November was among other things, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) during which writers attempt to write 50,000 words towards a novel. It is also Picture Book Month in which, everyday, a different picture book creator writes about why picture books are important.

I decided to take the hard work and dedication required for the first, and the inspiration from the second, to create my own challenge.

30 first drafts in 30 days.

I allowed myself to write a picture book, a contest entry, a magazine submission, a blog post, poetry, or anything else that lead towards improvement of my writing skills.

I did all of this.

After 30 days, I have 30 new pieces to work with.

With a little work (read – a lot of work), I will have a whole new batch of usable  pieces.

This wasn’t easy.

I do try to create every day, and for the most part I succeed. But the difference between simply doing some work every day, and creating something completely new is large.

I started the month with a list of possible topics. For the first few days, I ticked them off 1, 2, 3. But the list was quickly abandoned for fresh ideas. At this point in my writing, I don’t know why this surprises me, but it does. I have never spent much time without an idea, but every time I finish one, I worry about finding the next. Then suddenly I write something new.

I love creating something new every day, but it’s not something I can maintain for more than about a month. It doesn’t give me time to work on the drafts to turn them into something better.

Now I have some interesting new work, some things to submit to magazines, and the satisfaction of completing a difficult task.

My other big self-challenge for the year, reading 1000 picture books in the year is close to completion. Expect a big blog post (or several blog posts) about that soon.