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Before I got my first publishing contract, I dreamed of the day I could call myself a bonafide “author”. I thought my life would be transformed. Transformed how, I wasn’t sure, but I’d walk down the street with a dignified air.
Of course, I got my first contract and I was like Samantha Baker on her 16th birthday. I looked in the mirror and nothing had changed. (And, I will note that the cream they say diminishes dark under-eye circles doesn’t work.) Sure, I was happy—thrilled—but the Tara remained the same. For instance, nowadays:
- I don’t wear tweed jackets with elbow patches.
- I don’t sit in Queen Anne chairs, sipping Darjeeling.
- My toilet doesn’t magically scrub under its rim.
- I haven’t taken up pipe smoking.
- I still don’t use words like “forthright” and “verisimilitude”.
- Joyce Carol Oates has not invited me to dinner. (But I’m only 45 minutes away, Ms. Oates!)
Nope. In fact, I still:
- Remain in my jammies for 2-3 days at a time.
- Drown my eggs in ketchup.
- Do a spot-on impression of Kermit, Miss Piggy, Elmo and Fozzie Bear—while I’m buying groceries.
- Have zero confidence in my writing at times.
- Fall into creative slumps.
- Wear my hair in pigtails.
- Question my significance after viewing Hubble images.
So, I’m here to say…if you haven’t gotten a publishing contract yet, don’t sweat it. You’re still an artist. You’re still a writer. Heck, you’re even an “author”. Life doesn’t really change when you sign on the dotted line. But…
…maybe it changes after the book is released?!
Today is my first official day at work for 2012. Both kids are in school and I’m sitting in the library’s teen section, where it’s typically quiet all day. The seniors stay out of here and the children’s library (with the occasional screaming toddler)–is tucked away downstairs.
But I need a little help getting motivated again. And it’s not just because they moved my favorite table away from the window. I’ve been hanging out in my jammies for two weeks! It’s tough to get moving again when you’ve gotten used to being stuffed in rainbow flannel.
Maybe you need motivation, too. Well, you’re in luck. I roamed the stacks when I first got here and found the lovely “Artist to Artist”, a collection of children’s illustrators talking to children about their art. And here are some get-up-and-go gems I found inside:
“When people look at my work, they often say, ‘Your picture is so good. I can’t even draw a straight line.’ I think everyone can learn to draw. The important thing is to keep trying, keep drawing.” ~ Alice Provensen
“If I have an unusual gift, it’s not that I draw particularly better than other people—I’ve never fooled myself about that. Rather it’s that I remember things other people don’t recall: the sounds and feelings and images—the emotional quality—of particular moments in childhood. Happily an essential part of myself—my dreaming life—still lives in the light of childhood.” ~ Maurice Sendak
“The most important thing in the whole of life is to love what you do. If you want to be an artist, don’t draw from movies and television. That’s something someone else has already imagined. Draw from your life. Draw all the time. Expect to be different from other kids, because if you are an artist, you are different. Sometimes it’s hard to be different. Sometimes it hurts when people don’t understand you or laugh at you for not being cool enough, but stay the course. Believe in yourself. Believe in the paintings and drawings that come out of your mind and your hand.” ~ Rosemary Wells
“Your ability to see and respond sensitively to the beauty of the world around you will, in turn, be transformed into the ability to create art that other people will find to be beautiful. As long as you have this visual sensitivity, you will discover that the actual techniques you need for drawing good pictures are very easy to find. They are within you.” ~ Mitsumasa Anno
“Making pictures is how I express my truest feelings, my truest self.” ~Eric Carle
“In our earliest years there’s no how? to our plunge into art. The doing gives the answer. There is no one way. Your work is original and there is no end to the adventure…HURRAH!” ~Ashley Bryan
So get moving, friends. Keep doing what you’re doing. There’s joy for you and joy for the children who read and view your work. Joy to the world!
Here are the rest of the prize winners! I’ll be contacting you via email, so watch those inboxes!
All winners were selected randomly via Random.org and “independently audited” by Lori Degman (thanks, Lori). They were announced live on the Facebook group on Sunday morning.
Please see the full prize list here—and if you haven’t won but like what you see, please consider patronizing these wonderful vendors this holiday season! Many donated their prizes to an event they had never heard of. Let’s show them how worthwhile their support was!
