NAPIBOWRIWEE 2013: Day 1 – Guest Blogger Lauri Meyers! (May 1, 2013)

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Welcome to DAY ONE of NAPIBOWRIWEE (National Picture Book Writing Week) 2013! From May 1-7, 2013, we will attempt to write 7 picture books in 7 days. I will be posting a new blog every day by 6 AM (West Coast Time) at https://paulayoo.com/napi

Please post a comment on each day’s blog with any questions or thoughts on today’s blog or about your own NAPIBOWRIWEE 2013 experience. Remember, I will include everyone’s name in a fun contest drawing at the end of this week’s event. Winners will receive fun souvenirs from our store plus autographed books from myself as well as our guest authors! You can also follow me on Twitter @paulayoo and please use the hashtag #NaPiBoWriWee.

PLEASE NOTE: Because I have some work commitments and meetings to attend this week (Augh! Real life gets in the way, LOL!), do not panic if your comments have not been approved for several hours. This just means I’m probably stuck in L.A. traffic. 🙂 I promise to make sure everyone’s comments are approved in a timely manner, but it may not always happen right away. So please bear with me. Just FYI.

For more information and details on this year’s event, please click on this link to a blog I wrote featuring all your FAQs for NAPIBOWRIWEE 2013: https://paulayoo.com/napi/?p=474

The theme for this year’s NAPIBOWRIWEE is going to focus on the FUTURE of picture books. So much has happened in the book world and the publishing industry since I started this event in 2009. In the past five years, we have seen the explosion of e-Book readers (Kindle, Nook, iPad etc.) plus some radical changes in the publishing industry as the Big Six publishers have merged into the Big Four. Self-publishing has become more popular as an alternate path for writers. People are even taking advantage of Kickstarter and other crowdsource funding sites to publish and distribute their own books. Veteran authors are debating the merits of self-publishing versus the traditional route. Agents and editors are finding it more difficult to sell/publish books in a shrinking world. Even more parents are trying to “skip over” picture books by having their children read chapter books instead, not realizing that picture book reading helps develop certain cognitive skills for younger children.

Phew. That’s a lot of changes in just five years. But one thing has remained the same – NAPIBOWRIWEE takes place every year from May 1-7 where both newbie and veteran authors challenge themselves to write 7 picture books in 7 days. The goal is simply to encourage everyone to have FUN, to overcome procrastination, and to develop the skills necessary to write on a DAILY basis. At the end of the week, we will have 7 rough first drafts that we can nurture and revise until at least ONE of these drafts turns into a submission-ready and hopefully publishable book! 🙂

Also, to inspire those of you who are feeling nervous about DAY ONE, here’s some comforting words of advice from Ann Lamott’s famous BIRD BY BIRD book on writing and “s—– first drafts.”

“… S—– first drafts: all good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts. People tend to look at successful writers, writers who are getting their books published and maybe even doing well financially, and think that they sit down at their desks every morning feeling like a million dollars… that they take in a few deep breaths, push back their sleeves… and dive in, typing full formed passages as fast as a court reporter. But this is just the fantasy of the uninitiated… Very few writers really know what they are doing until they’ve done it. … We all often feel like we are pulling teeth… the right words and sentences do not just come pouring out like ticker tape most of the times. For me and most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really s—– first drafts.

“The first draft is the child’s draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later. You just let this childlike part of you channel whatever voices and visions come through and onto the page…. Just get it all down on paper, because there may be something great in those six crazy pages that you would never have gotten toby more rational, grown-up means. There may be something in the very last line of the very last paragraph on page six that you just love, that is so beautiful or wild that you now know what you’re supposed to be writing about, more or less, or in what direction you might go – but there was no way to get to this without first getting through the first five and a half pages.” (Ann Lamott, BIRD BY BIRD, pgs. 21-22)

For Day One (May 1, 2013), I am featuring a guest blog from LAURI MEYERS. Lauri has participated in NAPIBOWRIWEE in the past and wanted to share some survival tips. What better way to kick off this year’s NAPIBOWRIWEE with Lauri Meyer’s blog on “7 Simple Steps to Write 7 Picture Books in 7 Days”?

Future guest bloggers for this year’s event will include picture book author/illustrator KATIE DAVIS (May 2), picture book author VARSHA BAJAJ (May 3), YA novelist & debut picture book author MARTHA BROCKENBROUGH (May 4), Ford Street publisher/picture book author/novelist PAUL COLLINS (May 5), novelist and picture book author TANIA MCCARTNEY (May 6), and picture book author/illustrator ERIN EITTER KONO (May 7). Contest winners will be announced on May 8th.

(Please keep reading after the jump for our Day One Guest Blog from Lauri Meyers!)

