Ideas

As I've mentioned before, for the month of January, I am participating in Tara Lazar's Story Storm. The premise is to come up with at least one idea for a story for each day of the month. As the month draws to a close, I am excited to share that I already have over thirty ideas and have also managed to write four picture book first drafts.

Talk about feeling euphoric! Besides coming up with an idea every day, Miss Tara scheduled a different author or illustrator to post an article on her blog about how to garner ideas. One of the tips was to take something ordinary and put a new spin on it. Another tip was to ask yourself what if. And I did both.

Last week during Emily's birthday party, the girls played hide-and-seek. So I began to take phrases from the game and ask myself what if. I came up with what I hope is an interesting and viable picture book story. And while only time will tell, I am pleased with my progress and I am so very glad to have participated!

But never fear, I still made time to read and review an already existing picture book called, A Well Mannered Young Wolf. This story was not what I expected and the ending was quite funny. The well mannered, but hungry wolf, goes hunting for something to eat. several times he catches prey but something always goes awry. I don't want to give away too much, so I will suffice to say this book is definitely worth a read.

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. Also be sure to drop by Literacy Musings Mondays for more great blogs as well as my personal website Fun With Aileen where you will find more on reading, writing, and my very own chapter and picture books. And finally, you can find me on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.