Finished challenges for the Month! (almost) WOOOOO

I'm done!!!! Also, I fixed this piece. XD The hand was messed up and I was looking at it for hours and realized it in time to change my submission lol. Oh WELL.

This month has been very difficult but I accomplished almost everything...it's just the last few picture book ideas... I can do it in two hours, yeah? YES! Pullin' out the mentor books! Also spamming the blog posts on the SCBWI pages I follow. This one in particular gave me an idea. 

And for the last update, I completed the NaNoWriMo challenge with blood, sweat, tears, and lots of coffee. 

More Update! and a Useful Article

There was a moment today while I was at work trying to come up with a picture book idea and I said to myself, "It's really hard to think of something creative in a lab environment...wait, did I really just day that? What am I thinking! There are plenty of fun and kooky things to write about in a lab environment!" Then funny enough I grabbed a sticky note and began writing, "It was a dark and gloomy day, a dark and gloomy day for a lab assistant. It was a dark and gloomy day for a lab assistant who is an owl? It was a dark and gloomy day for an owl's lab assistant who just had to come to work and stumble around in the mud because of course it has to be thundering and lightning for this lab project to work...whatever that is."

Out of all that blabbering...I still looped around to Frankenstein. Whoops. I also like owls. Yeah it didn't go well, but that's okay! Maybe it's day will come...

I made it past 12,000 words (12,355 as of now) and if I write at least 1723 words every day this week, I will be caught up.

In the meantime, I've been wondering if I should update my cargo website as it seems pretty dead because I put a lot of my focus to writing this month, or if I should just buy my website instead. My friend in an online critique group posted this article here  about the don'ts when it comes to building your website and making it easy as possible for publishers, art directors, agents, and just pretty much anybody to navigate. Good reminder, maybe I'll work on my website...next month.

What's on the Other Side?

Bam. The title says it all. The PiBoIdMo for today is the question, "What's on the Other Side?" I don't know what's over there yet, but it's something.

Going fairly strong today, until I lost my note cards I was writing on at work and now I have to re-write almost everything I've done so far... that's okay. I know what to write now at least and I will not dwell on the fact that I'm horribly behind and I will need a full two days of nothing but writing to catch up... yeah right, like THAT will happen haha.

In the meantime, I need coffee or tea or maybe ddr exercising...or I just need to type an updated excerpt. I think I'll do that.

It didn't matter whose side she was on, Mel's butt was just tired of sulking on the bleachers, her feet aching to run around the bases. "Come oooooon!" she pounded her fists.

"We're not having a shorty like you on our team. Greg wants you though." cackled a kid named Ben.

"We don't want  her, she can't hit the ball" Greg spat on the ground, "besides," he kicked dirt over his loogie, "she's token Dog keeper watcher."

"UUUHHHH fine. Y'all can't catch him anyway. Too slow" Mel waved them off.

"Whatever" Ben said.

"Yeah, my turn to bat. No more distractions." The other kids ran out to the field, Mel threw down her red cap, determined to stomp the crap out of but she stopped, sighed, and placed the hat back on her wild haired head where it belonged. She glared over at the panting husky named Dog and growled, "You better not..." Dog stared at her, then his attention focused back on the game. 

None of the kids knew where the stray came from. He was just there one day and happened to sit on the part of the bleachers that some kid tagged with spray paint and a smirk flipped the word"God", tossing the empty can over his shoulder. But to everyone, and to Dog, it labeled the spot for any random teams' mascot. 

PING! The ball was hit over to left field, landing Greg's team a double. Dog's ears perked up, ready for the PING of a home run. The next hit earned a single. As Ben dug his cleats in the ground, pitched the ball, a strike and a base stolen for second. Dog makes a small growl and a little start."Dooooon't" Mel growls back. The batter holds a tighter grip, the pitch, and a last minute change of hold on the bat makes a bunt and another base loaded. 

"COME OOOOON RITCHIE!" yells the team from the dugout as a hefty kid makes a couple tough practice swings. 

"GET BACK! GET BACK!" yells Ben to the outfield. Ritchie swaggers up to the plate. Dog's ears perk up.  

The ready, the pitch,"STRRRRRIIKE!" the catcher yells.

