Creativity

Idea for New Year’s

/ still a dreamer

As mentioned about a year ago, I am not one for New Year’s resolutions for a variety of reasons.  However, in talking with a dear friend on New Year’s Eve, she had come up with a very helpful idea for the turning of the New Year … better than resolutions.

She made up a list of all she had accomplished in the past year. Before the clock struck midnight, I did the same. Let’s face it – we all know what it is we want to do and what changes we have to make. That’s nothing new. And New Year’s Resolutions, for me, anyway, just state the obvious and indirectly, point out all our shortcomings in the year gone by.

But a list of what we HAVE accomplished – now that’s a feel-good list, because whether we accomplished specific goals or not, we have definitely done many things over the year that we can be happy with. And that list isn’t just about career goals or the like. It’s about ALL we accomplished – were you a good friend the past year? a great Mom? did you donate time or expertise to a charity that means something to you? Help a neighbor? Repair something that’s been waiting forever? Finally treat yourself to something you’ve put off for years? Finish even a part of a project that’s been really challenging? Create a new resume? Leave a painful relationship behind? Exceed your own expectations of what you believed possible?

Here’s your chance to review the year and realize that you actually did quite a bit. Life isn’t measured only in “got a new job” or major milestones, though they’re nice, too. It’s often measured in day to day growth. So make a list of all that good stuff you’ve been doing – it’ll make you feel better about tackling whatever dreams you have for the New Year.

Happy New Year!

Where Do Picture Book Ideas Come From?

/ still a dreamer / 2 Comments

The recent PiBoIdMo challenge, which I am continuing into December and onward, showed me a couple things about where picture book ideas come from, so I thought I’d share.

  1. They come from our everyday experiences. Yesterday I posted a couple pictures of the sky at dusk. As it happens, 2 of my PB ideas had to do with the sky. They are both totally different, but where did they come from? My direct experience with what I viewed outside … a cloudy day and a brilliant sunset. I got to wondering … how did they get that way? And the answers started popping. Whatever we’re involved in at any given moment may give us ideas. Look out the window; go for a walk; watch a few kids playing at the park; discreetly listen – there’s some ideas right there!
  2. Ideas come from what we know. The advice we get from editors and agents is to write what we know … I’m always involved with animals in one way or another, and it is something I do write about. Many of my story ideas. although all different from one another, are about animals … inspired by my own cats, or dogs, birds in the snow, a parrot I know, etc.
  3. Ideas come from what inspires us. A true story that happened a few years ago about a heroic rescue of a huge animal …  a story of men who risked their lives to save one animal, and who in her own way returned to thank them. I’m not sure how I can parlay that into an exciting PB yet, but I’m not letting go. The entire event was inspirational, and I do believe children would be moved and inspired as well.
  4. Ideas come from something important we have to impart to a child. Hopefully, by the time we’re writing children’s books, we’ve learned a thing or two in life, and maybe, just maybe, we have some gem of wisdom to bring to children. Not in a preachy or obvious or pedantic way, but in a way where they’ll love a story with a subtle message that speaks to them … the value of friendship, being kind to others, whatever it may be. Quite a few of my story ideas have – surprise! – no animals in them, just children, and something I’d like them to know. And so …
  5. Ideas also come from past experience – different from what we know. How we overcame being bullied at 5 on the monkeybars, might be fodder for an idea. (That wasn’t me – I wasn’t allowed to climb up beyond that second bar.) We all grew up and had all kinds of experiences – what we learned from them, or didn’t, can feed a PB or two.
  6. Ideas come from that most special kind of childhood thought .. magical thinking. I fall into magical thinking alarmingly easily, and it’s not just fun it’s .. well … magic! The unexplainable, the mystifying, don’t we all love it? It’s the unexpected twist of fate, the reveal of a character’s true identity, that makes us sit up and be curious about how things may REALLY work. What small child doesn’t have some brilliant, albeit “unrealistic”, (in our very serious adult world), ideas about how things go. We can learn a thing or two about small children’s thought processes.
  7. Ideas come from reading. Not that we are ever taking anyone else’s ideas, but that by constantly reading books of all kinds – fiction, non-fiction, for children, for adults – we are literally soaking up creativity. Without always noticing, we are sorting out what things work, what don’t, how we feel when certain things happen. Or when they don’t. I am always reading and have been since the day I could. Reading is not just a joy, but today, it’s grist for the writer’s mill.
  8. Images – ideas come from images – photographs, paintings, illustrations – ever look at a picture book’s illustrations, compare it to the story they accompany, and think “that’s not what happened!” Leaf through a magazine – what are people talking about? Whose child is that really?
  9. Did I mention food? Ha! Now there’s an inspiration that needs no explanation.

Any sources of inspiration I missed?

Winter Sky at Dusk

/ still a dreamer / 2 Comments

As I was just about finished what I was working on – it was 5 to 5 – I happened to look out at the sky. An amazing bright pink streak of a cloud was winding down to earth in the darkening dusk. A smaller pink streak appeared to the left. Grabbed the camera and rushed out to the porch, and this is what I could catch from the ground floor.

And then as I turned to come inside, I looked up towards the southern sky, and there to the left of the pink cloudshow, was an eighth moon, gently rocked back, and glowing brightly. How grateful I am just to catch moments such as these.

PiBoIdMo – A Month of Ideas

/ still a dreamer

What a great month it was in terms of writing picture book ideas … as hosted on Tara Lazar’s site, PiBoIdMo – Picture Book Idea Month –  was certainly an inspiration. Whether I win one of the 3 idea critiques by agents offered as random prizes or not – and wouldn ‘t that be nice? – PiBoIdMo kept the ideas flowing, and what’s more they are continuing to flow even now through December.

I have a book upstairs, written a while ago, entitled A Kick in the Seat of the Pants. The title pretty much says it all and it’s about getting off our respective duffs and doing what we aspire to do. Well, PiBoIdMo did just that .. and I now have 30+ ideas from which to build new picture books. (And I got that nifty completion winner button, too!)

Are you stalled in your writing? Though November is the official month, one could really do this at any time … it could be for picture books, novels and even illustrations. Or sketches. The idea is getting us moving and in that, it succeeded! Inspiration is definitely a good thing!

Put A Smile on Your Face

/ still a dreamer

My only occasional posting has less to do with lack of things to write about … but rather more to do with not enough time to write and too many things to write about. A million things were flashing through my brain that I would have liked to write about, but were zipping faster than I could catch them, and then … I was reminded of something that I’d seen on the web awhile back which never fails to put a smile on my face. It seemed like a good thing to share.

Need a smile? Watch this …