Tick-Tock, Don't Stop

I recently restarted the clock on some creative goals. No, not at 0000 hours. More like at "Hey, the clock says THIS is where I am, so let's go from there."

I'm taking this approach not because I'd ever stopped making progress. I just figure now is a good time to pivot away from the myth of my own making that I'm thismuch behind in anything and, therefore, somehow behind in Life. (Spoiler alert: I'm right on time, one that's mine alone to tell.)

And besides, doesn't catching all the way up signal The End? No one wants that.

So, I've hit a mini reset button and am taking a quick sec to feel proud of the many creative milestones I've already ticked off while also meeting and/or exceeding other life obligations and expectations.

I'm not stopping. Just taking everything step by step, minute by minute, day by day. 

Feel like joining me?

Getting Over Myself, One Milestone at a Time

I cracked open a new Morning Pages notebook today.

I'd been saving this one for when I reach a particular milestone in my writing work, but I woke up realizing that my mindset contributes to elevating that milestone to a level of preciousness I might decide I can't touch. Something I deny myself because I don't deserve it, or because reaching it means I have to let it go.

But guess what. This is just a notebook I like. I will use it now.

And the milestone? It's just one in the long line of career markers I've already passed. It is just one in the long line of future milestones I'll come to and love and move on from as I travel my long writer's-life road. I will stop holding the bloody thing so close to the bone now.

Another Picture Book Idea Month Has Come and Gone. Sigh.

Well, it's December 3, and that means November is no more. I've never done NaNoWriMo, but I do enjoy a good PiBoIdMo — the Picture Book Idea Month (aka November) that comes around every year now, thanks to founder Tara Lazar.

This was my third time participating, and I tallied my ideas on Sunday: 38 with 4 series in the mix. Not bad! I did come up with more in both 2011 and 2012, but still . . . 38 is not bad at all. It's good, even.

As I've already shared elsewhere, I announced my magic number to my husband with an enthusiastic "I win!" (note: anyone who makes it to 30 ideas wins this game, as well we all should) — and his immediate response was "Are you going to write them?" Of course he truly meant that in the most positive, encouraging way. But I admit to thinking (and then telling others, and now you) that I could have used a quick minute to enjoy my victory before launching an action plan for turning my little seeds into full-blown story gardens. Or something like that.

In any case, I will do this again next year and, I hope, every year — regardless of how long the event itself lives in the kidlit writers' community. It's such a fun challenge, and the benefits are tangible. The exercise is a great way to make yourself focus on idea generation, and I find that it also helps me come up with story ideas for different levels/audiences, as well as ideas for spicing up whatever I happen to be writing at the moment. Creativity begets creativity, and work begets work, and that's just the way things are.

How about it — did you do PiBoIdMo this year, too? I'd love to hear about your experience in the comments!