Peggy Archer
Children's Author

Are you looking for some inspiration in the month of November? Fall is winding down and colder weather is on its way. For me that means less outdoors and more ‘hibernating’ with the help of some hot chocolate to warm my insides. All of those ideas for books have been cooking in my brain, and I’m ready for some serious writing time. Here are some opportunities for brain boosters to kick off the cooler months ahead.

Picture Book Idea Month: PiBoIdMo
http://taralazar.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/piboidmo-official-sign-up-starts-today-right-here-right-now/

National Novel Writing Month: NaNoWriMo
http://nanowrimo.org/en/about/hownanoworks

tips from Writers’Digest: http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/how-to-prepare-for-national-novel-writing-month-nanowrimo

SCBWI Missouri Fall Conference
featuring Heather Alexander, Editor at Dial Books for Young Readers, and Quinlan Lee, Literary Agent for Adams Literary Agency
http://moscbwi.org/Events.html

SCBWI Illinois Prairie Writers Day 2011
featuring six agents, two literary agents and more
http://www.scbwi-illinois.org/Programming.html#2ndDate

I’ll be attending the Missouri and Illinois conferences, and plan to sign up and commit to PiBoIdMo. I hope to see you there!  Read More 

Welcome to National Novel Writing Month, and now, to National Picture Book Idea Month, as well!

I'm not a novel writer, so I've never taken an interest in National Novel Writing Month, which is November, but many children's novelists do. Novel writers know this as NaNoWriMo. The idea is to complete a novel in 30 days.

Sound unrealistic? In this contest the only thing that matters is output--quantity vs: quality, enthusiasm and perseverance over craft, permission to make mistakes and not be perfect. Thirty days and night of literary abandon! Who knows? You may end up with something good enough to revise. So if you are a novelist and would like more information about NaNoWriMo, go to http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/whatisnano.

Now for us picture book writers. Tara Lazar has created PiBoIdMo, a 30-day challenge for picture book writers!

From her website: "The concept is to create 30 picture book ideas in 30 days. You don’t have to write a manuscript. You don’t need potential best-seller ideas.

You might think of a clever title. Or a name for a character. Or just a silly thing like “purple polka-dot pony.” The object is to heighten your picture-book-idea-generating senses so by the end of the month, you’ll have a file of ideas to help inspire you throughout the year."

Writers who complete the 30-ideas-in-30-days challenge will be eligible for prizes.

The kick-off will be posted this Sunday, on Halloween. You’ll be asked to officially sign-up in early November. Visit every day during the month of November for a new post on inspiration and creativity from guest bloggers.

For a list of guest bloggers, and for more information, go to Tara's website at http://taralazar.wordpress.com/piboidmo2010/.

So, novelist or picture book writer, have fun being creative in November!  Read More