GUEST BLOG – DAY ONE – LAURI MEYERS

Lauri Meyers

LAURI MEYERS is a children’s book writer who tries to follow the picture book rules, though rhyming gnomes and laughing raindrops keep infiltrating her stories. After a career in corporate finance where she specialized in adding, subtracting, and saying “no,” she is entrusting her two children to retrain her brain to be creative.  She has already completed classes in booger picking, glitter sprinkling, and worm squishing under their tutelage. She also blogs about writing and raising messy little girls at http://www.laurimeyers.com You can contact Lauri at LAURIMEYERS at GMAIL dot COM or by leaving a comment on her blog. 

7 Simple Steps to Write 7 Picture Books in 7 Days

by Lauri Meyers

My first NaPiBoWriWee was exhilarating, educational, and exhausting. I succeeded in drafting 7 picture books in 7 days, but it was by the skin of my teeth. You can’t start writing before May 1st, but the week will be easier if you have a plan.

 *7 Simple Steps to Write 7 Picture Books in 7 Days*

1. Freeze 7 dinners and make the appropriate number of tuna sandwiches for your family. “That seems unnecessary!” you cry. You’re right – it’s completely unnecessary as long as you also find eating unnecessary.

2. Collect 8-10 PB ideas. “But you said 7 PBs!” you cry. Yes, but you’ll be thankful for an extra on the morning you realize the idea you picked stinks like day 7’s tuna sandwich. If you participated in PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month), now is a great time to pull out your 30 ideas.

3. Write each idea on a small piece of paper and put them in a hat. Preferably a funny hat. “That sounds goofy!” you cry. Oh, you’re one of those quiet, serious picture book writing types? Well, you can put your ideas in a fedora if you prefer, but some of us like to have fun. (Funny hat example pictured below…)

4. On the morning of May 1st, pull an idea out of your silly (or serious) hat. Drink coffee and go about your day while the idea runs around with its pants off in your mind. “I’m not really comfortable with nudity in my brain,” you whine. Fine, yours can wear Superman Underroos.

5. Read the guest post for the day which will magically unlock some spark and inspire your draft. “What if it doesn’t?” you whine. Hey, will Thing 1 make a mess while your mother is out? (It will.)

6. Jot down any sentences your naked (or semi-clothed) idea throws at you throughout the day. Sometime before midnight, steal enough writing time to draft the story. Even if it’s only 200 words, just strive for a beginning, climax, and resolution. “What if I don’t have any paper?” you ask. There’s still time to grab a NaPiBoWriWee notebook from the store. (Store link: http://www.cafepress.com/napibowriwee2013)

7. Get up the next day and do it again!

There you have it. 7 simple steps to surviving succeeding at NaPiBoWriWee!

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Thanks again to Lauri Meyers for writing our Day One guest blog! I hope her 7 tips inspire you as we begin Day 1!

Tune in tomorrow by 6 AM (West Coast Time) for our Day Two blog featuring picture book author/illustrator KATIE DAVIS (http://katiedavis.com). She’s hosting a fun VIDEO IDIOT BOOK CAMP program that also starts today (May 1st). For more info, check out this link: http://videoidiotbootcamp.com

In the meantime, good luck writing today. Please post any comments below for today’s blog with your thoughts, questions, and writing updates. You can follow me on Twitter @paulayoo. Please feel free to use this HASHTAG – #NaPiBoWriWee

I’m off to write! Until tomorrow’s blog, remember… HAPPY WRITING! WRITE LIKE YOU MEAN IT! 🙂

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63 Comments »

  1. This is my first year doing this, so I’m really psyched. I hope to write stories that are totally different from my other ms. This will be a great challenge.

  2. Tuh-RIF-ic. It looks like we won’t be eating this week. On the bright side, I love living on the east coast. My goal is to pour out a stinky first draft before 9AM my time, by which time I can read the NaPi post, marinate all day, then rewrite into a beginning, middle, and end by 11PM. Of course, I’m still in my pajamas and haven’t written one word yet. Hmmm. What’s plan B?

    Thanks, Lauri and Paula.
    Joanne R

    • Joann – Just checking to see if you are still in your pajamas on day 6? Forget dinner, I realize now I really should have addressed the issue of neglecting showering for 7 days…

  4. Lauri – that is some wonderful advice. And it is going to come in handy today, cuz I wont be able to write until later this evening (and I was starting to panic). No more! Thank you.

    And thanks, Paula!

    Good luck everybody!!

  6. Good morning! So many comments already! Thank you! And thanks to Lauri for her awesome tips! FYI I have some work meetings to go on today so I won’t get to start my Day One until this afternoon. If you post a comment between 10 AM and 2 PM (PST), it may be awhile before I can approve the comments because I’ll be stuck in LA traffic. So thank you in advance for your patience. Happy Writing! 🙂 xo P.

