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!
Thanks, Vivian and Tara!
via STORYSTORM 2018 Day 25: Vivian Kirkfield Kicks Back and Kicks Butt
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!
Thanks, Susan and Tara! Great post!
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…
Thanks, Robin! Thanks, Tara!
via STORYSTORM 2018 Day 22: Robin Newman Has Food for Thought
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!
Thanks, Kate, Mary, and Tara!
via STORYSTORM 2018 Day 20: Kate Dopirak & Mary Peterson Ask…What is 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!
Thanks, Karen and Tara!
via STORYSTORM 2018 Day 19: Karen Rostoker-Gruber Digs Down Deep
Dreams are amazing (and weird and sometimes terrifying). But they can also be a source of ideas for stories. The important thing to do is to write down your dreams as soon as you wake up, or, POOF, the ideas will be gone. Not that my dream last night of spell-checking the name of my granddaughter’s teacher would make a good story…but still. You get the idea! Write it down.
Thanks, Melissa! Thanks, Tara!
Me? You? We are the main ingredients for coming up with ideas for new writing projects. Yes, that’s correct. We writers are the main ingredient. What does that mean? As writers, we need to listen to what interests us or causes us to ask questions like What if? or Why did that happen?.
Me? I’m going to be the main ingredient. Chocolate.
Thanks, Lori and Tara!
via STORYSTORM 2018 Day 13: Lori Mortensen Finds the Main Ingredient
Doing nothing (work related) allows the creative part of our brains to stew. Let ideas cook on the back burner. I do this, but I realize I also need to value the time to takes for those germs of stories and projects to come to a full boil and be ready to move up to the front of the stove. Patience sounds like a desirable character trait! 🙂
Do nothing!
Thanks, Alicia! Thanks, Tara!
Sue is perfectly correct. Ideas can come from any person, place, thing, situation, encounter… This creative process is certainly difficult to explain to someone who doesn’t wake up in the middle of the night to write down an idea or grasps any bit of paper to jot down the perfect character before the idea is lost. Great post!
Thanks, Sue! Thanks, Tara!
via STORYSTORM 2018 Day 11: Sue Fliess Listens to Her Handyman…?
