted me while I was writing this post.
And this last image is where I end each day, my shower. It’s nothing special, but for some reason I get more ideas in the shower than anywhere else. Maybe it’s because it’s meditative, a calming release from the stress of the day—or it might just be that with the door shut, no one can bug me.
Charise Harper has been making comics and children’s books for many years. She is the creator of FASHION KITTY, the JUST GRACE series, and WEDGIEMAN. Her picture books include CUPCAKE, IMAGINATIVE INVENTIONS, and many others. If you were to ask her which was her favorite; making the book, or holding the finished book in her hands, she would always have the same answer—making the book. She blogs (with pictures!) at Drawing Mom. Find out more about her books at ChariseHarper.com.
Charise is generously giving away THREE signed books from her JUST GRACE series!
JUST GRACE AND THE DOUBLE SURPRISE, JUST GRACE AND THE FLOWER GIRL POWER and JUST GRACE STAR ON STAGE.
Three random winners will be selected in one week. Just leave a comment to enter! Good luck!
Writing for Kids (While Raising Them) 