Sunday, December 2, 2012

PiBoIdMo 2012 is over but Creativity goes on

Tara Lazar's Picture Book Idea Month is officially over but I just can't stop. The original challenge was to come up with 30 ideas for a children's picture for every day in November. I did it. I actually hit #30 on Nov 26. I ended with 39 separate and unique ideas.
Hurray!

Now the real work begins. Over the next year I will take those ideas, sift through them,(okay all aren't gems) and work to actually publishing the best. And I think I have a few that might work.

In some ways this was more difficult than NaNoWriMo. There the challenge is 30 days and 50,000 words. But also there the goal is speed writing and quantity. You can be, and probably are, writing the worst piece of crap in the world, but if you the amount then you win. Here you are actively pursuing quality ideas. If you wanted just quantity you could complete PiBoIdMo in about an hour. But as the ideas came I sifted, thought about each one, judged it on first impressions alone, really what an agent or publisher would do if I sent these on

But the best thing about doing PiBoIdMo was the feeling of creativity I had all month. I was on the look out for ideas everywhere, in the shower (hard to take notes), walking the dog (I'd repeat my idea over and over in my mind until we got home, at work (taking out my notebook when no one was looking as an idea popped into my head during a complex wall detail), you name it, I thought it. And the ideas came to me. 

And I'm not stopping now. I've got a new notebook with Tootle on the cover. I'm filling this sucka up. I'll let you know my progress.

Thanks for reading me.
adios