FIRST PRIZE PICTURE BOOK CRITIQUES
Amanda Jaros, Bethany Telles, Rick Starkey, and Colleen Jensen
JAMES BURKS’ ORIGINAL ART
Betsy Devany
JOURNAL AND ACCESSORIES FROM THE NIB & QUILL
Donna J. Shepherd
GREETING CARDS FROM NIB & TUCK
Tammi Truax
“MAKE BELIEVE” PRINT BY LILYMOON
Christine Poreba
BOOK NECKLACES FROM JANDA JEWELRY
Julie Falatko and Suzie F.
BOOK PHOTOS FROM THE MAPLE TEA HOUSE
Melissa Kelley and Mona Pease
SUPER READING GIRL BROOCH FROM JAM FANCY
Heather Jackson
VINTAGE PICTURE BOOKS FROM LA BROCANTE MAGIQUE
Kathy May
PICTURE BOOKS FROM SIMON & SCHUSTER
Pat Haapaniemi
Cathy Mealey
Debra Elliott
Kirk Livingston
Amanda Kastner
Diandra Mae
Erin Pearson
Chitra Soundar
Susan Harrison
Michelle D Evans
Julie Dillemuth
Congratulations to all the winners!
Here are the three PiBoIdMo GRAND PRIZE winners, chosen with help from Random.org and “independent auditors” Brook Gideon and Julie Falatko:
BETH STILLBORN
SOPHIE CAYLESS
PEG FINLEY
Congratulations, writers! You will each be assigned to a picture book agent who will review your best five ideas and suggest which ones might be the best to pursue as manuscripts.
You’ll receive further details via email from me soon. In the meantime, start writing up your best five ideas as pitches!
Tomorrow (really later today) I’ll pick more WINNERS for all of the stupendous prizes—picture book critiques, original art, jewelry, journals, books…
In the meantime, please give Beth, Sophie and Peg hearty congratulations!
Today is the last day of pre-, post- and all things PiBoIdMo. It certainly has been an amazing event this year and I have all of you to thank. Thanks to the guest bloggers, authors, illustrators and agents who offer prizes. And thanks to all the participants because your enthusiasm for creating stories for children is what makes November my favorite and most productive month of the year!
Here are some fun stats from PiBoIdMo:
- Over 570 registered participators
- 29,633 web hits for November (did not include pre- or post-PiBo, which puts the number around 40,000)
- Average 988 daily web hits
- The most active time of day for comments was 1:00pm
- The illustrator posts were, on average, more popular than author posts (sorry authors!)
- The most active day was November 1st with 1995 web hits
- 310 PiBoIdMo WINNERS completed the challenge (a 54% success rate!)
- PiBoIdMo was ranked as high as #8 out of 15,601 book blogs on Technorati.com
- PiBoIdMo participants created AT LEAST 9,300 new picture book ideas
Wow! That’s a lot of potential new stories to get into the hands of children…who will potentially find their new MOST FAVORITEST book in the bunch. Time to get writing!
Speaking of writing, PiBoIdMo inspired a new challenge from Julie Hedlund: the 12 in 12 Challenge. Picture book writers are encouraged to write 12 manuscripts in 12 months. Truth be told, this is my goal every year but I have yet to make it. Spurred on by the 12×12 community, I think this is totally doable!
Also, don’t forget to bring your idea journal over to Paula Yoo’s NaPiBoWriWee in May! Write seven first drafts in seven days.
I’d like to remind everyone that the PiBoIdMo Cafe Press shop will remain open year-round. Every purchase earns $3 for RIF and the Mount Prospect Elementary School Library. So far we’ve only raised $75. We can do much better! Get your mug, tote or tee today! (Please be aware that neither logo designer Bonnie Adamson nor I make any money from the CafePress shop. All proceeds are donated.)
Finally, I’d LOVE to hear your FEEDBACK about the event.
Who would you like to see guest blog next year?
What could be done better next year?
The PiBoIdMo Facebook group was Mindy Alyse Weiss’s idea and it is a warm, encouraging community that will remain open year-round.
What other ideas do you have for PiBoIdMo as it rolls into its fourth year?
And once again, thank you, thank you. You’ve truly made PiBoIdMo 2011 an event to remember!
