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!