My Mission Statement

I write to serve, to unite, to educate. I write to share literature and flesh out ideas that may be of interest to others. I write to document an emotion, experience, or a blip in time. My mission is to write in such a way that the reader is reminded that we can find humor in all situations. It's one of the great blessings of life.


Monday, April 30, 2012

NaPiBoWriWee

So....you may or may not remember that I committed to be a part of 12 X 12 in 2012 this year. Some of you have even joined me in this endeavor. Our goal is simply to write a picture book a month every month for twelve months. Now, obviously, you can't write, edit, etc. a great picture book in a month, but you can get a pretty good start. At the end of the year, we will have 12 picture book drafts, and then start the fun of editing and polishing. ( or if you're a bit more neurotic like someone I know, you may be editing and polishing last month's story in between each new month's work) At any rate, I decided that I wouldn't accept just any old manuscript idea. I would have an entire month to flesh out something, so it had better be good. So far I have four really good ideas that I am excited about. However....you know how it is when you get to however... I'm losing a little steam. I'm looking down the barrel of my kids getting out of school in a month, tons of things to do before then, raising money for a well in Africa, cleaning out pantries, etc. Truth be told, I'm losing focus. I'm less fired up than I was in January. It's time for a little PICK ME UP. And I'm not talking about bourbon. It's time for the NaPiBoWriWee! Squee! Seven picture book manuscripts in seven days. Really. Time to wake up in the morning and bang your head until there's something there. That's right. We will stop at NOTHING to get seven drafts in seven days (and this time, we can include bourbon). Soooo.....wiggle your waggle, squiggle your squaggle, and start those mental push-ups because the NaPiBoWriWee begins in less than one hour! So before I leave this post, I will have an idea. Something. Anything to write about tomorrow. OR maybe even at midnight. Which would be tomorrow, actually, right? Unless you are in California, say, and then it would still be today, or would that be yesterday? At any rate, I am, here and now, making a public commitment to NaPiBoWriWee. Won't you join me? I mean, what else are you going to do? Today's the last day of National Poetry Month. Fun's over in that genre for a while. Time to press forward with the picture book manuscripts. Even if you're a novelist, I challenge you to do NaPiBoWriWee. You will be amazed at how writing a picture book helps you with the character and story arcs of your novel. So just do it, people. Join me on NaPiBoWriWee. Maybe I'll print my WORST manuscript here when it is all over, and you can laugh and have a big ego boost. I would be willing to give that to you, my dear readers. 51 more minutes...and strangely the only story ideas I can think of right now are horror story ideas. Not good for the picture book...at least hard to sell. Well, horror story picture books USED to be hard to sell, but since Go the $%^& to Sleep, well, a horror story picture book should be a piece of cake. Especially if I mention in my query letter how hardened and blase American kids have become about violence since playing all these video games and watching cable 24/7. You can't say I don't have the pulse of the American child... Do you ever try to think of something and all you can think of is the LEAST appropriate thing? I have this PB idea in my head right now about my son's buddy that he sleeps with. Well, the buddy's face has literally worn off and it's pretty scary. Wouldn't that make a good horror story picture book? In the quiet of the night/Under covers, out of sight/ Once harmless Buddy seeks revenge. Long ago he had a face/Without it now he's lost his place/ He cannot rest in such disgrace/ Some kid's gonna pay. So creeping toward the windowsill/ Buddy's cackle sends a chill/down the back of little Will...okay, okay, enough! We all know you can't sell a rhyming picture book no matter how much tension it has!!! Okay, now regroup. This matter requires my full concentration as you can see, so I"ll sign off for now. Please tell me if you'll be doing NaPiBoWriWee with me!

1 comment:

S.A. Larsenッ said...

Hi, Donna!! Love the blog. Looking forward to chatting more.


Isabel by Donna Jones Koppelman

Isabel by Donna Jones Koppelman

Major Bear at the Grove Park Inn by Donna Jones Koppelman

Major Bear at the Grove Park Inn by Donna Jones Koppelman