More PiBoIdMo success stories! Many thanks to Mindy Alyse Weiss for pulling these stories together.
I hope when YOU have a success to share, you’ll contact me. I love to hear how your ideas went from pencil-scribble to published! And I don’t define “success” just as being pubbed. Win a grant, a contest, secure an agent–anything goes. So here goes…
1. Amy Dixon
Being married to a relentless distance runner means that every November, there is a marathon on the schedule. Lucky for me, November is also Picture Book Idea Month, and I had long been lamenting the lack of picture books about running. Looking back at my spreadsheet for 2010, the entry for November 5th says, “Marathon Mouse. Story of a mouse who lives in NYC right under the start line (Verrazano bridge) and decides that it is his life’s dream to particpate in the NYC marathon.” That’s it. The beginnings of a story. Flash forward to August 2011, where I received one of the best e-mails of my life. A lovely editor at Sky Pony Press likes Marathon Mouse and wants to publish it! The story could end there, and would still be a dream-come-true. But I decided to contact an agent I had recently queried with a different story and tell her of my offer. After a flurry of e-mails and phone calls, I signed with Karen Grencik of Red Fox Literary. In the course of one day, I had gone from struggling picture book writer, to agented and soon-to-be-published! So keep your eyes peeled in Fall 2012 for a picture book titled, MARATHON MOUSE. It’s by me. And it happened in part because I took on the challenge of coming up with 30 ideas in 30 days!
I also have a longer version of the story on my blog, but it doesn’t mention PiBoIdMo:
http://writingamillion.tumblr.com/post/10441985218/on-editors-agents-and-contracts-oh-my
2. Diana Murray
Diana Murray was thrilled to receive the 2010 SCBWI Barbara Karlin Grant for her rhyming picture book manuscript about a witch. She came up with a few different versions of the idea during the first PiBoIdMo. You can read more about her experience here:https://taralazar.wordpress.com/2010/07/06/piboidmo-success-story/. Diana will always be grateful to Tara for starting an event that helped her streamline her writing process. And now, she’s ready for another month of fun and inspiration!
Diana’s website: http://www.dianamurray.com
3. Rebecca Colby
This year, Rebecca participated in her third PiBoIdMo. Following a picture book workshop last year that challenged her to alter a well-known fairytale, she decided to generate a few ideas for fractured fairy tales. She found the inspiration she needed from Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen’s guest post on Day 29 that recommended participants do just that–transform “something old into something new.”
The result was an idea for a Cinderella story with monsters entitled MONSTERELLA.
Rebecca says, “I fell in love with the idea of a fairy godmonster who magics a spider into a monster truck.” Rebecca wrote the manuscript soon after and it went on to win the 2011 SCBWI Barbara Karlin grant.
Before writing for children, Rebecca inspected pantyhose,worked for a Russian comedian, taught English in Taiwan, and traveled the world as a tour director. She currently works as a librarian. Born in America, Rebecca now lives in England with her husband and two daughters. More information about Rebecca and her writing can be found at her website: www.rebeccacolbybooks.com.
Erin Murphy (l.) and Liz Garton Scanlon at the 2010 Newbery-Caldecott Award Banquet, where Marla Frazee, illustrator of Liz's All the World (Beach Lane/S&S), was awarded a Caldecott Honor.
by Erin Murphy
So, you’ve got 30 picture book ideas. Now what do you do?
FILE.
Keep them. All of them. Do you have an idea file of some kind? You should. It’s obvious that you might turn to the idea file when you’re casting about for something new to write, but it also can do wonders for unlocking writers block. You never know when some seemingly unrelated idea will be just the thing to add the missing layer to another piece. Sometimes it’s less direct than that; just reading through ideas is a way of getting you out of a stuck place, much like taking a walk or strolling through a gallery can knock you out of a creative rut.
CHOOSE.
Sort through them to find the most promising ideas to spend more time with. Laura Purdie Salas had some great suggestions about how to evaluate your ideas last week.
WORK.
Budget time to work on each of those most promising ideas. Not just once, but two or three times per idea before you decide if they’re worth pursuing further. Even if you schedule 20 minutes of writing time a day, you can spend 10 on a new idea, 10 on an idea you’ve already worked on some, and by the new year, you’ll most likely have a couple of solid ideas that are coming together into a real picture book manuscript.
