Halfway there?

Just a short update to say that I have made some progress on my story for February. There was a good question on the 12X12 Facebook group about how we find the time to write. For me, it is just a matter of deciding that it is time. I'm a stay-at-home dad with a lot on my plate, but I have the flexibility to move projects around.

So, this week, I just decided it was time to spend a little time on a picture book. Usually, I think about the picture books almost subconsciously, sort of like how some programs on your computer run in the background until a task is complete. Then they pop up and let you know they're done.

On Wednesday, my subconscious popped up with an alert that it was time to starting writing out ideas for a picture book. So, I sat down and I opened up two new MSWord files. I gave each the title of book concepts had been stewing in the back of my mind for a while now. Both are about cats.

This is because my youngest son loves cats. So, I had decided that I wanted to make February's picture book about cats. He had actually given me the title for one of these months ago, and together we had banged out a very quick story to go with the name. But I wanted to give it a real effort.

So, the two concepts were vying for control of February's project. But when I sat down and looked at both ideas side-by-side, one of them just jumped out at me. Character started to spool out of me.

I'm aiming for short, simple, playful sentences. I wrote about 250 words and so far, I like what I have. But I stopped because I realized there was no conflict yet.

My hope is that my subconscious will continue to work on the problem, and in the next few days I'll find a way for my main character to get into trouble and out of it again.