A Month of Picture Book Ideas

This past November, I participated in PiBoIdMo or Picture Book Idea Month. The goal of this 30 day writing exercise was to come up with at least one idea per day that might turn out to be the starting point for a new picture book manuscript. A snap, right? Think again. If there were ideas cruising around in my brain, directing them to Creativity Central was a whole other problem. Thank goodness for the tips and tools offered by over 30 fellow authors and illustrators. Their blog posts, hosted by Tara Lazar—master organizer of this event, were a golden GPS system. Brain throwing up at roadblock or riddled with distracting potholes? Create a list of characters, settings, problems, etc.; build word pairs; eavesdrop on your own children or those at the playground or mall; use picture prompts; write down words or phrases that you love the sound of; interview a character. These creative detours, and several more, were invaluable in helping me find the 30 ideas (and more) needed to complete the PiBoIdMo challenge. No, they aren’t all great ideas, but even if I manage to work only 2-3 of them into strong manuscripts, that’s 2-3 stories on my roadmap to publication that I didn’t have before.

 For more information on PiBoIdMo visit: http://taralazar.com/piboidmo/