In Which a Book Journey Is Shared (with Some Suggestions Sprinkled In)

Hello, fabulous 12 x 12 folks! I hope you are having a great start to the year and are inspired to learn, create, and share with the support of this wonderful community. In this post, I’m sharing my journey with my debut picture book, I DON’T WANNA HIBERNATE!, from idea to publication. I hope some of my experiences will be useful to you in your writing journeys.

I grew up on the writing of A.A. Milne—not just the Winnie the Pooh stories but his wonderful poems as well. I knew many of them by heart. It sounds terribly old-fashioned, but in my family, memorizing and reciting poetry was a thing. When we had big family get-togethers with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, some folks would play the banjo or guitar, and others (me included) would stand up and recite poems. Through endless repetition, the rhythms of those poems got stuck in my head and in my heart.

Suggestion #1: You don’t need to memorize them, but read your favorite picture books aloud, again and again. Ask a trusted friend, family member, or critique partner to read your own work aloud to you and listen to where it sounds great and where it sounds off. All of this helps develop your ear.

Fast forward several decades. 2019 was the first year I participated in Storystorm and the year I joined 12 x 12. I still have my Storystorm idea notebook from that year. One entry reads: “Twist on bedtime book: I don’t wanna hibernate. Baby bear doesn’t want to go to sleep.”

I let this idea sit for a while and didn’t start writing the story until late 2021. By this time, I was agented, and we had sent out several manuscripts to editors without success. I knew right away that I wanted the story to be in rhyme with a repeating refrain. I also wanted to include some backmatter about hibernation. In doing the research, I found that groundhogs, more than bears, are true hibernators. Since there are a ton of picture books about bears and not so many about groundhogs, it made sense to make the switch to writing about a little groundhog.

Suggestion #2: Know the market and think about where your book fits in, but include an element or two that differentiates your book from others on the same topic.

For inspiration, I reached back to the early childhood of my kids—neither of whom ever wanted to go to bed. They tried every delaying tactic—from asking for another story or a drink to claiming that their stuffed animals would be lonely. I thought about the words they said, the tricks they tried, and what they got away with.

Suggestion #3: If you spend time around young children as a parent, caregiver, teacher, or librarian, keep a notebook of the words and phrases they use and the things they do. This will come in handy for story ideas.

When I started drafting, rhymezone.com was my best friend. For every word you type in, this free website will generate a list of rhymes, near-rhymes, synonyms, homophones, and the list goes on. You can choose to search by syllables or letters and to include phrases or not.

When I had a finished, critique-group-approved draft, I sent the story to my agent. She thought the idea was cute, but something was missing. The rhyme and meter were so regular that it was putting her to sleep—and not in a good, bedtime-story type of way. She also thought that the ending needed work. Instead of the little groundhog suddenly changing her mind and falling asleep, why not include a twist? And how about a tie-in to Groundhog Day?

As so often happens with advice from my agent, my first reaction was: “No! I don’t know how to do this.” Instead of saying this out loud, I let the advice burrow into my subconscious for a couple of weeks. I also checked out a stack of rhyming mentor texts from the library and studied how some authors varied the meter at different points in the story. Finally, I got some new ideas.

I varied the meter with some short onomatopoeia verses. One of them (where the parents walk in to find the little groundhog jumping on her bed) goes like this.

            Suddenly, a thumpy thump.

            BOING!

            SPROING!

            JUMP!

I also added a couple of twists. When the parents are too exhausted to stay awake any longer, the little groundhog tucks them in. And yes, there is now a tie-in to Groundhog Day at the end. After I implemented my agent’s suggestions, the manuscript was a million times better!

Suggestion #4: It’s natural to want to reject critique suggestions at first—especially if they sound hard. But don’t be too quick to do so. Let the advice settle for a while until your brain can take it in and feels ready to act on it.

The next part was a whirlwind. The manuscript sold quickly, and after one round of light edits, illustrator extraodinaire Raahat Kaduji was ready to work her magic. It was a joy to see her bring the groundhogs to life!

The entire book journey, from idea to publication, took six years. There’s nothing unusual about that. The process of publishing works slowly, and often ideas need time to form fully. But with enough patience and persistence, we can all be successful in our writing journeys. In the words of A.A. Milne, “Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”