  8. I love your tips, Lauri! Thanks.
    I wrote my draft for today already as I live in an earlier time zone but these will help a lot for tomorrow. I’m off now to look for a hat, buy tuna fish and um, come up with 9 ideas. Just hope my family doesn’t end up eating ideas while I pull tuna out of a hat…

    • It’s never too late for a funny hat! Is there a writer’s hat with two cups of coffee strapped to it and a straw to your mouth? The NaPi store 2014 may need to offer that.

  10. Hi Larui,

    Great advice. I especially like the crazy hat idea and am going to take it one step further and color-code the notes depending on what subjects they are; fiction, nonfiction, nature, animals, etc

    Thanks for doing this again Paula!! Hope everyone has a great day!

    • The hat really added fun this year, and I let my daughter pick the idea out of the hat. So, that added a level of surprise and excitement! (It occurs to me my life may be a tad boring if this is how I get my kicks…)

  11. What a great list, Laurie! Thanks guys…

    I’m reaching for my idea list right now.

    Ready. Set. GO!!! Let’s do this THANG!!!

  12. This is my first time doing this. Just finished up camp Nano with 10,015 words. My goal was 10,000. That was my first time for that too. Thank you for the tips. They will come in handy. Happy writing everyone:)

  15. Yay me! I know I won’t have a lot of time today to write my first first draft, so I made good use of my shower time and developed my first idea, getting a mental outline of the story arc. I didn’t intend for it to be a rhymer, but it just started coming out that way, so I quickly jumped out of the shower with a towel, ran downstairs to my computer and started jotting down the beginning, middle and ending of my story… in rhyme. I have my refrain, so all I need to do is fill some gaps tonight and I’m done with number one. Whoot!

  16. Lauri, thanks for the great advice!
    Paula, thanks for the opportunity!
    I’m off to a good start. Draft 1 complete before dinner on Day 1! Now I’m off to make tuna sandwiches for the rest of the week 🙂

  17. Lauri, your posts are always a guaranteed gigglefest.

    My step one is: Brew extra large, extra strong pot of coffee. Otherwise you might mix up your funny hat and your Superwoman underoos. And that would be awkward.

  18. Thanks for the laughs, Lauri! I especially love the hat. I agree with having more than 7 ideas. The idea I felt most confident about this morning felt very BLECH an hour or so in. So, I took a shower and tried to focus on how I could tell a unique dinosaur story. (Haven’t they all be done?) Something came to me, and I went with it. And I have my 1st draft! Yes! Thanks Paula and Lauri.

    • I let my daughter draw my first idea, and I almost keeled over “no not that one!” But I decided to force myself to try, and it’s sort of coming together (if not having an ending or a beginning counts as “coming together” – my middle is nice and round though!)

  21. Thank you, Lauri, for starting my day with a good laugh!

    My first, first draft is done! That wasn’t so hard . . . (she says on the first day!)

  22. Love the idea of picking a story idea from a hat! So much easier than trying to decide where to start. Thank you, Lauri and Paula.

  23. Got my 1st first draft done (and it’s not even too awful). Thanks for the plan for the week. I love it! I’ve still got tons of ideas left from several years of PiBoIdMo. I don’t have a funny hat, but I may borrow my daughter’s Dr. Who fez tomorrow.

  25. Lauri, Loved this! “She has already completed classes in booger picking, glitter sprinkling, and worm squishing under their tutelage.” haha! ME TOO.

    Thanks for the fun blog. So true about jotting down ideas through the day and then writing quickly before midnight, that’s just what I do. 😀

  26. Note to self: Read blog post before drafting tomorrow! This was awesome! Draft #1 completed at 10:50pm CST. Now, I need to get some more ideas and a hat! 🙂

  27. Thanks everyone for your awesome comments. So glad everyone is doing well and having fun! I wasn’t able to reply to everyone individually but I read every single comment and so happy. Thanks again to Lauri Meyers and for also replying to everyone. 🙂 FYI I finally finished Book No. 1. Check out my blog tomorrow about my Day One experience in more detail but in a nutshell… I realized my picture book is really a CHAPTER BOOK. The plot is way too complicated. It totally will work as a chapter book. So although I was bummed not to have a pic book draft, I’m thrilled that I have a new chapter book project work on later. THIS IS WHY NAPIBOWRIWEE WORKS. You HAVE to finish writing a draft in order to see if it works in the genre you chose for it. In working on Book #1, I realized I need to start simplifying my ideas for the next picture book. So tomorrow, keep it simple! 🙂 Tomorrow’s blog will be posted at 6 AM PST featuring Q&A with the wonderful KATIE DAVIS. Happy Writing and WRITE LIKE YOU MEAN IT! 🙂 xo P.

