I'm a PiBoIdMo Winner and My #Nerdlution

Thanks to the PiBoIdMo challenge I have 34 brand new ideas to play with. I've already written two of them into drafts and there are a few more gems in the pile I think!

PiBoIdMo Halfway Point!

We made it! Halfway through November. So now Christmas music is playing in just about ever retail space. I'm not prepared! Well actually, I should be done with all the extra shopping I'm doing before the end of the month. Whoot! I'm trying to keep December more about my 3 Fs: Family, Friends and FOOD. Yum. I'm excited just thinking about it. :)

My first PiBoIdMo week was more full of ideas then this past week. Only 8 new ideas. Just over half of week one. But, I'm still on track to finish with more then 30 new ideas. And there are a few that are actually GOOD ideas. Some ideas are dead ends right now. Like the one I got when we found a caterpillar ride along in the stroller. That one isn't inspiring me at ALL right now. But maybe one day.

That's why I'm keeping all these ideas. My own treasure chest of ideas. (Yes, it's a folder, but it's full of gems. HarHar.) One day one of these dead end ideas may spark a new story. Who knows! I could write something about a world traveling caterpillar. That doesn't excited me right now, but with the right twist it could. I just need to sit on these ideas until they are ready to hatch.

Each idea counts. Some won't grow in to anything quickly, but they have the potential. It's all about the potential.

Week 1 PiBoIdMo Done!

There has been a lot of chatter recently about how great the kid lit community is and I completely agree. I have truly enjoyed the openness and camaraderie that the online community offers along with the acceptance and encouragement that surround the interactions. It still amazes me how quickly I felt like part of the community. My local SCBWI Region has been a wonderful community as well. Art Date anyone?

These year has been a whirl wind of new experiences and I am enjoying most of it. Rejections (I just got one today) are part of the game and to reach the ultimate goal they are a necessary evil. Sad, but true. But, by being part of the phenomenal kid lit community we can all celebrate each others' successes and rise together when we are feeling down and out. 

Right. Back to it. 

So, for the first week of PiBoIdMo I am ahead! 13 ideas logged so far. I am enjoying my current idea keeping system. I've been using notecards for the actually ideas and pinning articles/pictures to my cork boards. Ok, one cork board is all kid art work. :)

My sticker machine makes some great stickers.
I have the little lightbulb all over. 

PiBoIdMo Idea Meter

I am all set up and ready for PiBoIdMo (that's Picture Book Idea Month) to start tomorrow. Ok almost ready. I still need to decide how I want to record all these ideas, but I have a few options. Notebook, index cards, cork board and pins. I think I'm going to end up with a combination of all three to be honest. Over the course of the challenge (30 PB ideas in 30 days) maybe one of these will win out. Stay tuned to find out how they are all working!

November will be all about the ideas! So to keep visual track of how things are going I added a progress meter over there on the left. In case you are participating in PiBoIdMo (or NaNoWriMo) you can add this to your blog too!

Here's how I added mine.

First I Googled and found a progress meter I liked at http://honorless.net/progressbar.htm.
It was the first one I found that would let me go as low as 30. Most of what I found are for novel writers for NaNoWriMo and didn't like being set below a few thousand. (Any programers out there want to make a snazzy meter for us PB writers??)

This is a screen shot of the website. All I did was change the goal number from 50,000 to 30 and picked the font. Then click Refresh Code and copy all the text in the box.

Now the next part will be different depending on where your host your blog. But here's how I did it in Blogger.

From the Blogger Dashboard, go to the layout page and click add gadget. Choose the HTML/JavaScript Gadget.

A smaller window will pop up. Enter a Title for your meter then paste the code you copied from the website box in the Content box. Save and you're done!

There's mine!

You could save the website with the progress meter and repeat the process each time you update your meter. That is every time you add ideas! Or you can change the code by editing the gadget.

From the layout page on the dashboard, click EDIT in the bottom right hand corner of the gadget box. The following window will open.

Your total number of ideas is the BLUE box (here 10) and the RED boxes are the percentage you are finished. To find that number divide your number of ideas by 30 and multiply by 100. (I rounded a bit here. :) )

Then save and you're done!

I think I got all of it.

Here's to many great ideas in November!!