SevenAcreSky

I’m talking about last year’s inspections of a number of picture books that I and a few other kid lit writers voted (devoted) to share on our blogs.  We said ‘AYE’ to the challenge and engaged eyes, ears, minds and hearts in picking and parsing some great picture books.

I learned a plethora of information about ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS that make picture books tick.

And tock.

And rock!

Patterns, Pacing, Word Play, Rhyme, Plot, Character, Theme, Conflict, Dialogue, Beginnings and Endings.

If you’d like to see what we discovered, go to this link for links to our reviews of 90+ picturebooks:

14:14 2014 PICTURE BOOK ELEMENT REVIEWS

Would you dare to join us?

I am hyped about the upcoming 14:14 Picture Book Blog Challenge issued by Christi Wright Wild at her blog.  THIS CHALLENGE really taught me so much about picture books that I remember it as one of the best highlights of my writing year.

I remember as an 8 year old having seen an intriguing line-art diagram of the inner workings of a camera in Highlights, or possibly some encyclopedia.

I promptly, at the first opportunity (Mom must have been visiting next door) got out my Mother’s precious Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera. Using a table knife for a screwdriver and toothpicks and tweezers as other tools, I performed my duty as a scientific investigator and took the camera apart.

I mean…screws, springs, gears, brackets, lenses–and a long curvy strand of film–scattered across the grey formica surface of our chrome kitchen table.  All the working parts in all their glory.

I learned a lot, in a real time hands-on way, how cameras worked, back then in 1961. (I learned other things associated with that experience that I won’t examine here.)

Do you want to learn how a picture book works?  Christi Wild’s ELEMENTS of picture books, all 10, are the essential parts that makes picturebooks what they are.  Taking on this challenge will put you inside fourteen picture books–dis-assembling, re-reading, and analyzing what makes them click.

There’s no better way to learn than to take apart what some talented writer has put together.  I encourage you to join me and other writers during February. Sign-up for an inside view of picture books.

Someone has helped me take an important turn in my writing goals. Looking back on 2014 and my writing dreams, I see that there are some ‘hopes’ that didn’t happen, but some ‘hopes’ that did. Failure or success? Success, of course. I recognize the familiar principle this person is offering me, because as a school business manager, I learned a few things over the years:

• Use budgets as guides, not straight-jackets.
• Consider policies as operating parameters, subject to amendment when necessary.
• Regard your goals with direction in mind, not just destination.

Looking at my writing in this light, I’ve decided the year has been a success. The two most critical components of success are movement and direction. Arrival is the by-product.

Julie Hedlund is leading a small group of writers in a ’12 Days of Christmas’ challenge to help us firm up our writing direction for 2015. Today she reminds us that New Year resolutions often fail because they are based on what we didn’t do rather than what we did do in the prior year. She has prompted us to write down (and post) our writing successes for 2014. Here are mine:

• I joined and participated in the 12 x 12 Picture Book Challenge, completing only 4 drafts in the year, and submitting to only four agents. Four, in my math, is always better than zero.
• I maintained a focus on non-fiction in 2014, which I believe helped fine-tune my writing dreams.
• I succeeded in 14 picture-book element examinations in 14 days in Feburary with Christi Wright Wild. (Hoping to do that again, I learned so much!)
• I attended a wonderful non-fiction conference in October, NF 4 NF, learning from new NF heroes Pam Miller, Peggy Thomas, Kristen Fulton, Kristi Holl, Steve Swinburne, Lucas Miller, and editor Kelly Loughman at Holiday House, as well as befriending new NF writers.
• I completed PiBoIdMo 2014 in November with a total of 46 non-fiction and fiction picture book ideas, attempting two per day.
• I learned from new on-line writer support groups, such as the charter Neffers (see NF 4 NF above), KidLit 411, ReviMo, and WOW nonficpic.
• I set up an alternate reading and writing space with a unique shelf-piece I found in Texas that serves as idea headquarters. (see photo)
• I discovered and began listening to a new Picturebooking podcast by Nick Patton.
• I set up an illustration station with an old drafting table loaned to me long ago by my brother-in-law, which also serves as a great picture-book dummy layout space.
• I waded into new writing waters with illustration—and devised new characters Peck, Cap, and Ringo. (more coming later)
• I participated in wonderful webinars and hangouts with numerous writers/authors/illustrators.
• Won two pending workshops: the Lyrical Language Lab with Renee’ LaTulippe (to be taken in January); and Non-Fiction Archaeology with Kristen Fulton (to be taken in March).

So…this is the basis for my goals for 2015, what I’ve learned and completed this last year. It all appears to be successful movement and successful directions. Now these awesome expereinces will be now the groundwork for 2015 and my continuing, unfailing writer dreams.

It’s like trick, and treat.

You know. You discover some deep insight on someone’s blog, and you’ve got to ‘follow’ them.  You laugh out loud at another writer’s experience, and you ‘like’ their humor.  A new picture-book author impresses you with their success so you ‘subscribe’ to their writerly wisdom.

All good stuff.  Encouragement. Inspiration. Information.

The problem is, once I ring that doorbell–meaning once I subscribe, follow, or befriend, I am conceding to a social-media-stream of kid-lit community insight.

And soon I am overwhelmed by repeating waves of alerts, posts and notifications.

My facebook feed stutters.  Really.  Because many of my favorite news-feeders (and I can’t do without them) post to three other pages I liked, and to two other groups I joined.  So each priceless bit of wisdom they freely give appears multiple times.

My mailbox is full.  Not only facebook ‘notifications’  of those same feeds but also notices of ‘posts’ I have followed on a number of blogs, as well as podcast arrivals on my phone.