GIVE SPACE.
Some ideas seem to have promise, but they resist any time and attention you give them. This is a sign that they need to sit in your subconscious for awhile. They will most likely kick and scream when they’re ready.
OBSERVE.
After a concentrated creative period like PiBoIdMo, you’ve got a great opportunity to take stock of where and when you do your most creative thinking. Did you get your best ideas in the car while waiting for your kid to come out of her piano lesson? Well then, perhaps a copy of your promising idea list needs to stay in the car so you can keep using that time for best results.
SORT AND EVALUATE.
I’m not talking about evaluating the idea; you’ve already done that. I’m talking about general trends. Try putting all 30 ideas into categories (character-driven, concept-driven, voice-driven, plot-driven; lyrical, funny, quiet; spontaneous-feeling or intellectual…). Are you heavily weighted towards one type of story? Is that your strength? (Or, conversely, are you limiting yourself unnecessarily?) What research can you do about that type of story to help you grow in your picture book writing craft?
REVISIT.
Don’t forget to go back to that full list of ideas now and then. Who knows what discarded idea ends up turning out to have legs! Kathy Duval’s I Think I See a UFO, forthcoming from Disney-Hyperion, to be illustrated by the wonderful Adam McCauley, was a nearly discarded idea that found a home at the first publisher we sent it to!
Erin Murphy was born and raised in Arizona, and founded EMLA in Flagstaff in 1999. She works with publishers of all sizes all over the U.S., and has placed clients’ books with every major children’s house in New York and Boston, but she cut her teeth in regional publishing. She began her career at Northland Publishing/Rising Moon Books for Young Readers (a beloved decades-old Flagstaff company that was bought out in 2007), eventually becoming editor-in-chief, and was a member of the board of directors of PubWest, a professional development organization for small and mid-sized publishers in the West.
Erin represents writers and writer-illustrators of picture books, novels for middle-graders and young adults, and select nonfiction. She is especially drawn to strong characters and heart-centered stories. In her spare time she loves walking, baking, kayaking, knitting, traveling, reading (often audiobooks), and powering through her Netflix queue. You can read more about Erin’s tastes and background in interviews here and here. She now blogs at http://emliterary.com/blog/ and tweets @AgentErinMurphy.
Generating ideas comes easily for me. I am participating in my own private PiBoIdMo every day of the year. I jot down ideas on napkins; I write them on my hand; I email them to myself; I leave myself idea voice mails. I’ve got no problem with ideas.
It’s getting those ideas out of my head and onto paper I struggle with.
You’ve probably met people who get an idea on Monday and by Wednesday, have a polished, publishable, picture book manuscript ready to send, right? I’m in a critique group with those people.
I am not one of them.
My process looks something like this.
- Get brilliant idea.
- Decide that I am a genius.
- Jot down a few notes.
- Let idea brew.
- Critique way too early in process.
- Decide that I am not a genius.
- Decide, in fact, that I suck.
- Stuff notes in deepest, darkest corner of drawer.
- Get sudden inspiration while washing dishes.
- Pull notes out of drawer.
- Reread notes.
- Decide that I am genius after all.
- Jot down new inspiration.
- Let brew.
- Make storyboard.
- Revise storyboard 42 times.
- Write first draft.
- Send to critique group.
- Wait for them to confirm genius.
- Get feedback from critique group.
- Decide that critique group doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
- Stew.
- Decide that critique group is genius after all.
- Revise.
- Send to agent.
- Wait for her to confirm genius.
I could probably trim a lot of self bashing and praising from my process, but the other parts, the brewing, story boarding, and revising are really important for me. I get an idea and actively brainstorm it for a bit, but then I need to put it away and let my subconscious work on it.
It gives my idea time to grow. It allows me to make connections I might not have otherwise made.
I used to think of this as a bad thing. I compared myself to the idea-on-Monday-polished-draft-on-Wednesday people and felt lesser, but then realized it’s just the way I work. The time I spend brewing my idea, they often spend looking for one.
The other part of my process that I’d be loath to lose is the storyboarding phase. I get a lot of the kinks worked out here before it ever goes to draft form. I number a piece of paper 1 through 15 to represent picture book spreads. I tentatively write the exposition on the first line and the resolution on line 14. I pace out the major plot points on lines 2 through 13 and the wrap up on line 15.
