Write From the Soul 3

November is known for several things: Thanksgiving, of course, the Michigan vs. Ohio State football game (hey, it's important too!), sweeps week on television programs, and NaNoWriMo. No, I'm not speaking alien, it's an abbreviated form of National Novel Writing Month. Writers who are brave and love a challenge, sign up to write a first draft of a novel in 30 days. The goal is to write about 1,000 words per day. For writers of adult fiction or young adult (teen) fiction, 30,000 words is a great goal. However, if you write picture books like me, that goal can be daunting. Picture books usually have 500-1,000 words total. I suppose it could be changed to "write a picture book a day" but that feels like the scene from the classic "I Love Lucy" where she's checking the candies on the conveyor belt. As the conveyor speeds up and more come along, she has to miss some, hide them in her dress, eat a bunch- basically cut corners and do a crappy job. That's what would happen if I tried to write a book a day! And I wouldn't even get chocolate. :-(  I did find a great alternative though. Tara Lazar's blog "Writing For Kids (While Raising Them)" suggested a kid lit-friendly idea. Each day in November, write down an idea for a picture book. It doesn't have to be outlined (or webbed as we used to teach kids in elementary school), just the briefest of info,  maybe setting, character names or even a question like "what would happen if___________ did ________ instead of its usual ______?" At the end of the month, you have a collection of 30 ideas. Guess that eliminates the procrastination ploy of saying you don't know what to write about! So I have joined the ranks of writers participating in PiBoIdMo- Picture Book Idea Month. Three days down, three ideas committed to paper. I wonder who else is working on this project?

FYI- November 7th is Independent Book Store Day. In the age of mega bookstores, e-books galore and now WalMart and Target trying to cut prices on books to beat out the mega stores, the solitary independent bookseller can really struggle to stay in business. Here's your chance to help. On Saturday the 7th, go to an indie book store and buy a book, it's that simple. There's at least one in your area. I can name 3 in the Atlanta area (Little Shop of Stories in Decatur is my favorite). Those of us who are aspiring authors know we have a better chance of sales, signings, and fan bases through the independent stores when we are starting out. That means those stores need to stick around until we get publishers. Help us out folks. Frequent the indies, especially on November 7th. Thanks!