NaPiBoWriWee 2012: Wrap-Up & Contest Winners Announced! May 8, 2012

National Picture Book Writing Week is this May 1-7, 2012!

HELLO?! WAKE UP! ARE YOU SLEEPING IN?

I bet many of you are either a) sleeping in or b) very exhausted and cranky from staying up late on Day 7. LOL! 🙂 Congratulations to everyone who participated in my 4th annual NATIONAL PICTURE BOOK WRITING WEEK (AKA “NaPiBoWriWee”!)

Many of you successfully achieved the event’s goal – to write 7 picture books in 7 days. The purpose of the event is to encourage everyone to FINISH first drafts of book ideas you’ve had bouncing around in your head but had been procrastinating on actually writing out. Now you all have either seven (or at least a couple) first drafts that you can revise later in the year. YIPPEE!

Today’s blog is our wrap up blog. I am also going to announce the winners of our 2012 NaPiBoWriWee Contest! (Winners were chosen at random for a bunch of cool prizes!)

IMPORTANT NOTE: I normally post at my “regular” blog. The link for that blog is here: 

https://paulayoo.com/blog

(Another Important Note: If you want to comment on my regular blog, you have to have a separate login user name and password. The regular blog and the NaPiBoWriWee are separate WordPress accounts.)

Today, I posted a blog in my regular blog site about how today, May 8, 2012, marks the debut of the paperback release of my YA novel GOOD ENOUGH!

The news about that is posted in this link here:

https://paulayoo.com/blog/?p=1321

And now, let’s get back to our NaPiBoWriWee wrap-up blog and find out who won this year’s contest!

(Keep reading after the jump for all the updates & winner announcements!)

NAPIBOWRIWEE 2012 WRAP UP THOUGHTS

I’ve had a blast “meeting” many of you on my website. Thank you so much for your kind comments and enthusiasm for this year’s event. Some of you are NaPiBoWriWee veterans, and several of you were first timers!

I was thrilled by how many of you managed to get 7 picture books done in 7 days! Yippee!

And I was equally thrilled by how many of you managed to get at least ONE picture book done. I was proud that you wrote every day, and even if you did not finish 7 books in 7 days, you at least have some strong ideas and character profiles ready to continue working on for the rest of the year.

As for me, I DID manage to squeeze out 7 picture books in 7 days. It was a lot harder this year due to my work meetings, social obligations with friends visiting from out of town, and a computer meltdown that caused an emergency visit to the Apple Store on Day 6. LOL! Sigh. 😛

But I had brainstormed ideas and plot points before the event, so that helped as I slammed through my drafts. Unfortunately, a few picture books were supposed to be written in poetry form, and I had to settle for writing them in prose. But I was pleased with the prose versions and think they might remain that way now. One book STANK – I realized it was a half-baked idea. But that’s the point of NaPiBoWriWee – sometimes you don’t know if your idea works or not until you write out the whole draft. Another book made me realize it was NOT a picture book but a potential middle grade novel. Again, I never would have discovered that had I not started writing!

So all in all, I’d say this NaPiBoWriWee was another rousing success! 🙂

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WHAT WILL HAPPEN FOR THE REST OF 2012?

POSSIBLE NAPIBOWRIWEE REVISIONWEEK?

Many of you have expressed interest in doing a post-NaPiBoWriWee “revision” week. I think that’s a great idea. I will have to wait until I know my schedule for TV work for the rest of the year and then I will pick a week later in the year. I’ll also brainstorm how the week should be structured. One thought is that we spend 7 days revising each book. 7 revised picture books in 7 days? Obviously you can’t revise a book in one day, but maybe this Revision Week will give us a first start. You often need to revise a book several times over, so this revision week could help us figure out how much revisions need to be done per book. 🙂 I’ll keep you posted and make announcements later in the spring/early summer. Any comments or suggestions you have will be greatly appreciated. You can comment here or email me (paula at paulayoo dot com).

CHARITY?

