Brainstorming Session
NaPiBoWriWee
begins May 1
st and runs through May 7
th. This odd group of letters stands for National Picture Book Writing Week. The challenge is to write seven
picture books in seven days. Maybe you’re thinking that this is crazy or simply
can’t be done. It can. I participated in this challenge led by Paula Yoo, last
year and had a great time. I met a group of caring, supportive, and motivating
writers dedicated to writing for children and I am still in touch with many of
them today. I am also participating in
Julie Hedlund’s
12 x 12 challenge of writing twelve picture books in twelve months so combined; I
should have 18 or 19 new drafts this year.
A key to being successful with both
of these writing challenges is preparation.
First, if you haven’t done it yet,
go sign up for
NaPiBoWriWee. Signing up means go to Paula’s website and leave a
comment at the bottom of the post that gives details about the event. You have
to log in to Wordpress to leave a comment but don’t have to start a Wordpress
site or blog – just create an account which means giving your name and email
address and coming up with a password. During the week, Paula Yoo will post
interviews with professionals in the children’s writing industry and she'll give
prizes at the end. There is also a Facebook Group page and a
Café Press store with
notebooks, shirts, and mugs with the
NaPiBoWriWee logo. Okay, enough about
the event – let’s start brainstorming!
Start
with making a list of at least 10 events in a child’s life. Be specific to the
age of your target audience so think about zero to eight year olds.
Here
is my list – make your own– the more ideas, the better. Think about unique
experiences you or your own children had.
- playdates
- running in a sprinkler
- losing a tooth
- birthday parties
- being line leader at
school
- participating in sports
- taking the bus
- joining girl scouts or cub
scouts
- making new friends
- taking care of a pet
Now
come up with a list of 10 locations. Be adventurous.
Here
is my list – make your own and add to this one. Again, the more the better.
- beach
- doctor/dentist
- playground
- zoo
- hair salon
- pet store
- grocery store
- bus stop
- museum
- on the bus, or plane, or
train
Now
mix it up. Take an experience from the first list and use the location from the
second list.
Here
are some examples:
What
if a child lost a tooth at the beach?
What
if a child got to be the Line Leader on the class trip to the zoo?
What
if a child went to a birthday party at a hair salon?
After you come up with a list of events at locations, think of what can go wrong. Does your mc forget something, lose something, break something. Is he or she afraid to do something?, etc...?
Try this. You need seven ideas. Come up with ten so that
when you get to day seven, you still have choices. The pre-challenge is not to
let yourself start writing them yet. Before NaPiBoWriWee begins, you can
brainstorm and outline your thoughts but DON’T start writing yet.
Last year, each morning (after I got my little ones off to
school) I would sit down at my computer, select an idea off my list, and write
it. Try to develop your idea with a beginning, middle, and ending. Don’t worry
about how great you think this draft has to be – we are not trying to write
seven final drafts. Get your idea on the page. You have the rest of the year to
tweak, edit, revise, rewrite, illustrate (if you are also an illustrator).
We do not post and share our stories with other participants and nobody is checking your computer to make sure you do it. You are challenging yourself. Remember, a picture book is 0-1000 pages with the sweet spot being between 200-700.
It is not a lot of words to get onto a page in one day so if you find yourself laboring over an idea, choose a different one for that
day. You can always go back to the tough one or scrap it.
You can do this. You have a week to brainstorm your list of
ideas. Have fun with it.
Leave a comment and let me know if this brainstorming session helped you.
