You’ve probably heard of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), where writers try to get 50,000 words towards a novel (my sister is doing NaNoWriMo for the first time this year–go Rachel!).  I have never participated and I’m not going to this year either, for the simple reason that every month at my house is an obsessive writing month.  I can’t write 50,000 words in a month–it takes me two to three months to write that much–and I really can’t amp up my writing time any more than I already have.  I already write during preschool, during any classes my kids take, at night, and in random moments of spare time.  Every year I flirt with the idea of participating, and every year I have to face the reality that NaNoWriMo and I just aren’t MFEO.

Anyway, what I am going to try this month is to participate in Picture Book Idea Month, or, in NaNoWriMo style: PiBoIdMo.  The gist of it is that you write down one picture book idea a day throughout the month–not necessarily writing the picture book itself, but just getting the idea down.  I may not be able to squeeze in higher word count goals toward a novel, but one picture book idea a day for a month?  I’m pretty confident I can find a way to work that into my schedule.

Picture book author Tara Lazar runs PiBoIdMo through her blog.  If you’re interested in more information about it, try this post.  Registration is open through November 4th.  If you want to join the fun, go here!