How to use this Page

by Laura Purdie Salas

Congratulations on completing PiBoIdMo!

This activity generates such a feeling of abundance. Ideas everywhere! Some of these ideas have great promise, and some of them…don’t.

Photo: Daniel Plazanet (Daplaza)

I characterize ideas as pebbles or seeds. Pebbles are hard and immutable. They might be shiny, or pretty, or just dusty. But whatever they are, they’re rocks. They aren’t going to grow into something different.

Photo: Mrmariokartguy

But seeds…oh, seeds! Some look like pebbles. They seem hard and small and nondescript at first. But if you nurture them with questions, and time, and creativity, the seed ideas can grow into more—like a picture book.

So, how do I sort them out? I ask questions. I play around with answers. I try to be honest, even when I don’t want to. Here are some of the things I ask:

One premise from my PiBoIdMo list this year is: “I Won’t Come Down: Rhyming pb from pov of a kitten stuck in a tree. With a refrain? Who tries to get me down? Kid climbs up, but I climb higher. Fire truck? Where’s the fire? Need a personality for the kitten. Is she witty and clever? Scared to death? Sassy?”

1) Who is my main character?

Does my idea or premise suggest a particular character? Does she fit the situation perfectly? Or totally clash with it?  In this case, as I re-read the idea, I know my main character kitten HAS to be a witty, clever girl. She appears to be stuck in the tree, but she’s really perfectly happy up there.

2) What is the conflict?

Easy-peasy. Everybody assumes she wants to get down, but she doesn’t. Sometimes the conflict isn’t obvious. Another of my ideas is about a pet cloud. Just an idea—but I don’t have a clue what the conflict would be (yet).

3) Does it make me ask more questions?

A good idea expands. It makes me want to explore possibilities. My treed kitten does that for me.

4) Has it been done a million times?

Uniqueness is key in publishing picture books. I’ve had manuscripts turned down recently that editors said they loved but that were “too similar” to books already published—even though the similarity is broad at most. In this tight market, publishers don’t want two “pet books” or whatever. I start on Amazon. I find 27 picture books including the words “kitten” and “tree” published over the past 25 years. Dang. That doesn’t mean any of them have the same premise, but I’ll need to do further research.

5) Can I see the book in my mind?

Picture books, of course, need pictures. Does my idea make me immediately visualize tons of images?

6) Is it a seed that will grow a short story instead of a picture book?

It can take years of reading to absorb the intrinsic difference between the two forms. Illo potential is part of it, but there’s more. If your idea depends on a twist/joke ending, it’s likely to be a short story. (The ending of a picture book should be surprising and satisfying, but not a joke/punchline.) If you can picture one great illo for it, but not 14, it’s a short story. If it involves complex plot points and many details, it’s a short story.

7) Does it stand up to repeti