Don’t read me wrongly.  I genuinely treasure the ‘reciprocity’ that my kidlit heroes and my kidlit peers practice.  I know how valuable our free and open connections are.  Where would I be as a children’s writer without what I’ve learned and the opportunities I’ve discovered through our digital connections?

But wow. I often grow weary from deleting repeating posts and notifications, and wading through what I’ve already read more than twice, or thrice, or more.

Can I ask…how do you handle the onslaught?  It’s like getting a bucketful of candy every day.  Just what, and just how, do you throw some of it away? What tricks do YOU use to handle these delicious sweets?

As an ‘older’ citizen in the kid-lit community, I have learned to enjoy rubbing elbows with, on average, a ‘younger’ crowd.

I have no idea what the ‘average’ age is for members in Julie Hedlund’s 12 x 12 Picture Book Challenge, or the mean age of those disciplined writing souls committed to Meg Miller’s on-going periodic ReviMo revision sessions.  I couldn’t begin to even guess at the median years represented by members in Kristen Fulton’s non-fiction-picturebook WOW group, subscribers to Sylvia Liu’s and Elaine Kiely Kearns’ KIDLIT411, or listeners tuned in to Katie Davis’ Brain Burps About Books.

But I do know, in Tara Lazar’s PiBoIdMo Challenge, we’re all thirty-something for a month!

Thirty (plus) days of inspiring and informing posts on writing picture books for kids.

Thirty (plus) days of insights into the kid-lit world through comments from a sharing and dedicated community of writers.

Thirty (plus) ideas for when a spark for a story is ready to plug in.  That’s thirty “somethings” with the potential to shine in my writing future.

So with bright excitement I’m participating again in one of the best challenges for writers I’ve ever discovered, Tara Lazar’s 2014 Picture-Book-Idea-Month, all through the month of November.  (The pre-posts have already begun, so check them out to get your ideas glowing.)

Hey. Check out this new podcast I’ve discovered about picture books, called Picturebooking, by Nick Patton.

I had a new app on my laptop and phone. While searching to add a podcast to the one other kidlit podcast I love (see Brain Burps About Books, by Katie Davis…link next door), I discovered Picturebooking.

These are two totally different podcasts.

While Katie’s podcast revs me up, Nick’s calms me down. What engages me so with Nick’s pocast?  Maybe it’s including his baby daughter in the process, maybe it’s the slow and easy, simple focus of his approach.

At any rate, I like it.  It’s filled a spot.

Not Katie’s spot, mind you.  I need Katie’s full-of-life go-get-it cheerleading style in my writing life as well.  For an old guy needing motivation, spurring on, and a swift kick in the but every other episode to keep me moving, writing, and marketing, Katie, my friend, is the key.

Meanwhile, I also need the stroking, calm, encouraging affirming smile that comes across through Nick’s moments when he shares himself as a writer, through interviews with generous published guest writers, and directly to me, the listener.

Wow.  What a balance.

PICTUREBOOKING PODCAST     BRAIN BURPS ABOUT BOOKS PODCAST

AND, check out the CONTEST going on now.

…and I know the perfect book for it.  Julie Hedlund’s My Love For You Is the Sun is now available at various outlets, and is a premier work of picture-book writing, picture-book art, but more than that, a work of love.  Inspired by Julie’s childhood this book is an expression of grace and gratitude that will become an avenue for your love for the children in your life.

With metaphors illustrated by the marvelous rich colors of Susan Eaddy’s clay art, page by page the dimensions of a parent’s care and affection are unfolded and revealed.  These are feelings that every parent–and every child–will recognize and understand.

This book says it all, and I can’t wait for my copy to arrive.

My 8th grade English teacher in Louisville, Mississippi, always said “Variety is the spice of life!”  I still agree with Mrs. Camille Fulton, even to this day.  I’ve noticed, however, that variety CAN be a devil.

Today we took Mom to the local Chinese buffet.  I was determined to have a single, simple plate, be a good boy, eat light.  Hey—I’d had several complements lately on weight loss.  I had motivation. I had some accomplishment.

But variety took me by surprise.  It ambushed my ambitions. I’d whispered to myself about 15 times, “Just a taste of this,” and “Only a bite of that,” and “What’s Chinese without a mound of rice?”  “Oooh…pretty dumplings!”

After my second plate of variety, with dessert choices pending, I felt the post-buffet blah. I began to wonder.

Having just figured out Twitter I now have another social network serving line. Within each serving line there are many sterno-heated bins of varieiy.  Advice, wisdom, trends, challenges in multiple genres, forms, and styles.

No wonder I feel stuffed, overwhelmed, and groggy.

How do I battle this buffet-style mentality?  I am working to integrate these strategies into my writer’s diet  (uhh…I mean lifestyle.)

Focus for purpose. One of the best things I’ve done this last year is focus on non-fiction.  As much as I love the fiction line as a story-teller, I felt I needed a focus.  This focus helps me bypass the items that don’t fit on my plate. Focus on a genre, a form, or a style for a season…and only pick from your network feeds what matches that focus.

Fewer entrees for more flavor. Can you imagine dumping your full plate into a food processor before you eat it and pressing the pulse key a few times?  You will loose the flavors of every post in the mix. Overwhelm your system and the delights of flavor, seasoning, and aroma can’t be enjoyed. Savor the posts that matter to your writing career moment.

Smaller servings for full satisfaction.  Gorging on anything minimizes the satisfaction you can feel from good food.    Set a timer when you browse. Avoid checking facebook, Twitter, email notifications all in one setting. Don’t join in on every challenge that’s offered and available.

These strategies can help me appreciate the variety of options up for grabs, while helping me to savor distinct selections in our kid-lit community—without the post-buffet blahs.