One of you suggested we have a future NaPiBoWriWee charity event where somehow we raise money by writing every single day. 🙂 I loved that idea and will research it for possibly our fifth NaPiBoWriWee in 2013. I can’t promise anything, but I’ll definitely research it for you. 🙂

HOUSEKEEPING TIPS

My Own NaPiBoWriWee?

Some of you who were unable to participate May 1-7 are thinking about hosting your own NaPiBoWriwee for another week in June. I’ve already talked to those of you interested in doing that. I just ask that you please acknowledge this website and this specific blog for folks to read our past blogs for advice and encouragement and promote it here: https://paulayoo.com/napi Thank you! 🙂

Can I Post Your NaPiBoWriWee 2012 Logo On My Blog/Website?

The simple answer is YES. I only request that you please give credit to my designer, SANDY TANAKA somewhere in your blog for her art work. This was a professional logo design job, so I want to make sure my designer gets full credit for her work. Thank you! 🙂

NAPIBOWRIWEE REUNION?

We meet every year at the annual national Society of Children Book Writers & Illustrators conference in early August. This year’s conference is August 3-6, 2012.

I usually make an announcement on this blog and on Twitter about the exact date and time. We meet in the hotel lobby of the conference. Past, present and future NaPiBoWriWee folks are invited. Please follow me on Twitter @paulayoo and keep checking my YOO INK news headlines box on my website’s main page for updates on when this year’s reunion will take place.

Until then, please check out the SCBWI website for info on the conference: http://www.scbwi.org/ For more info on the conference itself, following their blog here: http://www.scbwiconference.blogspot.com/

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NAPIBOWRIWEE 2012 STORE

You can also purchase souvenir T-shirts, coffee mugs and notebooks at our official NaPiBoWriWee 2012 Cafe Press store. The logos this year were designed by designer Sandy Tanaka.

The store link is here: http://www.cafepress.com/npbww2012

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NAPIBOWRIWEE 2012 CONTEST WINNERS

FINALLY! Here are the winners of this year’s contest. I will be emailing the winners this week with details on how to arrange for your prize deliveries.

The winners were chosen AT RANDOM from names drawn in a hat. One of my cats, Beethoven, volunteered to oversee the drawing…

Beethoven makes sure all the names are safely inside the hat for the contest drawing.

Beethoven even helped with the actual drawing of the winners’ names, so you have photographic evidence that this was a FAIR contest. 🙂 All names were drawn AT RANDOM from the hate.  I really wish I could give EVERYONE a prize, but sadly, these were the names Beethoven the cat drew from the hat. 🙂

Beethoven helps picks the names from the hat!

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And without further ado… HERE ARE THE WINNERS. CONGRATULATIONS!!!

(I will contact all the winners via email later to make arrangements for your prize deliveries.)

 

NaPiBoWriWee 2012 Journal and Coffee Mug

— Winners of a NaPiBoWriWee 2012 souvenir coffee mug!

CATHY MEALEY

MARGARET (SPYSCRIBE)

LAURI MEYERS

— Winners of a NaPiBoWriWee 2012 notebook!

DONNA KOPPELMAN (KOPPELMOM)

JULIE ROWAN-ZOCH

NaPiBoWriWee 2012 Men's & Women's T-Shirts

— Winners of a NaPiBoWriWee 2012 souvenir T-shirt!

DANA CAREY

DIANE O. (DENA)

– Winner of a personally autographed copy of the paperback edition of my first picture book, the IRA Notable SIXTEEN YEARS IN SIXTEEN SECONDS: THE SAMMY LEE STORY (Lee & Low ’05)

CARLA J. (CARLA)

– Winner of a personally autographed copy of my second picture book, SHINING STAR: THE ANNA MAY WONG STORY (Lee & Low ’09)

NANCY T. (Nantanslp)

– Winner of a personally autographed copy of LISA WHEELER’S SPINSTER GOOSE: TWISTED RHYMES FOR NAUGHTY CHILDREN, illustrated by Sophie Blackall (Atheneum Books 2011)

EMILY SCHOENFELDER

– Winner of a personally autographed copy of KELLY DIPUCCHIO’S CRAFTY CHLOE, illustrated by Heather Ross (Atheneum Books 2011)

JENNI B.

