Kicking Corners: Picture Book Challenge

Showing posts with label Picture Book Challenge. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

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Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Week Four--Week of Me

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Hello fellow Creatives! Welcome to Week Four of our five-week Picture Book Challenge.

Remember, as far as rules go, we’re keeping it simple:

1. Word count: 300-500 words.

2. Write only what the illustrator can’t illustrate. Allow room for their art (or yours if you’re illustrating your own stories) to bloom too.

3. Be kid friendly. Review Week 1 for a reminder of what that means.

Okay, friends, this week we’re taking the notes and the lists and the conversations we’ve had, all the digging we’ve done over the past few weeks, and we’re putting our findings to a different kind of work.

We’ve spread our arms wide to figure out why these books and stories are meaningful to us, generally. Now we narrow our investigation to the individual, specifically. To the me, and to the you, to our hearts.

Who are you? As a person, as a title, as a number in a crowd? And what experiences in your life, your culture, your surroundings have impacted who you were when you were two vs. when you were ten vs. who you are now?

How do these things affect the way you feel and interface with the narratives you’ve studied the past few weeks, and hopefully created as well?

These are big questions. Maybe it’s easier to ask the little questions, then over time answers to the big questions manifest more clearly.

Little questions, such as:

“Do you believe in soulmates and why, even if the answer is ‘no’?”

“If you have a nickname, what is it and how did you get it?”

“Which do you prefer, soy milk, cow milk, or some other kind?”

From broad wonderings to minute details, any query will do. Where do we find a lot of random yet potentially enlightening questions for ourselves? Put into your favorite search engine something like, ‘conversation starters,’ or ‘character prompts,’ etc. What are some questions you’d ask your favorite famous person, then ask yourself instead.

Here are a couple Q&A’s from Kicking Corners to get your brain rhythms flowing, if you need:

Blogging Award and Such

Create an ongoing list of questions for yourself. As you consider your answers, take cue from our Week of Wonder and tap into your inner child. Remember: new, strong emotions, and empowering.

In what ways can you look at the questions from new angles? How can you incorporate smells, textures, sounds to make your answers feel more visceral? More real to you?

In what ways do the questions shake up your strong emotions? If they don’t, can you consider the questions in different ways so they do?

How does answering these questions empower you? If your answers don’t feel empowering at first, or this seems unclear, sit with the idea a little longer. Do you recognize change in yourself that’s been positive? Perhaps you haven’t changed, but rather you’ve become stronger in your resolutions.

Your findings through doing these exercises will be pure gold fodder, my friends. The stories you remember could be stories you want to retell. Maybe you see a series of patterns or events that connect in your answers to build a bigger story. Or maybe you understand now why a certain legend is so important to you and you want to create that connection for little readers.

Whatever you find, and whatever you decide, write it all down. Then write your story.

We can do this. 300 words from your heart.

Go, write, win!

Thursday, June 17, 2021

Week Three—Week of Legends

Hello fellow Creatives! Welcome to Week Three of our five-week Picture Book Challenge.

Remember, as far as rules go, we’re keeping it simple:

1. Word count: 300-500 words.

2. Write only what the illustrator can’t illustrate. Allow room for their art (or yours if you’re illustrating your own stories) to bloom too.

3. Be kid friendly. Review Week 1 for a reminder of what that means.

Okay, so this week is similar to Week 2 in that we’re making a list of favorites. This week, though, we’re spreading our arms out a little broader and digging in a little deeper.

This week, we make a list of our favorite fairytales, legends, and songs. Here’s where we’re reaching broader, right? These foci span culture, time, and narrative style. And again, we’re digging deeper by figuring out why these different aspects of culture, time, and style are so meaningful to us. Why do these things go ping?

So, make your list of at least ten favorite fairytales, legends, and songs. Maybe circle the ones that come to mind first, without a lot of brain poking or research. The answers that just roll out sans thought.

If you want or need to research to get more ideas, definitely do. Project Gutenberg is a fantastic public domain resource. There are so many stories and songs out there that I forget I adore until I’m reminded of them, and then it’s like meeting old friends when I run into them again. Crane Wife! Teeny-Tiny Woman! Golden Goose! Little Talks! Happy gasps and small swoons for all.

Read or listen to them, if you can. Then read or listen to them again. Read or play them to others. Talk about them with friends and family, get their thoughts on these stories. Observe people’s reactions.

After you’ve gone through your favorite fairytales, legends, and songs multiple times, make notes of your favorite things in each. Things that make your heart squeeze, things that make you feel deeply, but also things you think could make the stories or songs better.

As with Week 2, your notes will reveal similarities across stories of your specific preferences. This is how you begin to understand what legends to embed into your own stories and why those themes or ideas are important for you to explore.

For example, three favorite fairytales that roll off the top of my head are Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty.

Some similarities across the three stories include:

*A female character who’s put into a situation(s) that’s difficult to deal with—hard both physically as well as mentally/emotionally.

*Enchanted surroundings, or people/animals, who help the main character. She’s not alone, even though she may not understand the enchantment(s).

*Moments of simplicity, wherein the main character is able to feel safe or peace, even if the big problem of the story hasn’t been resolved yet.

