#PBDummy Challenge - Progress on Step 5

Three weeks into step five, and admittedly I don't have much to show for it yet. This is the step where I fell off the challenge last year, and non-completion is not an option this year! My boys have had spring break and we've enjoyed Easter which has been wonderful, but has put me off my regular schedule. However I'm recharged and hopefully mentally prepared to get things done over the next five weeks.

I re-read Mark Mitchell's 2012 post on the kitlitart blog which has put me in a better frame of mind. Mark is so good at encouraging his students/readers and offering baby steps through the process. So hopefully following his wisdom I'm going to be a proud owner of a full-sized dummy by May 5th!!

My biggest challenge is not letting the rest of my responsibilities take over my drawing time. Lately life continues to steal that time away. Where are you finding time to illustrate? Do you get up early? Stay up late?...I'm curious.

(loving this sketch by Mark Mitchell)

Wishing the rest of you challengers luck over the next 5 weeks!!

LT

#PBDummy Challenge - Step Five: Render Tight, Full-Sized Sketches

Today we start step five of the Picture Book Dummy Challenge.  I feel like this is the point of the challenge where things get serious....and I guess it is. These are the drawings that are going to make up our #PBDummy. There are 8 weeks for this step. Last year, somewhere during those 8 weeks I lost my mojo and didn't make to step six. This year I am bound and determined to keep up and make it through.

How is everyone else doing on the challenge? Let us know in the comments below or tell us about your progress on our facebook page.

As with the previous steps I encourage you to read the step five post from last year's challenge at the kidlitart blog where Bonnie Adamson gives some great links to resources that will help us through this phase of the challenge.

If you would like to learn more about the 2013 #PBDummy Challenge you can learn all the details here. 

And please check out our participants here.

#PBDummy Challenge Step four - half way mark

Half-way through step four and I have a rough storyboard down. I am sure I'll spend some more time tweaking it this week, but I'm feeling pretty good about the majority of the pages. This morning I spent some time going through the spreads, making sure that my compositions left enough room for the text.

Here is a snap shot of what I've accomplished thus far - my story is written, my characters are coming along and my storyboard is nearing completion. It's pretty amazing, when one lays everything out, to see all the work we have done in just a couple of months.

For some more inspiration, please check out last year's post by Julian Hector at the kidlitart blog.

Here are the other participants in this year's #PBDummy Challenge.

Step Three: Character Development

Congratulations on drafting your story! And now on to one of my favorite steps in the process...character development.

In preparation for this step I have been collecting some YouTube videos of my favorite picture book illustrators sharing some of their wisdom and experience  developing their characters.

Will Terry 
Lynne Chapman
Patrice Barton
Emily Gravett


Additionally, please check out the #kidlitart website for two wonderful blog entries character development, first here, then a guest post here.

And of course for more information and links on this and all other steps in the PBDummy making process for $5 you can snag a copy of Wendy Martin's "How to Make a Picture Book Dummy in 9 Easy Steps" on her website.

Do you have a favorite website or videos that provides guidance for character development or is just simply inspirational? Please post links in the comments below. 

As an extra note, I think it's time to start thinking about tweet chats at #kitlitart. I am out of town this Thursday, so let's plan to have our first tweetchat session on Feburary 21st at 7pm MST. For those of you who may be new to twitter, I'll post some instructions next week.

Have fun creating!!

2013 'Unofficial' #PBDummy Challenge - Week three of Drafting the story

Well, my story is coming along but I continue to struggle with the the wording...too many words...too little words...the balance of words and pictures....

This afternoon I received an e-newsletter from Julie Hedlund. You may be familiar with her 12x12 challenge. You can visit her website for more details on it. It was a fabulous experience last year and although I am not participating this year, if you are a serious kidlit writer, don't pass up the opportunity to avoid the 'slush pile'!...I digress...this afternoon her e-newsletter left me inspired. She wrote about an experience meeting an agent at a SCBWI conference last year and the advice which she received.

Juile wrote -
"One thing Stephen said more than once at the conference was that he needs to be able to “see” a picture book before he can take it on. That doesn’t mean you have to be an illustrator, but that he likes language that is so vivid that it creates a strong visual impression. When I asked him if he had any particular guidance to give 12 x 12 members in their submissions to him, this was his response:

“For me, I am always looking for craft in language. Beautiful language gets me every time. The picture book market is tough right now, so writers need to know that their picture books need to be one-of-a-kind, original, fresh, strong, and inventive. Most publishers these days are looking for character-driven stories. And, please keep in mind, as Maurice Sendak said, you need to ’leave room for the pictures.”

Wow this is challenging!!

To those of you participating in  2013 "Unofficial" #PBDummy Challenge, how is it coming? I am finding step two really challenging. I am not a writer. I love my idea and I think it has lots of potential, but this writing business is WAY more difficult that one might expect if you've never sat down to write a children's book.

So this week I turned to a professional for advice...Mem Fox. I love her books and her website  offers some great guidance for would-be picture book writers - 'So you want to write a picture book' and   'Twenty Do's and Don'ts'.  If you need some help yourself you may want to reference her articles too.

If you have been on our fb page you may have noticed Pia's question and link to Tara Lazar's blog whose guest blogger Tammi Sauer writes about common 'structures' used in picture books. It's definitely worth a read.

Let's get started!

So Day 1!

First of all, welcome to everyone who has decided to join me for the next 25 weeks. Again, if you didn't see my blog post last night, I have made an official 'unofficial' badge for us if you are into badges and would like to put one on your blog. 

