Collecting those ideas is just like gathering eggs. You have to watch where you’re walking, keep your eyes peeled, and collect those golden orbs of inspiration and place them in a sturdy basket to incubate for hatching up a great story.
I’d love to come home and find ideas on my deck, just waiting for me. But usually all I find are dead mouse parts and fluffs of bird feathers (no bird attached).
This post is full of wonderful tips for staying the course in writing picture books for kids. AND Vivian shares suggestions on where to collect new ideas for future projects!
On the GO writing is my favorite type of writing! That’s why I feel anxious when I don’t have paper and pencil with me at all times…what would happen if I had extra FREE time waiting or something and NO paper or writing utensil??? The horror!
Just before Christmas, our family was devastated to discover neighborhood dogs had destroyed our precious love-love (my nickname for her) Mabel. It was pretty awful. We still miss our little gray girl every day.
No more “Which one is this?” from the grands (and everyone else). No more help working on my writing projects. No more kitty tracks on my printed papers. No more head butts and lap cuddles.
Monet, her twin sister, was lost for quite a few weeks and is now just finally starting to come into her own as an ONLY cat. There are times she quite enjoys the attention. The rest of the time she’d rather be out mousing or birding. She was always the more independent wild thing.
To combat future attacks, we put up a gate on our driveway to discourage any other dogs from wandering in to check out what trouble they could get into. As Papa and Hayden finished up the gate, they decided it should be named after Mabel, a tribute to her short, cuddly, furry life.
Perfect! In honor of our Mabes, Mabel, love-love, gray girl, kitty baby. The MABEL gate. Ta-da!
Food for thought. Ha-ha! Get it? Add food to any story you are working on – be it the main character, a walk-on part, the conflict, or part of the setting. I can see, I mean taste it now…a maple oat nut scone walks into a coffee shop…
Great post! I’ve always thought about this illustration and that illustration for my picture book manuscripts, but I’ve never considered if they’d are WORTH illustrating!
Dig down deep and daydream about your younger years. Recall incidents, feelings, and experiences and get ready to catch those story ideas as they spring to mind!