PiBoIdMo - 8 months later

By Lacey Gunter


I have heard several differing opinions about the good and bad of NaNoWriMo.  Since I have never participated myself, I do not know how useful it is. I have, however, participated in PiBoIdMo - Picture Book Idea Month - for the past two years and I can tell you it has been immensely helpful.

The best thing about PiBoIdMo is that it keeps me writing year round.  I am a much better writer when I am consistently practicing the craft of writing. This is a far easier task to accomplish when I have a well of ideas I can just draw from, than when I am just shooting from the hip.  If nothing else, I can look over my list of ideas and that alone will get my creative juices flowing much quicker than when I don't.

Just this week, eight months after PiBoIdMo,  I started another picture book that was based on one of my PiBoIdMo ideas. Not every book I have written since last November has been a PiBoIdMo idea, but nearly all of them have. Without those ideas I do not think I would be able to achieve my writing goals for the year. 

Another great thing about PiBoIdMo is that you are coming up with many more ideas than you could possibly write in a year. So it is not nearly as hard to feel pretty successful at PiBoIdMo as I imagine it is with NaNoWriMo. You only have to be on top of your game 1/4 to 1/3 of the time to have an entire years worth of good ideas.

Then there are also the obvious benefits of comradery and building connections and friendships. I have reaped these benefits too.

Hmmm . . . As I have been writing this blog post and thinking about PiBoIdMo it has even got my creative juices flowing and thinking about how to solve another writing problem I have, ideas for blog posts. I think this year as I do PiBoIdMo, maybe I will do a BlogIdMo too. Perhaps then I will be writing beautifully year round, both online and off. I can hardly wait!

Half way there!

By Lacey Gunter

Hallelujah, we are half way through the month of November.  For all you NaNoWriMo and PiBoIdMo participants, you just have to put in another 15 days and it will all be over. Don't give up now, you can do it!

I have been able to come up with 16 picture book ideas so far. That puts me one day ahead. Which is a good thing, because I also decided to do SkADaMo this year, Sketch A Day Month. It has been quite challenging.

I am not a professional illustrator. I like to draw, and illustrating my own picture book manuscript one day would be a lovely dream. But I am nowhere near the skill level of a professional. Despite all that, I told myself "So what. Just try it." Honestly, it has taken a large amount of time and effort,  but I am glad I signed on. I have been pleased with the progress I am making, while at the same time humbled and inspired by other participant's amazing talent.

One of my SkADaMo drawings. You can find the rest of my  SkADaMo drawings on my Facebook account.

Obviously, finishing a novel, coming up with lots of great ideas for stories and improving your skills are great benefits to participating in these events. But another benefit I've discovered in the past two years of doing them is the relative ease of networking with other writers and illustrators. These activities allow for natural interactions with people of a variety of skills levels, without having to pay to go to a pricey conference or join a writing association. That alone is worth at least one attempt.

I would love to hear how things are going for everyone else who is participating in one of these activities (see easy interaction). 

Wishing you the best of luck in finishing November. Write on!

Time to Buckle Down

By Lacey Gunter

Okay people, you've had your little imaginary play time, and I know you just want to curl up in a candy induced coma. But, it is now officially November!  It is time to buckle down. November is for writing. 

While a good proportion of you will be focused on NaNoWriMo, us picture book folks never do well in trying to increase our word count.  So for those of you who write picture books, I recommend PiBoIdMo - Picture Book Idea Month.

As I'm sure you can guess, the general idea is to come up with 30 new picture book concepts within the month of November. They don't have to be entire manuscripts and they don't even have to be super detailed. Just a simple concept or premise will suffice. If you come up with more than that, great, that is just icing on the cake.

If you want the incentive and structure that comes with a formal program you can register  here. Otherwise you can just do it on your own.

This will be my second year participating. I really enjoyed the challenge last year and produced several manuscripts based on the ideas I came up with in PiBoIdMo 2013.   I am hoping for the same success this year.

So if you are anything like me, it is time to buckle down and get started simmering on ideas. Because thirty days goes quick and banging your head on the wall trying to come up with a bunch of ideas on day 29 never worked well for me.

So good luck getting those creative juices flowing. And begging a few candies from you kids Halloween stash probably won't hurt. ...Mmmmm, candy coma!  ... No, wait ... I mean ... get to work!