Blogging Challenge Day 15

I looked at the twitter feed briefly and found a picture someone posted which I love.  The metaphor is lovely and I’m a visual person, so I was inspired.  I plan on trying to make my own profile of books.

Today’s challenge directions said to take something already “done” and make it your own.  Although, I have little time right now to create my own book person, I thought I would share my current book profile.

I am revising a biography picture book, so I’m going back to the beginning and reading a whole bunch of biography picture books.  I zeroed in on sports figures and olympians, since that is a better focus for my topic.  But I also had the local librarian give me a few of her favorites- biographies that stood out in her mind.

When I first started writing in this genre, I had a person in mind.  I did background research on the person’s life and the significant contributions s/he has contributed to our world.  Then, I read.  Lots of picture book biographies.  I studied them for weeks.  I narrowed the list to my top 5-8 favorites and then I charted each book, page by page.  On the grid I made (by hand) I took notes on the story arc and anything else I noticed.  Then, I began my draft.

Going back to my revisions…after this version is “finished”, I’ll try submitting it again.  It’s close and has received some nice comments from a publisher and an agent. They gave me some suggestions to make the writing flow better.  I’m more than willing to listen and learn.

In addition, I located some picture books on the topic of our military to study.  I have another picture book in the works, not quite ready to submit, but close.  My goal by the end of the summer is to have both of these manuscripts actively searching for a “home”.