Lauri Meyers .

The leaves are turning red, zombies are roaming my neighbor's yard, and I'm wearing my gray writing sweater every day, it must be... PiBoIdMo time! Logo by Vin Vogel This is my third Picture Book Idea Month, and I am primed and ready to fill another notebook with ideas inspired by fabulous daily guest posts. But I'm not sure my muse is ready. She's having a really hard time adjusting to back to school. Just because I have a tiny bit of free time, doesn't mean she's no longer needed. Tara Lazar (whose sixth picture book just sold, btw!) posed a question about how a writer can summon their muse. I always revert back to my corporate training in flowcharting when it comes to questions like this. Easy Peasy! Enjoy spending the month of November with your muse, and the fresh smell of unicorn rainbow gas.  UPDATE: I won a guest posting spot on PrePiBoIdMo from Tara. SQUEE! Read the final post here along with Summoning Your Muse with amazing illu...

Thank you to all the participants in the Mentor Text Challenge. Remember mentor texts are an excellent defense against writer's block, lack of inspiration, and all sorts of writer's ailments. We have a challenge winner (selected by Random.org): Marcie! She has won a 2013 PiBoIdMo Journal and the warm touchy feeling that comes with knowing $3 goes to support Reading is Fundamental !  Marcie grabbed the book A Storm Called Katrina  and selected its first person narration style to apply to a WIP.  (Marcie - If I can't find you, email me at laurimeyers (at) gmail.com!) If you've been following along on the Mentor Text Posts, you deserve a prize for your commitment to studying craft. So just for you...  Excellent Resources for KidLit Nerds RenLearn  Type in the title of a book and get its book level, word count, AR points, etc. Scholastic  Type in the title of a book and get its grade interest level, grade reading level, and theme/su...

I like to write a "companion" post for PiBoIdMo every year. Last year's Match Up Mash Up game spurred PB ideas faster than a cowboy at a rodeo. This year since we've been talking mentor texts to learn craft, study word counts, and improve read-aloud-ability, I want to highlight another great use for mentor texts:   Cheating! No, no, no. Not plagiarism - but as a springboard, a starting point, a puzzle frame, a make-your-own-sundae bar... pick your favorite metaphor. Does this guy look worried about stealing a little bread? Heck, no! Just have a little nibble... (By Roman Olmezov via sxc.hu) You can try straight substitution. Take Kevin Henkes' Little White Rabbit , where a rabbit wonders what it would be like to be a different color, have different locomotion, or be a different size. Replace the rabbit with another animal or person or thing (we allow personification of inanimate objects in this neck of cyberspace.) What desires would this new ...

PiBoIdMo is over!   I have over 30 lovely picture book ideas just waiting for me to write them. I immensely enjoyed my first Picture Book Idea Month hosted by Tara Lazar at Writing for Kids While Raising Them.    Each day in November a writer or illustrator posted advice, experiences, and inspiration to light a spark for participants gathering story ideas.  It got me thinking, daydreaming really, about being famous one day (as I sometimes do to gain inspiration ).  What would I write in my PiBoIdMo post?   How would I inspire others to develop ideas for children's stories?  I loved the idea generator posts the most including the idea mash up by Diana Murray  and brainstorming in themes by Corey Rosen Schwartz .  So, here's my suggestion.  Write a picture book "like ( fill in celebrity) would write."  Some of my friends are anti-celebrity book, so I'm not suggesting celebrities literally writin...

     Long drives usually make my eyes glaze over with boredom, but on the way home from the holidays I jumped at the opportunity because it meant a break from being the wet nurse for the back seat drivers.              "Mommy I can't find my nugget!" they screamed.      "Sorry, Mommy's driving," I beamed.               Happily, I let my mind go blank.  White.  Empty.   My New Happy Place! Eye by Vjeran Lisjak &  Wheel by  Melinda Bylow via sxc.hu      But the stillness was short-lived, because lots of happy little picture book ideas came to visit.  The unruly fellows yelled out their stories at the same time.         My husband was busy combating a barrage of flying crayons, so I fired up my  Dragon Dictation  app.  I was too excited to recite calmly, and ended up with a...

Day 10 of PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) brought a great idea from Diana Murray to try a mash up of ideas to create fresh new picture books.  To add structure to this inspiration, I decided to create the Birthday Mash Up Match Up Game!   How to Play:  MASH 'EM! By Miguel Saavedra There are two lists below.  Find your birth month in the first listing and grab the corresponding classic golden book.   Find your birth day from the second listing and grab the corresponding movie.  Then select any elements of the stories - characters, plot, key word in title, etc. -  and mash 'em together.  The idea could be for a picture book or for whatever genre you prefer.   For example, my birthday is December 5.  So I mashed up The Saggy Baggy Elephant and Titanic.  (Oh crapplesauce, how in the world am I going to do that?)   Okay, okay...here goes. S.B. Elephant is the biggest elephant in the plain...

     While the power was out last week, I suffered a recurring zombie dream.   Being cut off from television and internet lets your imagination loose in the dark streets of your light-deprived mind.           One particularly cold night we stayed at a friend's house.  I was lulled to sleep with the sense of security the loud hum of a generator provides.  At 1:30 in the morning the generator cut.  And my body froze in place:         Oh no, the zombie attack is happening. Saltwater from the hurricane must have made subway rats sick, spreading a virus to humans.  The sound of generators will decrease each day until only silence and zombies remain.  copyright H. O'dowd       Luckily, we got the generator back on without major incident.  And then my friend did something amazing.  Since she couldn't run in the NYC Marathon (cancelled), she organized a lo...

I love when my 4-year-old says something random or annoying or demanding or crazy, and I say "that could be a picture book."   This happens pretty regularly, but every once in a while it really develops into something.  I expand on the idea a couple sentences, "so the princess turns into a cat who barks. Then, what happens?"  1 out of 3 times my daughter comes up with something great.  The other two times the princess just eats a peanut butter-Nutellla sandwich or lets an echoing fart.  (What she would do in the situation.) By Ramunas   Geciauskas via Flickr Then I scribble the idea in the medium of crayon on construction paper or marker on hand...whatever is handy.  A solid scrawl of an idea is about 250 words.   Usually it starts with "once upon a time" or something along those lines.  A thing happens.  The story ends.  The middle is a mushy stew of dot-dot-dots.  The first draft is a story, not a pic...