A Month of Story Ideas

In November 2015, I participated in PiBoIdMo--thirty days of jotting down story ideas, characters, plots, or even word lists in the hopes that these bits and pieces might inspire a picture book manuscript. I faithfully jotted down my 30 plus ideas and eventually found at least three I knew I could develop further. With those works in progress added to my repertoire, participating in this event was a success as far as I was concerned and I eagerly awaited November of 2016. 

Then in the fall of 2016, PiBoIdMo founder, Tara Lazar, announced she was revamping the event. The idea was to give it a name more associated with brainstorming motivation. And one much easier to say. Furthermore, it was moving to a new month.  Moving the dates, did away with any conflicts with the popular NaNoWrMo event that many children's writers also like to participate in. I bit back my impatience and looked at these changes as a win-win scenario. As soon as registration opened, I signed on.

STORYSTORM  debuted January 1, 2017. There may be a new name and new art work, but at heart it's still all about chasing those elusive story ideas. Once again, Tara has enlisted some wonderfully creative writers and illustrators to provide daily posts that will sizzle synapses like lightning, blast in a blizzard of bright ideas, and leave participants over the rainbow with a pot of golden nuggets. I don't know about you, but like Pecos Bill, I'm going to jump on this twister and chase me down some stories.

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/