– Winner of a personally autographed copy of HOPE VESTERGAARD’S NOTHING RHYMES WITH ORANGE: PERFECT WORDS FOR POETS, SONGWRITERS, AND RHYMERS, edited with Bessie G. Redfield (Perigee Trade 2008)

JANIE BILL

– Winner of a personally autographed copy of CAROLYN CRIMI’S PUGS IN A BUG, illustrated by Stephanie Buscema (Dial 2012)

ROMELLE GUITTAP

– Winner of a personally autographed copy of ANN WHITFORD PAUL’S WORD BUILDER, illustrated by Kurt Cyrus (Simon & Schuster 2009)

MINDY ALYSE WEISS

– Winner of a personally autographed copy of ANN WHITFORD PAUL’S WRITING PICTURE BOOKS: A HANDS-ON GUIDE FROM STORY CREATION TO PUBLICATION (Writer’s Digest Books 2009)

HOLLY R. (HJREED) 

CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN TO OUR WINNERS! Again, I wish I could give EVERYONE a prize. So for those of you who did not win this year, I give you a lot of POSITIVE VIBES for your future writing endeavors this year! 🙂

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Well, that’s it for this year’s NaPiBoWriWee 2012 event. I cannot thank everyone enough for making this such a FUN event. I’m so excited by everyone’s writing progress. I also feel that this event benefitted my own writing because I have been procrastinating myself on getting some picture book drafts down on paper. So I’m equally as excited as everyone else by this week’s productivity!

A reminder: I am back to posting blogs on my REGULAR blog at: https://paulayoo.com/blog

BUT… I will post future NaPiBoWriWee blogs at this site (https://paulayoo.com/napi) about some of the topics we discussed above in this blog entry, including info on our possible first ever NaPiBoWriWee Revision Week and our reunion at the SCBWI conference in August.

Until then, please visit my website regularly. I post the latest Blog Schedule and News at the YOO INK section on my front page. I also tweet @paulayoo.

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THANKS FOR PARTICIPATING IN NAPIBOWRIWEE 2012!

Now I highly recommend everyone take a BREAK today. BUT remember… I believe writers should write every day. So starting tomorrow… WRITE! You can just write a journal entry, or brainstorm new ideas or even start thinking of revising what you wrote this week. Just. Write. Every. Day. That’s what I want! 🙂

As always… HAPPY WRITING! WRITE LIKE YOU MEAN IT! 🙂

Much love and hugs,

Paula 🙂

24 Comments »

  1. Woot woot! Thank you so much for this. Congrats to the winners – really congrats to everyone who participated. We’re all done, peeps, go celebrate with a cookie or a run (or both)!

    • Thanks! I wish I could give EVERYONE a prize! But I hope you had fun and my special prize to you is POSITIVE VIBES for your future writing endeavors. best, Paula

  2. Thank you for this. I don’t know how long that story might have sat percolating without the push.

    Congrats to the winners and all the other writers. We did it.

    Ice cream time!

    • Thanks! I wish I could give EVERYONE a prize! But I hope you had fun and my special prize to you is lots of ICE CREAM! 🙂 And best wishes for your future writing endeavors. best, Paula

  3. Paula —

    You’ve worked so hard to put together NAPIBOWRIEE 2012. You’re the one who deserves a prize. Since you do the T.V. thing, a script is seems appropriate.

    Since you’re the emissary of picture book pow wows, a tale of a half-human, half-Klingon emissary will be sent to you (as soon as I get my current husband to inscribe it).

    Thanks again for inspiring creativity and commitment.

    • LOL Cheryl!!!! I love MY prize! 🙂 Wow! Thank YOU! Of course I wish I could give EVERYONE a prize! But I hope you had fun and my special prize to you is POSITIVE VIBES for your future writing endeavors. best, Paula

      • I’m a winner because I took your class at UCLA Extension and learned so much about writing children’s books.

        I’m a winner because I listened to you and joined SCBWI where I met a community of wonderful writers and illustrators.

        I’m a winner because I got to know you.

