I walked to the leisure centre with my son so he could climb, using a range of coloured plastic blobs, from the floor to the ceiling. He didn't climb back down. While he was hanging, neither moving down nor up, and being fairly unhappy about it, I saw the hook of a picture book dangling like a self-conscious spider: a gnome who lived near the top of the mountain, would probably think what he wanted most was to travel the world.
Gnoman
Gnomes had to live in far flung places:
mountainsides with ice-dripped face.
This is the tale of a restless gnome
and his travels from Mount Blank, his home.
This is the cave near the mountain peaks
where the gnomes all carved their castle keeps.
Gnoman clambered out and he sat on a rock
as he looked through the mist, he had quite a shock,
for there in the valley, so far below
the land wasn't white and the snow didn't snow.
"How I'd love to roam,"
said the gnome.
I'm thinking the Elders and Betters will do a lot to keep Gnoman at the top of the mountain but I don't see him hanging around. ;)
I'm on a high. I wrote the significant chapter for STARRING this morning and about three times more of my gnome inspired poem-for-a-picture book. I think it's going to be more than 500 words. This is bad, because most picture books are about 500 words long.
Gnoman has no love interest. When he finds the grass is greener should there be one person who calls him back? Do all stories need a romantic element?
It's more than 500 words now but I'll bet once you go back for edits, you'll be able to get it to the size you need. Very cool post.
ReplyDeleteHi Ivy
ReplyDeleteThanks for your encouragement.
I do love to edit - :D - but editing verse is the hardest thing.
Why is that?
ReplyDeleteHi Ivy
ReplyDeleteI love editing fiction - you can cut and paste and reorder until you love the flow. In verse one change and the rhythm is upset or the rhyme is trashed. Change one rhyme and you may need to alter all of them. :(
Thanks for explaining why you found verse hard. Understandable.
ReplyDelete