A new post a day challenge – and wimping out

So. This is what I’ve been avoiding writing about. Now I’ve limbered up a bit, it’s time to tell you about it.

I had lots of intentions to spare you all the sometimes over-hectic posting that once a day can bring. I was going to do the sensible thing – plan the posts, store them up, let them out little by little.

Then someone in one of the online groups I’m part of mentioned this: November as Picture Book Idea Month. PiBoIdMo, for those who need to know. And I realised this was the kind of challenge I was interested in.

So what did I do? I wrote several brilliant posts in my head, on the way to school pick-up, and neglected to write them down. A day went by, another day or two. It was easy to let the time build up.

Then the words came back to me for a bit, and I decided I might as well confess my wimping out, and do something about it. (Writing can be a virtuous circle: start back in, and the words will sidle up of their own accord, glad that you’ve notice they’ve been there all along.)

It doesn’t take much knowing of me, or reading this blog, to understand that I love picture books. Junior Reader may be scaling equally important heights of chapter books (or is just starting into doing that solo), but I’m grateful that there are still plenty of opportunities for picture book reading.

To be honest, there was plenty of picture book reading even before, in the twosome days. We would give each other picture books as presents. I would seek them out second-hand and scoop up the good ones.

I would indulge in 3 for 2 offers so that I could keep the (free) picture book, after giving others. And I still believe the best present you can greet new parents with is a picture book for the wee one. And in fact, for the next wee one after that. (With maybe a book to let the older one know they are still important.)

Coming back to the lovely PiBoIdMo, the extra thing you need to know here is that the focus is on ideas. Not finished books. That too felt like a good place to be – generating ideas. Not getting bogged down in what might or might not work, for now.

So why the wimping out? The difficulty began when I started to think about the publishing of picture book ideas.

1) Would others steal them, and publish first? (Not that I worry regularly about others stealing my ideas, but there was something particularly worrying about the possibility of them stealing a picture book idea.)

There is a certain arrogance to this, I realise. But I have seen enough poor quality picture books – as well as, thankfully, many magnificent ones – to know that it is not necessarily easy to write a good picture book. And I would want to write a good one, you see.

2) Would people like them? Ahh – that was the point at which I pushed the knife in further, and started to turn it. Because even putting your ideas out there can feel like a step too far, if you are afraid that others will not like what you come up with.

Fear of failure – not a new notion. But fear of failure in relation to something you love – much harder.

And yet. Here I am, writing about that possibility of failure. And still hoping that you might read those ideas. Maybe even, tell me what you think of them.

Just because you care about something doesn’t mean you avoid doing it. It’s probably an even greater reason to go ahead and do it. And of all the things I say I want to write, picture books are probably at the top of the list.

Really, what I hope as I put these posts up, little by little, is that I hang on to the excitement that is there when the ideas are still in my head. The sense of step by step, of peering round the next corner, and hoping to find something amazing there.

Children’s books are all about that. The fully everyday. The entirely unexpected. Often coexisting happily on the same page.

What if I could just enjoy the ideas? That would be worth it on its own.