Next, Step One: Pick Your Project

For those of you joining me on this challenge, you may already have a clear idea for your project. I am excited to start a picture book idea that was sprung during Tara Lazar's 2012 PiBoIDMo challenge.
If you need some help coming up with an idea, Tara Lazar has put together some great lists- 500+ things that kids like and 79+ things kids don't like which might get your creative juices flowing.


Additional Inspiration:
(From kidlitart, January 5, 2011)

Caldecott winners, 1938-present

SCBWI Golden Kite winners, 1974-present
Note: Awards for picture book text were added in 1997.

Horn Book Fanfare list for 2011
Horn Book Fanfare list for 2012

Publisher's Weekly Best Books of 2011
Publisher's Weekly Best Books of 2012

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2010
New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2011

Struggling to find an idea?
Check out the series of posts hosted by Tara Lazar during the PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) Challenge (November, 2010), and the posts during last year’s NaPiBoWriWee (National Picture Book Writing Week), hosted by Paula Yoo.

Start building your resource library
Here are three books which have excellent overviews on what makes an engaging picture book:

Writing with Pictures: How to Write and Illustrate Children’s Books, by Uri Shulevitz

Writing Picture Books: A Hands-On Guide From Story Creation to Publication, by Ann Whitford Paul

The Writer’s Guide to Crafting Stories for Childen, by Nancy Lamb

 And if you have not signed up yet, would you please make a comment here so we know that you are joining us for the challenge?

Tomorrow is the big day!

Tomorrow we start day one of our challenge. Are you excited?? I am!  To start us off I thought we needed a badge. So if you like badges like I do, please feel free to snag this one and post it to your blog.

See ya back here tomorrow!

The 2013 "Unofficial" #PBDummy Challenge

I had been so looking forward to participating in the 2013 #PBDummy Challenge, and when I learned that both Wendy and Bonnie are swamped this year and would not be hosting the challenge I was really disappointed.  I am too inexperienced as an illustrator to take on the challenge of hosting the official challenge, but I thought I might be able to manage hosting an "unofficial" one. This in no way replaces what Bonnie and Wendy have done, and my hope it that next year we'll be back at the kidlitart blog again.  But for 2013, if you were keen to participate in the #PBDummy challenge yourself and are looking forward to the camaraderie of a social network working on the same project, this is the place!  Everyone is welcome.

I am keeping this year simple. I will post a new blog entry at each new step during the challenge, referencing encouraging blog posts previously posted at the kidlitart blog (a big thank you to Wendy for allowing me to reference their materials). Participants can support each other through the #PBDummy facebook page, and are welcome to participate in weekly Thursday night #kidlitart tweet chats (7pm MST). There will be no prizes at the end of June, just the satisfaction that after 25 weeks of hard work, we will  have a finished a #PBDummy ready for submission.  So if all that sounds good to you, here is the challenge...



What is the 2013 “Unofficial” #PB Dummy Challenge? This is a 25-week-long online group challenge to create and submit a picture book dummy.
Start date: January 7, 2013
End date: July 1, 2013

Who can participate?  Anyone interested in making a Picture Book Dummy

Are there any rules for the challenge? No rules at all for participating. The idea is to have a great time while accomplishing something useful. If you’ve ever taken part in a similar challenge, you know the value of community: checking in regularly, encouraging others, allowing yourself to be held accountable to a schedule—all this will help you get the most from the experience.

Do I have to post my work online?  No, however if you would like to share your sketches or ‘Work In Progress’ on our private FB Group page, please feel free.  Please be mindful that this is at your own discretion: only post what you are comfortable sharing. We will also be discussing our work and creative process in general terms via the #PBDummy hashtag and special #kidlitart chats.
So pull out your #PiBoIdMo stash, dust off those concept sketches you’ve been hoarding since art school, and join us as we commit to getting it done!

The next 25 weeks   Each step in the challenge will be introduced by a post on this blog. There will be a “How’s it going?” Twitter chat scheduled at the close of each step in the process, to keep us on course.

THE SCHEDULE
STEP 1: Pick your project (1 week) Jan. 7-Jan. 13
STEP 2: Draft the story (4 weeks) Jan. 14-Feb. 10 
STEP 3: Develop the characters (2 weeks) Feb. 11-Feb. 24 
STEP 4: Storyboard text and art (2 weeks) Feb. 25-Mar. 10 
STEP 5: Render tight, full-size sketches (8 weeks) Mar. 11-May 5 
STEP 6: Produce final art of two spreads (4 weeks) May 6-June 2
STEP 7: Assemble the dummy (2 weeks ) Jun. 3-Jun.16 
STEP 8: Research submissions; prepare dummy package (1 week) Jun. 17-Jun. 23 
STEP 9: Submit (1 week) Jun. 24-Jul. 1


Additional Resources:
Twitter Tag: #PBDummy
Thursday 7pm MST Twitter Tweet Chat Tag: #kidlitart
facebook page: #PBDummy Challenge


Please scroll back through the posts and guest interviews from 2011 & 2012’s Kidlitart #PBDummy Challenge, which are archived on the Kidlitart blog. These posts contain valuable lists of reference materials and links, and will be referenced throughout this year's challenge. Wendy Martin has compiled all this information into a handy ebook, which you can download from her site for $5, I have a copy and it's a wonderful reference.

That’s it! Nine easy steps to success. Ready to get started? Let’s get to it!  All you have to do now is:
1. Please comment below so we know who all the official participants on the 'Unofficial' challenge are and
2. Join the facebook group if you are not yet a member (#PBDummy Challenge).

Good luck!  We start Monday.