"Let's go batter!" taunt the boys in the field. 

Ben turns around to them, "SHUT UP!" then turns back. 

The ready, the pitch, the perk of Dog ear, "STRRRIIKE TWO!" 

"Come on batta batta batta!" mock the boys.

"I SAID, SHUT IT!" Ben screams as he pitched a wild one that gave Richie a ball and slammed against the back fence. Ben took a deep breath, relaxed his shoulders. Ritchie taps his cleats on the plate. 

The ready, the pitch, the perk of Dog ear, the PING! "NOOOOO" . Dog tears after the little grand slam gold nugget, Mel shouting, chasing after him.

Okay, that was probably more than I intended to share but oh well! Gotta get back to writing.

OH I'm REALLY Behind Now!

Only 1000 words laid down on the page yesterday. At least the first 700 words were flowing easy, but I could not for the life of me get to 1667 words last night.

What I did manage to accomplish was another PiBoIdMo idea and I got started on the final sketch before the oil painting of lil Red.

Because I like this image so much, I make make a final piece of artwork out of it. MAYBE, and it might be a picture book haha.

As for the Lil Red piece, I need to find a better way to scan! It is pretty big, square but big. Gotta find better ways to scan this one. 

I WILL post again tonight (I didn't post last night, I blame American Horror Story ) and type up another excerpt.

OI, another day of creativity. 

The First Day of Challenge Month!

The first day is almost done ( I still have 500 words to go to reach 1,667 words but I still have four more hours...) and I have one idea for PiBoIdMo though it is just the phrase "put some pizzaz on your pepperoni pizza" that seemed to stick out today. I'm fingering that story out at the same time I'm writing Lil' Red. 

During the weekend I was sketching to try to figure out the position of Mel for the contest piece as the sketch I have, this one, 

just wasn't cutting it. So I got my cousin to pose for me on the steps of my grandparent's camper while we went to our yearly halloween camping trip. 

I figured I could try a few more poses, one being me posing in a picture to how I first imagined Mel climbing through a hole in a fence and this is the other sketch I'm looking at for reference.

I haven't done a self portrait in awhile sheesh. I'll have more updates on this and hopefully I can complete this image I've been messing with for two months now...yeah. TWO MONTHS and I only have a SKETCH. Oi. 

PiBoIdMo Next Month!

So I've stopped the contests for now but I have plenty of work to do this month and the next.

This month I've been preparing for PiBoIdMo by gathering past ideas on notecards, sketchbooks, random pieces of paper or material...and mashing them altogether as a reminder that I DID come up with 30 picture book ideas in 30 days (no matter how good or bad haha) and can do it again!

I'm pumped!

Now for a challenge that I haven't tried before. I find this challenge super intimidating but of course that just makes me want to do it even more.

NaNoWriMo!!!

50,000 words in 30 days. AHHHHHH I don't know if I can do it...but, I think I can. Yeah, I CAN DO IT! I can complete BOTH.

Hahahahahahahahaha. Ha.

As for the blog background change, it's the gathering of notecards, scribbles, and pieces of paper with old ideas written down. I thought it appropriate.

Wish me luck! (I also wish all those out there working on either or both challenges!!!)

Officially going back to Draw it Again Material...

I had created these two images during PiBoIdMo for my small novel I'm writing. It turned out that these two images had given me another idea for a picture book. In the meantime however, I created this scene because it wouldn't leave my mind. It was stuck there forever unless I drew it down. So here it is, the memory lurker in the King of Everything's hall of memories.

All Done! (Also Post PiBoIdMo)

I'm finished! I completed 30 ideas in 30 days. I didn't post this yesterday because I was shellshocked at how I succeeded in the challenge, also because I was working for nine hours, though those hours of work helped me think of the last idea! (and a good idea I think)

So here is the scroll that I'll make into a book later this month. I still have pages left, and I can always unfold the accordion again and add more notes for future ideas.

Now to figure out what the heck I'm going to do with the unfinished ideas! I wanted to think of one story each day so I could work on that story the entire day, hoping I would be able to think of something to work with instead of random ideas and thoughts, though plenty of random thoughts happened I assure you. This didn't work out like I wanted but not because I couldn't think of ideas furthering the story. What happened was I would think of an idea, get stuck and leave it for the day. The next day I would think of another idea that would then lead me to more clues to the previous story. It was a build up, ideas happening because I just let each one sit. 

