NaPiBoWriWee: A Picture Book Writing Contest

You have until Thursday May 7 11.59pm PST (that’s tomorrow night for you West Coast) to complete 7 picture books to honor the National Picture Book Writing Week initiated by Los-Angeles based author Paula Yoo. I just learned about the NaPiBoWriWee on Facebook through Chris Eboch today, at Day 6 of the 7-day contest. How’s that for an incentive? Writing contests are great because they have the chopping block advantage. It’s all about deadlines. I like the kick in the butt that screams “Come on now, stop procrastinating. It’s writing time.”

News from Ms. Yoo’s contest actually came on an auspiciously scribbly day. This morning at the DMV, I had to wait over an hour to ask for a car sticker. When I have that much time on my hands, writing is a therapeutic exercise. I took my notebook out of my bag and started scribbling away. I had been swimming in the rain at Brisbane’s Community Pool so I started with a rainy rhyme: I went to swim under the rain, In the lovely city of Brisbane.

Looked at it. What would Brisbane folks think of a rainy rhyme? While better than insane or plain, it’s not as great as mane. Scrap the rain. I swam with Ben’s hen in the city of Brisbane. A little absurdity doesn’t hurt, but why exclude nearby communities? In the Bay Area, it’s all about being local. I picked my brain until number B080 came up.

I swam with Ben’s hen in the pool of Brisbane. I surfed with Doug’s frog in Pacifica’s fog. I hiked with Paco’s buffalo is San Francisco’s Presidio. I biked with Mel’s snail on San Rafael’s trail. I climbed with Maddox’s fox at Berkeley’s Indian Rocks. I took Ming’s red-winged bird iceskating at Santa Rosa’s ring.

Tough to find an animal that ends in -ing… Fortunately, B080 came up before I slaughtered Larkspur (that I wanted to rhyme with vulture) and Mill Valley (rhyming with osprey). Oh well. That’s my notes of a DMV morning.

And yes, I’ve completed a picture book manuscript today. It’s called Bad Hair Day. With a title like that, I can already see it climbing the ladder of the New York Times’ children’s books best-seller list.