12 x 12 Update: Month 2

Usien CCA-SA

Do you ever feel like your life is a 3-ring circus?  I do.  You and I mean this in a world-weary kind of way when we say it, but if we were kids, the circus would be something magical, right?  Well, maybe.

The circus provides the backdrop for my February12×12 picture book manuscript, and for one particular boy, being part of the circus creates a dilemma he must overcome.

I had fun with this one.  The idea began as just a seed I generated in a SCBWI Florida workshop a few years ago.  Finally, finally, I watered it.  It grew like crazy and I actually have something to harvest now.  I’ve shared a first draft with my critique group and now, maybe, just maybe, I will polish it up and send out a few queries.  For the first time in a very long time.

Thank you, Julie Hedlund and my fellow 12×12 writers for the inspiration I needed to finally get this down on paper (or the computer screen).  Two down, ten to go!

12 x 12 Update: Month 1

Credit: MOsborne01 - CCA-SA

Well, I did it.  I beat the 12×12 January deadline and completed a picture book draft by the end of the month.  The trouble is, it stinks.  The concept is good, but the execution is sorely lacking.

I did it in rhyme.  I don’t know why.  Rhyme is not my thing.  I can rhyme, but, well…okay, I really can’t rhyme all that well. I know what words rhyme,of course, but I’m terrible with meter. It was just that the story was about a sassy young girl and a lilting rhyme kind of sounded good.

What I need to do is put it away for a while and pull it out later when I can look at it more objectively.  Maybe I’ll edit it.  Maybe I’ll change it completely to non-rhyming.  Maybe I’ll just put it away again.

It was still a good exercise, no matter what.  Sometimes doing something totally uncomfortable stretches us and makes us even better at the things with which we’re already comfortable.  If that logic holds, I should be really good at something by year end!