So I think I can easily say that because I focused on one idea a day, I managed to get a good 17 ideas that will make a good dummy, perhaps more if I work hard!

Almost There

Strange ideas come to mind but I'm rolling with them. I'm hoping they are my own strange ideas and not subconsciously borrowed as it would almost break my heart because they are personally influenced stories. Everyone has a different voice though, or so they say, so I'm going to keep at it. 

Here's some more doodles that had inspired me further, someday they'll be real illustrations ;)

Day 20

It's now day 20 of the challenge and I've come up with the ideas (thinking of the one for today) and realized that these idea might not all be picture books. Some I think can turn into middle grade reads while others I can see being both. I have so much more discipline with my art than my writing, so I need to fight past that and become used to drawing and writing every day. Still going to do my next month challenge with "The Nightlander". In the mean time, here are some sample images from the sketchbook, and trust me I will be drawing them again.

Day 17

So far I have 17  ideas! Don't know if they're good or not, well some I know are and some I know are definitely NOT. Today's idea came from another illustrator's image. Just one look at it and out came a hidden idea that I've thought about awhile ago but didn't act on simply because I thought that it wouldn't be as kid appropriate as it should. Then I thought, does it matter? Well yes, but I should just write it and THEN decide how to make it a bit more for kids. I'm super excited for the ideacI just hope it comes out as fantastic as it soars in my mind.

Another thought from this month was maybe I should write a scifi or horror. Most of my earlier stories lingered around these genres and the only thing that's stopping me is FEAR. I'm afraid of failure but if I don't try then I'll definitely FAIL.

So next month I'm having my own writing month, well a month that I really focus on getting "The Nightlander" started. I begun a draft then stopped because it didn't seem middle grade like I had in mind. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't but does it really matter at this point? No, I should just write the darn thing!

Day 12 update

Well, It's now day 12 and I've fallen behind! Only by one day so it shouldn't be too hard to catch up! The ideas come in waves, kinda like this little big sea monster here, ignored on occasion but once the idea is in sight I wonder how the heck I missed it. The note line on my wall is also going swimmingly. ;)

Day 4

Sketches! It's day 4 of PiBoIdMo and I actually think I could do something with the 4 stories I created within the time frame. I'm finding it difficult not to continue working on them and thinking of something else but so far I have kept up the work! He's a little bit of story in scribbles of a sketchbook that continued haphazardly on my note scroll. 

A String of Notes

That long white strip hanging from my wall is actually a string of notecards connected together by an accordion book binding technique. Why is it on my wall? Because of PiBoIdMo of course!

The best ideas always come from random life moments that I scribble in my sketch book. Lately I've been searching for time to complete my portfolios. I've found some here and there but no long hours of constant working like I used to in my senior studio in college. Is this due to the fact that my room is also my studio/library? Is it because I have two jobs now and no days off?

Or maybe it's just because I have a hard time focusing on one thing because there are so many other ideas getting in the way. I have found a solution!

These helplessly hanging notecards are just waiting for me to scribble all over them with ideas that I can briefly forget for the time being. Have an idea? Just write or draw it out on the notecard then move on. If I want to elaborate then I'll just use more notecard space and at the end of the month I'll bind it in my book of ideas. 

Pretty nifty and helpful for someone who has a hard time sorting out all the ideas that flash in my hyper active brain at once!

PiBoIdMo

I've cleaned my work space...to some extent, I have my materials organized somewhat, I'm quickly binding my idea book, and my inspiration haphazardly surrounds me. I think I'm almost ready for PiBoIdMo.

All I have to do is blog about it.

Hello all! For the next month I'll be writing on Draw it Again about my ideas for Picture Book Idea Month. It's my first year dedicated to writers month! And the blog's name matches the theme, yes I will be drawing these ideas over and over again in editing. I'll also try a hand at NaNoWriMo simply because I have a story idea that can't have a chance at getting published if I never write it...

For the next month I'll post sneak peeks and my struggles with ideas, hopefully some inspirational quotes and stories as well.