With the end of the A’s baseball season long behind us (*sob*), Season Ticket Diaries has wrapped for another year and it is time to shift my focus to different creative pursuits. My winter challenge for myself is to refocus my energy on children’s illustration and storytelling. As an artist, I’ve struggled with the confidence to write my own stories. I didn’t know where to begin and it always seemed so much easier to wait for the right author to come along with that perfect story that sparks my imagination.
But there’s a fine line between not knowing where to being and making excuses because I’m afraid to really try.
My art comes naturally to me as I’ve been practicing for most of my life. Writing has never been my focus in the same way and thus it is always a struggle to figure out exactly how to tackle it. This month though I’m challenging myself to push into the unknown. In the same way that I’ve given myself the time and space to develop my illustration skills, it’s only fair to allow myself the room to experiment, play, and practice storytelling with that same degree of freedom. Participating in my first PiBoIdMo challenge this month is the first step on my path towards that goal. This month I’ve set the following goals for myself:
- Feel empowered to embrace the title of “author-illustrator”
- Generate a list of story ideas/drawing prompts to pull from for those moments when I “don’t have anything to draw”
- Find one nugget of a story idea that I can refine and expand upon into a fully fledged picture book later this year
In my experience, creativity is all about recognizing your process and setting up your creative environment in such a way that will allow you to succeed. I’m a pretty orderly person and I’ve learned that I work best within a set of constraints. To prepare for PiBoIdMo, I developed a set of rules for myself:
1) Set an alarm and timebox your writing
I know that I feel like I’m at my peak creative potential around 10am, so that’s when my PiBoIdoMo alarm on my phone goes off. I give myself 10 minutes to get the idea on paper. The limited about of time means I have to be direct – no procrastinating or waffling about the concept.
2) No editing, no fear!
I’m challenging myself take the first idea that comes to mind when the alarm goes off and grab hold of it. Explore where it goes even if it seems silly. Leave the editing and the critical eye for December. November is for producing.
3) Set expectations and definitions
By defining what “counts” as a story idea I have a clear formula that I can easily fill out when my alarm sounds each day. For me this month one complete story idea means I’ve written out a beginning, middle and end plus one doodle that captures a storytelling moment from my idea.
4) Keep your tools close at hand
I always carry a tiny sketchbook that fits in my purse along with some sort of mark-making utensil. Along with having no excuse to procrastinate (I forgot my sketchbook at home!), I can look back through past doodles to spark new ideas!
That’s it! If you’re participating too, how are you defining success for yourself this month? If you’ve completed PiBoIdMo before, what worked for you? Are there any other illustrators out there trying to embrace their author sides?