  4. Paula you are amazing, your energy and enthusiasm are phenomenal and only exceeded by your generosity! Congrats to all the winners and hey that’s me, too. I feel like a winner for all the work I got done!! Now I get to go shopping for some souvenirs and books from these talented authors. Blessings to all!

    • Awww thank you Laura! I too wish I could give everyone a prize. For you, a prize of many high fives and WOO HOOS for your fantastic work. Best wishes for your future writing endeavors! best, Paula

    • I think the 7 drafts is the best prize! 🙂 Congrats again. I wish I could give EVERYONE a prize. One day… until then, your prize is a big hug from me! 🙂 xo P.

  5. WOW! Thank you so much for EVERYTHING, Paula!! And thank YOU, Beethoven for the t-shirt. (Gee, I don’t think I’ve ever said that before 😉 )

    This week has been great. It totally pulled me out of a slump (April was very wet & drab hereabouts) and has got me back on track. I managed to do some writing I’m happy with and to put some ideas that just don’t work to rest.

    I’d be up for a Revision Week so I’ll be checking in to see if that happens.

    And CONGRATULATIONS PAULA for GOOD ENOUGH releasing in paperback. We have the hardcover–my daughter loved it and so did I! I recommend everyone check it out.

    Congratulations to all the winners of prizes and most of all to everyone– for taking up this challenge and giving it what you could. I wish you all the best!

    @danaFR

    • Merci Dana! Thank YOU for being such a great international support of my little event. Yes, I’ll keep you posted on the future Revision Week. Thanks for your kind words as well. xo P.

  6. I am so pumped! I was looking for a reminder to start each morning with a writing idea that can germinate throughout the day – and voila – a NAPIBOWRIWEE coffee mug appears! Thank you Beethoven.

  7. Thanks so much for this past week. I never dreamed I could get this many drafts done in such a short time. I wrote stories I had been thinking about for agessssssssssssssssssss!!!!! I have already made contacts for a local monthly group and have told a dozen people about Paula.
    Thank you. I feel like I gave birth or something. It hurt while I was doing it, but forgot about the pain this AM when I printed hard copies for 7 drafts.

    Be safe and will check back regularly.
    Love ya,
    holly

  8. I never dreamed I could get this many drafts done in such a short time. I wrote stories I had been thinking about for agessssssssssssssssssss!!!!! I have already made contacts for a local monthly group and have told a dozen people about Paula.
    Thank you. I feel like I gave birth or something. It hurt while I was doing it, but forgot about the pain this AM when I printed hard copies for 7 drafts.

    Be safe and will check back regularly.
    Love ya,
    holly

  9. Congratulations to all the winners. Paula, you are so gracious in responding to every post. I am excited to report that I’ve adopted some of your charisma for writing picture books and am even motivated to crank out a novel.

    I deeply appreciate Beethoven’s pulling my name out of his cat hat. Giving away prizes to everyone who participates inspire me to stick with the program.

    Cheers! And you have gained a new fan.

  10. Thank you, thank you, thank you Paula and Beethoven! I appreciate the notebook (show off to all my friends!) but the REAL prize I took away was the push to write 7 drafts! Without which I would NEVER have thought up a fiction PB about Pliny the Elder! Or tried a NF PB! Or felt so good about ‘gettin’ things DONE’! Now all this creative energy has spilled over to my illustrations: finished 5 pieces in 2 days! Yowza! So happy to have been a part of this fun-filled week!

  11. Thank you so much, Paula, for my prize! I actually wanted to win PUGS IN A BUG. I guess I should thank Beethoven for picking my name out of the bag. Thanks Beethovan….with a belly rub. This was such a great event, but I know it’s just the beginning.

  12. Roll over Beethoven! I’m scratching you behind the ears. ((purrrrrrrrrrr))

    Many thanks for my fancy new mug. I raise it up to you Paula, as a toast for hosting such a wonderful NaPiBoWriWe 2012. Thank you and congratulations to all the participants!

  13. Thanks so much, Paula–I’m so excited that I won a prize! But most of all, thanks for hosting this every year! I think the charity event and revision week ideas are wonderful! Thanks again!

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