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12 x 12 May 2018 Check-In!

Ah, May. My favorite month. Springtime. Mother’s Day. My birthday. Bookended by the start of summer. I did a LOT of revising this month, and will continue that trend through June. I wrote a new draft in my head at the sink doing dishes, but since I haven’t gotten it down on paper yet, I’m not going to count it. Hopefully, I’ll get it in June. Nonetheless, feeling very creative and happy to be in the thick of revision, which is my favorite part of writing.

Now it’s your turn!

Tell us your progress. Did you complete a draft and/or revision in May? Let us know in the Rafflecopter and in the comments. Our prize comes from this month’s Featured Author Casey Robinson. Casey is giving away an autographed copy of her book IVER & ELLSWORTH. What a charming addition to any picture book collection!

Here is what you need to do to check in for a chance to win:

  1. See the Rafflecopter widget at the end of this post that says “A copy of IVER & ELLSWORTH at the top.
  2. Click on the “Comment on Casey’s post” button. Commenting on Casey’s post is mandatory for this giveaway and you can enter the Rafflecopter even if you didn’t write a draft this month. You can comment on the post here.  Click ENTER.
  3. Click on the “Wrote a PB Draft” button. This will ask if you completed a PB draft in May. If you did, click ENTER, if not, move on to the next step.
  4. Click on the last “Revised a PB Draft” button. This will ask if you revised a PB in May. If you did, click ENTER. If not, move on to the next step.
  5. That’s it! Rafflecopter will track your points.

You have until midnight Eastern on June 3rd to enter your results. Rafflecopter will draw a winner and it will be announced on the blog on June 4th.

You do not need to post your manuscript and/or revisions on the forum for them to count. If you wrote or revised a manuscript in May, even if it’s just on your computer where no one can see it, then enter the Rafflecopter below.

(Remember, monthly draft and revision badges are awarded separately from your Rafflecopter entry. Watch this handy tutorial to find out how to get your badges. CLICK HERE.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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25 Responses

  1. Sometimes it’s those meditative and repetitive tasks like dishes, that get our creative thoughts flowing! May was an amazing month! It was the first month of revising my verse novel for my agent and I met my deadline for her. I also had a chance to write a new pb draft and revise a past one. Looking forward to more writing, revising, and illustrating in the coming summer months!

  2. Wow, can’t believe it’s the end of May already. I wrote a bunch of first drafts, thanks to the Picture Book Writing challenge, and I’ve been working on revising one of them. And I’ve done quite a bit of revision on some earlier manuscripts, too.

  3. I have trouble when I do dishes and write a story in my head. Sometimes I get distracted before I can record it and lose the enthusiasm of the story, wondering why I thought it was so great. If it sticks with me, I know I have a go! Best of the best for your story in the next month.

  4. May was a revising month and query letter writing month for me. My May draft is written and I did a bit of Revision, but I’ve been focused on revising other Ms from last year and January – April so I can start querying. Wish me luck!

  5. I’m not flipping my calendar over to June because I still need it to be May! Alas, I didn’t pen anything new, but I critiqued a TON of tales, taught a bunch of kiddos and took a great PB writing course to push me along. That alone merits a badge, non? 😉 Here’s to June!

  6. Busy month for me too! I continue to work on 3 manuscripts currently out on submission. I entered these in the CANSCAIP contest (deadline May 31), attended the mini-CANSCAIP conference in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, writing submission letters etc, and working on a new manuscript… Loving EVERY MOMENT!

  7. I can’t believe it’s June already! I held my own in May and added a new rough draft from my Storystorm ideas. I also revised 2 of my picture books that I wrote for this year’s NaPiBoWriWee and revised 4 more chapters of my middle grade novel.

  8. The blog post this month was so inspiring and emotional. I loved how you came up with idea to write Iver
    and Ellsworth,and I love the book. Congrats to you and thank you.

  9. I wrote a draft and revised in May. May moved by us too quickly! Casey and Rob’s webinar is now one of my faves 🙂 Happy June everyone!

  10. I started researching a draft, but that’s as far as the new MS got. I revised a MS again and again and again this month. Probably even again and again.

  11. Went to a revision workshop at Highlights specifically to try and finish up a middle grade novel that has been taking all my time. Inspiration hit and I ended up, with help from a generous teacher there, revising three (!) picture books. Came home, finished and sent one out to an editor. Revised a 4th and started on a new one. Just goes to show you…you never know when or where inspiration will hit!

  12. I’m excited about my draft this month and great changes I made to last month’s 🙂

  13. May is usually my most productive month, and so far this year, that’s holding true, as I wrote three drafts.

  14. I had a very productive May. Finished a class with The Writing Barn on non-traditional picture books and finished a 6-week group critique on InkedVoices. I also participated in NaPiBoWriWee. So I wrote several drafts and spent a lot of time revising too.

    A very busy month for me! Thanks for sharing your progress.

    Jimmy

  15. I completed a few critiques for my partners in the Lyrical Language Critique Group—which I believe also benefits my own writing. No new drafts or revisions, but this is the time of year I like to soak up ideas for PBs while I’m outside enjoying the nice weather.

  16. This was a hard month for me to actually get my behind in my chair and write, but I knew I had a meeting with my critique group coming up on the first Saturday in June, so I got a new picture book written in May. And then I felt bad about sending a lousy first draft to my group, so I ended up doing two revisions to it also. I hope this counts for both activities.

  17. May is as full as December, but I managed to write another draft in 5 ” daily increments, much to my surprise. Thank you for providing structure and inspiration!

  18. Casey…loved reading your article….yes…be kind to yourself really is great advice… Thank you and congratulations…

  19. Very challenging month for many reasons. But writing and revising were great distractions. I won’t claim a draft this month, but I definitely revised the heck out of several manuscripts!

  20. That was a short month! LOL I did accomplish a lot, though. Worked on editing 3 PB drafts (I’m determined to get to the 12 by Dec). Split one draft into 2 separate types of stories. Submitted to my critique group. Wrote critiques. Sent a query. Wrote a character analysis for a new story. Whew. Glad it’s June.

  21. May has been a great month. I turned in a ms to an editor (not a submission, but a conceptual edit) and got so much great feedback. I am gearing up for a careful revision so am super excited! And I got to be at Casey Robinson’s launch at The Silver Unicorn, which was magical!!

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Interested in Joining the 12x12 Challenge?

Financial Need Scholarship Guidelines

All applications will be accepted via email only between November 1, 2023 – November 30, 2023 at kelli@juliehedlund.com.

Subject line of the email:

  1. 12 x 12 Financial Need Scholarship
 

Please include the following in the body of the email:

  1. An autobiographical statement and career summary in 250 words or fewer.
  2. A short statement describing the nature of the financial need/circumstances in 250 words or fewer.
  3. A sample query letter for the manuscript you are submitting with your application.
  4. Pitches for two additional completed picture books.
 

 Attached to the email:

  1.  The full text of one picture book manuscript, attached as a Word document named as FIN_YourFirstName_YourLastName_Title_of_Manuscript.doc (or docx).