As I’m playing with the storyboard, I know I’ve got the half-title spread to steal if I really need an extra spread to complete my arc.
I find it so much easier to revise the storyboard than a draft, that I will try things here that I might not try if I went straight from notes to writing. There’s a lot less risk to trying something at this stage.
I congratulate you all for participating in PiBoIdMo, and whether it’s ready next Wednesday or three years from now, I look forward to adding your picture books to my collection!
Janee Trasler has illustrated 19 books and written/illustrated four of her own. Her latest book, CAVEMAN, A B.C. STORY (which by the way, sat in a drawer for six months “brewing”) was published August, 2011 by Sterling. You can catch the book trailer here:
and see Janee’s illustration portfolio on her website http://www.trasler.com.
by Kat Yeh
I have just finished my second year of PiBoIdMo and I can’t stop thinking about how much I love what I do. I love the blank page that is suddenly no longer blank. I love that for a living, I get to be a picture book author. Because when you write picture books, you get to Make Things Up. You get to take something that never existed in real life and make it real. And if you’re lucky, one day it becomes a book you can hold in your hands.
In 2003, I took a class at Columbia’s Teachers College. Let me clarify. I took an amazing class entirely devoted to the Art of the Picture Book. Taught by Professor Barbara Kiefer, former chair of the Caldecott Committee. The previous years between 1999 and 2003 had been a blur. In a short span of time, my first child was getting ready to go to school, I had a second child, and my father passed away. I had always wanted to write children’s books and had a pretty big stack of manuscripts and scribbled ideas piled up in my office. In the midst of everything that was going on, I somehow decided that it was time to take a chance.
The class was wonderful. We held a Mock Caldecott Award and pitched our personal nominees. We experimented with making hand-bound books. We were given lists of museums and galleries to visit for inspiration. And one day, the list included an exhibition of Chinese Calligraphy.
I went early one morning. I remember how still the rooms were. I remember standing alone before a wall of parchment paper and stunning brushwork and being overwhelmed with memories of my father. How he loved spending time with my daughter. How he shouted with joy when he heard I was pregnant with my son. How along with his many artistic pursuits, he loved working with his brush and ink. That day, I began to write the story of how my father introduced my children to the art of Chinese Calligraphy.
Flash forward 5 years. The kids were a little older. There was a little more breathing room. I now had a somewhat daunting stack of manuscripts and scribbled ideas and I decided it was time to take another chance and actually try to get published.
My first picture book, YOU’RE LOVABLE TO ME (Random House, December, 2009) came out shortly after that. Through the SCBWI, I was introduced to the amazing New Jersey chapter, run by Kathy Temean. One of my first events was a Mentor Workshop with the opportunity to have a manuscript critique. I brushed off my Chinese calligraphy story. Looked at it with fresh eyes and made changes. Then took a deep breath and brought it to my meeting with editor Stacy Cantor from Walker Books.
It was a good meeting.
Stacy teamed me up with illustrator Huy Voun Lee and two years later, THE MAGIC BRUSH: A story of love, family, and Chinese characters (Walker Books, January, 2011) was on the shelves.
I will never forget the first time I sat with my children to read it. How my daughter looked at the pages showing the first Chinese characters my father ever taught her. How my son reached out to touch the opening spread—a beautiful illustration of him and his sister, laughing with my father in a garden. How they listened to the story of that special time they were lucky enough to share with my father.
Time that only ever existed in that book.
Because only few weeks after I had told my father that I was expecting another child, he had a stroke. He lay in a coma when my son was born and never opened his eyes again. He never got the chance to meet my son or teach my daughter calligraphy or laugh with the three of them together in the garden.
But when you write picture books, you get to Make Thing Up. You get to take something that never existed in real life and make it real. If you’re lucky, one day it becomes a book you can hold in your hands. And that is real enough for me.
Kat Yeh lives on Long Island, NY where she can see water everyday and explore all the bay and harbor beaches with her family. She is the author of YOU’RE LOVABLE TO ME, Random House Books for Young Readers (2009) and THE MAGIC BRUSH: A STORY OF LOVE, FAMILY, AND CHINESE CHARACTERS, Walker Books for Young Readers (2011). One of these days, her website katyeh.com will be up.
Writing for Kids (While Raising Them) 