  28. I have been filling my hat with ideas this afternoon. My kids have also been filling my hat with their ideas. I’m kind of dreading pulling one of theirs out tomorrow!
    Still, I managed ‘story one’ today quite painlessly. Here’s hoping the next 6 days go as well.

    • Kids ideas are the Best. I asked for a girl’s name this morning for my day 2 story. My daughter says “Louie.” Uhh, that’s a boy’s name. OR is my story about a tomboy?! Aha, breakthrough while I’m still in my jammies!

  29. I love the random ideas trick. I have just been figuring out topics I used to love as a child or still do and try to figure something out. But I really want to try this out since I wanted the stories completely different from each other. But for Day 1 I have a full really rough draft for one story and a good rough idea and other things down for the next.

  30. Just now reading the blog post and starting to think about PB #1. It’s an OLD idea of mine with a beginning and end, but oh, how will that middle part–especially the climax–go?? Must prep some meals for the week while the wheels in my head start cranking. Thanks for the tips & laughs, Lauri, and what a great day to remind us of Ann Lamott’s all important sh**** first drafts, Paula!

  31. Whoo hoo, finished a still-ugly draft with 35 minutes to spare! Today was a looooooong day, luckily I chose one of my less complicated ideas from the “sorting hat.” 🙂 I only have 7 ideas, but I’m sure I can drum up a couple spares tomorrow. And oh yeah! Write another ugly draft!

    (Please excuse my n00b-ness, since I have never written a picture book before. Who knows if I’m even doing it right? But I’m having fun!)

  32. My first story today is a miss-mash story. I will clean it up after the week. Ahhh….tomorrow I have an ukulele session and then, off to work on my second story.

    Nothing like working under pressure. Reminds me of ole college days.

    • Please tell me your day 2 mash up has something to do with ukuleles. Please. A monster who wants to play ukulele but doesn’t have fingers? An octopus who is the best ukulele player under the sea? (hmm, octopus + music = new idea in my hat!)

  33. What a great opportunity to get cracking on all those ideas I generated for PiBoIdMo last November!

    I got started a day late, but I’m still hoping to get some drafts done.

  34. 7 Swanson’s dinners, ew! . . . check
    7 cans of tuna . . . check
    of course this is going to need 1 large jar of mayo, 2 loaves of bread, 3 French hens, no wait wrong holiday.

    Great insight, Lauri, and how well you know how we balk. I enjoyed your humor.

    I also enjoy Ann Lamontt’s book, BIRD BY BIRD. Especially the part about the house keys. I’m a plumber’s daughter with six children. How well could I relate.

    Day one is finished. I’m looking forward to wearing that silly hat, paper slips and all and cooking up my idea for s_____ draft number two.

    Have a great day everyone.

    http://zebrakitchen.blogspot.com/2013/05/its-plane-its-bird-no.html

  35. Thanks for the humor, plus some good advice. This should be fun! Plus exhausting! Tuna and TV dinners here I come.

    • The energy I’m feeling on day 3 is still pretty good…but I remember hitting the wall after having this same thought last year! It’s a good idea to duck every once in a while, just in case.

  36. Hi Lauri –
    Thanks for making me laugh. I’ve had a few tough weeks with my mom’s debilitating stroke and other bad news. Laughter is truly the best medicine and you certainly had the right prescription for me.

    • Sheryl, I’m so sorry to hear about your mother. Yes, laughter is important and also enjoying all the little things about life. Those little things are what truly make a picture book special.

  37. Ha ha! I loved that upside down parrot (hat). Great advice and must remember to remind husband to cook dinner (he makes great tuna sandwiches). Looking forward to getting stuck into some more of those PiBoIdMo ideas!

    • The spouse making dinner is always a good decision. I actually ran out of lasagna, but have an “I defrosted these cheeseburgers, and you are so good at grilling” plan for tonight.

  38. LOL, Love the hat. Great Idea. I did get one written, which is unthinkable with how crazy things get here. THis is a great motivator to get some first drafts written. Great Post. T.

    • I have to admit the hat didn’t make it through day 3. There was such a fight over which child got to wear the hat that I had to move the ideas to a boring white envelope. But it’s still exciting to pick!

  39. Oops, Even though I posted my daily report on FB I forgot to post it here…so here it is…

    One down and six to go!! I finished my first draft! It needs more work, but I really like the story and can easily see it becoming a Chapter Book. I will revise it as part of 12×12, and then see what it wants to become.

    Hope everyone has had a good day!!

    • Isn’t it great the children’s book community has events throughout the year to help you write? Develop your ideas during PiBoIdMo, write 7 drafts during NaPiBoWriWee, and edit through 12×12!

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