Saturday, November 15, 2008

Looking at Real Life for Picture Book Ideas

My very clever and talented friend, Tara Lazar, has decided that in lieu of NaNoWriMo, she is going to come up with one new picture book idea for each day in November. One idea a day! I have a hard time coming up with one idea per year!

Why is it so hard for me? My writer friends say, "Look at your life. Ideas are everywhere." So, let's look at my life for second. It is certainly not uneventful.

Just last night, I tried to take my three-year-old, Josh, to Chucky Cheese and I had a car accident. I must be the only person in the world who can get rear-ended and be at fault. Yes, despite the fact that the police officer tried to convince me that the gentleman behind me must be at least partially to blame, I was adamant that I was solely responsible. I was merging onto a highway and it was dark and rainy. Unable to see well in my side view mirror, I had a moment of panic and hit the brakes. Any ideas here? My Mommy- a Hazard to Herself and Others?

And this past Tuesday, our skylight fell in. It didn't happen completely out of the blue. We had roofers working and a nail got too close to the glass. There was a deafening crash and the skylight shattered into thousands of pieces. Thank goodness Joshy was eating his breakfast on the couch in the living room instead of at the kitchen table. Used up another of his nine lives. (I think he has 4 remaining) Any ideas here? I'd be Safer at the Third Little Pig's House?

Hmmm, so it isn't as if there is no drama. I just have trouble converting a real-life incident into an appropriate kids plot. All in all, I have about a dozen PB manuscripts and I don't think any have come from personal experiences.

If you've turned a real life event into a PB, I'd love to hear about it!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Phew! I'm so glad everyone is OK after the car accident and skylight crash!

I once read that writing is about capturing the "fabulous realities" of everyday life.

I have several ideas that have come from my daughter. She claims she's a "pastatarian" since she will eat no meat, but loves pasta. When we ate out at PJ's Pancake House last weekend, I got another idea about a diner whose walls are covered in stories.

Admittedly, I'm several ideas behind in my pledge to come up with 30 PB ideas this month. It's the 15th and I've got 10.

We had planned to go to NYC today to see the Horse Exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. Alas, my car decided to act up, so we got it repaired instead. I imagine that I would have collected at least another 5 ideas in the city!

Oooh, something with taxis...

Anonymous said...

Hi! Clicked through from Rebecca Gomez's blog. Welcome to the blogosphere. I wish you the best of luck in your idea finding.

@ngie

Stephen said...

Sounds a bit like Chicken Little. Actually, it seems fitting that a sky light would fall in out of the blue, if you know what I mean ;-).

Frankly, I agree with the police officer. You may have stopped short, but if the driver behind you had kept a proper distance....

Shelli (srjohannes) said...

Thanks for visiting me. So glad you decided to blog. Too wierd that you were also reading that book. Ill add your blog to mine to.
Shelli
http://faeriality.blogspot.com/

Yat-Yee said...

Sorry to hear of the mishaps, but your ideas sound great!

Rebecca Gomez said...

"Any ideas here? I'd be Safer at the Third Little Pig's House?"

Ha! Corey, that really is LOL funny. Maybe you could make that work as a real idea. You never know!

I'm glad you've made it safely through all that recent drama.