Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Madly writing, but not here

As I said in my last post, I've been writing madly for NaNoWriMo and have been neglecting my lovely little blog over here. I'm about to hit 20,000 words, which seems like some sort of miracle in and of itself to me, but I still have 30,000 to go! Ugg! Jessi, meanwhile, has set a modest goal for herself for her first time of 6,600 words (as a kid she can set her own word goal) and is a day or so from reaching that already. That said, she has been able to devote quite a bit of time to this project, while I keep having pesky things like laundry, chauffeuring, and having to feed people get in the way. Often I finally sit down in the evening to write and I'm so tired, nothing good seems to come to me. Also, I think my blogging has set a pattern in my brain of trying to wrap things up quickly. I keep having to invent new situations with my characters as I resolve the old ones in a page or two.

Meanwhile, I have some lovely field trips and activities to report upon, but will do that as soon as I catch up to my daily word goal! Wish us luck on our latest creative endeavor! This is truly our year of trying to live creatively.

Friday, November 2, 2012

NaNoWriMo


Ok, it's official. I've been sucked into the craziness. I have joined the NaNoWriMo challenge. What is this you say? It stands for National Novel Writing Month. The idea is that you write like crazy for the whole month of November. At the end, if you are a grown up like me, you will have hopefully written 50,000 words or the equivalent of a full novel. If you are a kid, you can set your own goal (usually between 6,000 and 12,000 words for the month). I know people who did this last year and I thought, "There is no way! I don't have time to write that much. Besides, what would I write about?" Well, my daughter has decided she wants to do it, and if she can do it, I feel like I should do it with her. So, here we go! I gotta write at least 1,000 words a day and hopefully it won't be all horrible drivel. If I write a little less here on my blog, that will be the reason why! I've got a pretty good start, but I'm not sure I'll make it to the finish line. 

This is a great way to get yourself and the kids writing if they can take the pressure! I'll post back as we go and let you know how it is going. We both started today (yes, I know we are a couple of days late getting started... hopefully not a pattern to be repeated) and have each logged over 1,000 words of our new stories. Wish us luck!

In the meantime, if you'd like to join in, or just see what it's all about, you can check out the website. It's been a little wonky today. Hopefully they'll get it fixed soon and you won't have any trouble taking a look. http://www.nanowrimo.org. Registration is free and they can get you hooked up with other people writing in your area, and offer all sorts of tips if you get stuck. If you go to the "More From NaNo"button and click on Young Writers Program, it will take you to a page explaining everything a young person can do to get started... from setting their own goals, to entering portions for word counts, to tips on writing and setting up a story. Here is the direct link: http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/ywp.