Then life happened. And between one thing and another, I haven't had time to write down, let alone think of, a picture book idea in five days.
I wrote down my idea for today and then had much mental gnashing of teeth for the lost five days. Then for some unknown reason, I clicked over to my other blog (which I don't necessarily keep active) and saw that my one post that I wrote over two years ago FOR ME AND ME ALONE has about quadruple the number of hits as my next highest post. I so wrote that for me and me alone that I didn't even put any search labels on it. I just knew that I needed to have a post that would bring me calm just looking at the photos, which are of my personal haven. The photos wouldn't even mean anything or have any emotional impact to people who don't know the place.
So why the 1,200 hits? I don't have a clue. I'd be interested to know, but still, the purpose of that post was for me.
This got me thinking about my gnashing of teeth over my five day lull in PiBoIdMo. I'm participating in PiBoIdMo for me. My participation is for me and me alone. If I can keep up with an idea a day, that's great. If not, well, okay. It's just for me.
And to take this concept larger, the picture books (or MG or YA) I write should be FOR ME. They should speak to MY heart and give a piece of myself. If I write an idea because it was cute, fluffy, funny, it's a 'hot topic' at the moment or it seemed acceptable at the time, but it doesn't speak to MY heart and isn't a piece of ME that I am giving, I think there is far less chance that it will 'work'.
