November--For Me It's Picture Book Idea Month and Poem A Day Chapbook Month
November is full of challenges, the creative kind. Even here in Japan we can hear the thunderous clacking of keys from writers worldwide working on NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Some year I would love to participate in all that frenzy, but November is full of frenzy as it is with my university courses in full swing, and since I am midway through a novel draft with an upcoming deadline, this year I'm exempt from even thinking about participating.
But I am taking part in two other challenges: NaPiIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) organized by Tara Lazar, and Poem a Day Chapbook Challenge led by Robert Lee Brewer. This means that in addition to my novel writing work, I am aiming to write a poem a day this month and generate 30 new picture book ideas.
Some days I cannot manage to even read the poem prompt on the blog let alone write a poem; some days I only jot down ideas for a poem that I will not actually write for many days.; other days I write three poems that I know are all keepers. Picture book ideas, well, I come up with about three a day even when it's not November, so I'm doing pretty well there.
Challenges motivate me to put my barely formed ideas to paper. The results are often surprising. The Poem A Day challenge I participated in last April resulted in at least ten poems that are now ready or nearly ready to send out to magazines. The NaPiBoWriWee (Picture Book Writing Week) that I joined in May 2009 yielded more than seven picture book manuscripts.
Challenges can be created on a small scale as well. One of the writers' groups I belong to periodically holds MiniNaNo months in which we challenge ourselves to meet particular goals and post about our accomplishments.
So, what challenges are you trying this month?
But I am taking part in two other challenges: NaPiIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) organized by Tara Lazar, and Poem a Day Chapbook Challenge led by Robert Lee Brewer. This means that in addition to my novel writing work, I am aiming to write a poem a day this month and generate 30 new picture book ideas.
Some days I cannot manage to even read the poem prompt on the blog let alone write a poem; some days I only jot down ideas for a poem that I will not actually write for many days.; other days I write three poems that I know are all keepers. Picture book ideas, well, I come up with about three a day even when it's not November, so I'm doing pretty well there.
Challenges motivate me to put my barely formed ideas to paper. The results are often surprising. The Poem A Day challenge I participated in last April resulted in at least ten poems that are now ready or nearly ready to send out to magazines. The NaPiBoWriWee (Picture Book Writing Week) that I joined in May 2009 yielded more than seven picture book manuscripts.
Challenges can be created on a small scale as well. One of the writers' groups I belong to periodically holds MiniNaNo months in which we challenge ourselves to meet particular goals and post about our accomplishments.
So, what challenges are you trying this month?
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