Looking at these three shared threads, I ask myself, Do I feel deeply about these things?

Yes, I do.

Can I incorporate these three ideas into my next 300-500 word children’s story, then?

Yes, I can.

We can do this, right? Write. Create something legendary.

Go, write, win!

Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men

Thursday, June 10, 2021

Week Two—Week of Why

Hello fellow Creatives! Welcome to Week Two of our five-week Picture Book Challenge.

Remember, as far as rules go, we’re keeping it simple:

1. Word count: 300-500 words.

2. Write only what the illustrator can’t illustrate. Allow room for their art (or yours if you’re illustrating your own stories) to bloom too.

3. Be kid friendly. Review Week 1 for a reminder of what this means.

How’d last week go? Were you able to cultivate some wonder? To tap into your strong emotions? Did this help you create 300-500 words of a story with a strong character, or set of characters, who will empower young readers?

I had a problem with a vacuum. Cue strong emotions. Rather than acting out on my frustrations while trying to wrap my brain around the problem, I tried doing this cultivating wonder thing. I got down on the floor, squiggled around to see the situation from a different angle. Tried wrapping my imagination around the problem instead, and vwalla! My 488-count vacuum story was born.

Week Two we want to continue doing this, but with a little more focus on the WHY of it all.

This week we make a list—an ongoing list, if you like, it doesn’t have to only be this week—of our favorite picture books. Then we figure out why they are our favorites.

So, first, make a list of at least ten of your favorite picture books. Read them, if you can, and then read them again. Read them to others, especially kids, to observe their reactions too. Where do they laugh? Is it the same as you?

If you don’t own all your favorite books, or they aren’t available at your library, YouTube usually has a number of people who read picture books for a virtual storytime experience [example below: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, by Jon Scieszka...so, so good]. See if you can find what you’re looking for there.

After you’ve gone through your favorite books multiple times, make notes of your favorite things in each of the stories. Things you like, things you savor deeply, but also things you wish the author and/or illustrator did better.

Your notes are going to reveal similarities of your specific preferences across these stories. This is how you begin understanding your why’s. Do you always love a strong female character? A diverse cast of characters, whether the author uses humans or anthropomorphic animals? Do you appreciate great uses of metaphor? Witty twists on fairytales? Maybe you love it when the rhyme is spot on, or maybe you don’t like rhyme at all.

These similarities are your golden stars. Sticker them, and make sure you put at least some of those golden stars in your own story you write this week.

Just 300 words. No problem, right? Write.

Gold star stickers for everyone this week!

Go, write, win!

Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Week One—Week of Wonder

Hello fellow Creatives! Welcome to Week One of our five-week Picture Book Challenge.

Remember, as far as rules go, we’re keeping it simple:

1. Word count: 300-500 words.

2. Write only what the illustrator can’t illustrate. Allow room for their art (or yours if you’re illustrating your own stories) to bloom too.

3. Be kid friendly. Read on to consider what that might mean:

Ann Whitford Paul wrote a fantastic, hands-on guide to picture book writing that leads us from the tiny seeds of story creation all the way to publication. It’s called Writing Picture Books, and it is truly so insightful. Truly, if you want more help with brainstorming, structure, language, tying up loose ends, and prepping your stuff for submissions, this book. This book, people.

Let’s dive into some characteristics of children that Paul suggests we keep in mind while creating children’s books (she gives us twelve, but I’m only paraphrasing/quoting from three here; I say again, get the book):

*EVERYTHING IS NEW

“We step right over [a worm, but] children squat to watch it squirm. The world is a wonder to children, but most adults have grown blasé about it. As a children’s writer, you must tap back into the excitement of discovery.”

She offers multiple suggestions on how to do this. Don’t be afraid to look foolish. Make yourself small, get on your hands and knees and pay attention to what you notice at that level. Really pay attention to sights, sounds, smells, textures. Then, when you write, put the things you notice, the recaptured wonder, into your words.

*CHILDREN HAVE STRONG EMOTIONS

Paul makes note that “…when you are young, everything matters; everything is serious.” So while we, as adults, might be able to shrug off the fact that we dropped our favorite ice cream on the ground and it’s gross now, all grimy with chunks of gravel and dirt, a child might throw a tantrum.

“Children care deeply. Tap into their strong emotions for your stories.”

*CHILDREN LONG TO BE INDEPENDENT

“In our books, we should strive to give [kids] examples of strong girls and boys who find their own solutions to problems. Our books should empower children.”

Paul reminds us how annoying it can be when someone tells us how to do something, especially when they tell us over and over, and over and over, and over, even if they’re just trying to be helpful. Kids feel this way too. They want to do things themselves. And they want to see themselves in our stories, so let’s give them characters who are strong and brave and kind. Capable, even when they make mistakes.

So, to write kid friendly we need to cultivate wonder, tap into strong emotions, and create strong characters who will empower our young readers to learn and be independent.

No problem, right? Write.

This week, write 300 words. Text it out to a friend, scribble it on a napkin with permanent marker, journal it, spin it on the inside of a lid, turn it, tap-tap it up on your computer, whatever way helps you to get it out of your head and into the physical world. We can do this.

Go, write, win!