Ok, here we are, day 20, still going strong with PiBoIdMo.
I have to admit that I’ve slowed down a bit, due to major car issues, playing a bit more capoeira, starting a real life letter writing project, and doing work for school, but I’ve kept going with ideas, plugging away.
Speaking of capoeira, funny story!
It’s a brazilian form of martial arts with some dance mixed in, by the way.
This is my second year, and I’m learning to play the instruments and lead the songs in Portuguese for the roda, the part at the end of class where everyone plays and sings and claps together.
One day in class, we’re doing something and a classmate who is a higher rank than I am asks me if I know what a certain word is in Portuguese.
Now, let me paint the picture of my mental state at capoeira.
I’ve been up since 6 in the morning.
I’ve taught 70 kids in a high energy, educational environment.
And I have driven 25 minutes to get to class.
Needless to say, I’m not always on the top of of my game.
I mention this, and my classmate says, “Well, maybe you should study Portuguese instead of doing PiBoIdMo!”
I seriously laughed out loud then put on my serious face and said, “PiBoIdMo is for my career.”
I am both flattered that he knew about it (clearly from facebook!) and shocked that he thought it was this casual thing.
But that conversation took care of it.
Anyway…
I enjoyed catching up on all the posts on the blog this week; there were a few I couldn’t get to, so it was nice to have this recap to look forward to!
I LOVED Julian Hector’s short yet sweet blog post. As I commented the post, I always wanted to read books when I was younger that were written by people I thought were young (back then I thought even 25 was old!) and I think it’s great that he’s getting such an early start! P.S. I would love to somehow combine cotton candy and crayons! Imagine, not only getting some cotton candy, but a free crayon! Amazing!
I loved this advice.
AND I LOVE THIS AUTHOR!
I got her book this summer when I attended the SCBWI conference and met Marla Frazee, the illustrator for “All the World” and my favorite illustrator! I fell in love with the book and read it to everyone I know, which is mostly adults. They may have not wanted to hear it, but they did anyway, and then were glad! I love the advice about gaining a new perspective. Something so simple can lead to such grand ideas!
I remember looking at the submission topic suggestions for magazines when I was thinking about writing for them.
Well, correction, I didn’t really want to, but was being instructed to.
Don’t get me wrong, I love to read children’s magazines, but I think I like writing picture books better.
It is a treasure trove for ideas. Thanks for the tip!
Inspiration Fairy!
I love it!
I’d like to think we each have one, maybe like a writing fairy god mother, who waves her wand and helps us out when we need something edited, or just a nudge up to the top of the pile.
Only if we’ve been working hard of course.
And if we believe!
This advice is great.
I find myself editing before I finish the story ALL THE TIME.
But I do tend to add too many words.
And have a harder time getting rid of words and bits of the story.
For me, that comes when I try to storyboard it.
If all the words can’t fit, I have to cut some!
Also, I’d love to see these sandcastles Jodi’s husband builds!
Finally, one of the ideas in my idea notebook concerns a dragon living in a sandcastle. I saw this post and immediately questioned where the idea came from. Had I seen this book before?
But then I remembered that there are no new ideas and just new ways to approach them, so maybe I’ll keep working with that idea!
Wendy Martin cracked me up.
I literally do these things every day.
- I sing little songs in the car and constantly make up parodies of songs on the spot to fit the situation.
- I was once asked my a slobbish looking man at a park, “What were you thinking this morning when you got dressed?” because he didn’t think I matched. This has sparked an idea for a graphic novel and is an inside joke with all of my co-workers, since they witnessed the occasion.
- I am always hanging upside down from things. So much so that when I wear a skirt, I make sure to have shorts in the car, just in case I have to run and climb. Last year I had a tree that I climbed and wrote in near my house.
- I haven’t joyfully splashed in puddles for a while, but that’s only because I don’t have nice rain boots. Soon.
- I have crayons of colored pencils with me at ALL TIMES. Sometimes both. I routinely will answer the question, “What are you doing this weekend?” with “Oh, probably some reading and coloring.”
I’ve always loved coloring and I’ll never stop.
So I’m in touch with my four year old self, but I do need to remember to put my adult brain on the shelf sometimes. I think I can risk getting too clever and not having the dialogue being believable enough. But I’m working on it!
I really wanted to work in the image of refreshing your look on the world with the refresh button on the browser, but I ran out of space.
and, last but not least (clearly, since I wrote the most!)
This advice was really awesome!
You always want to know what editors are looking for, and here it is!
I know that I can run the risk of having a really original story that is quirky and ridiculous, but may not strike a universal tone. I think I’m getting better at that though, just because I respect children and I want to give them a rich story that they can really connect to. If the first version is not that, then I have to keep going until I strike that chord.
Whew!
10 more days!
2/3 done!
I’m so glad I did this challenge this year….last year I found out about it in December.
It’s very fun, and is stirring up the idea pot in a great way!
Until next time, keep writing!
KE
