YWP NaNoWriMo { She's a Winner! }

November 1st began with squeals of delight from my sweet young girl as she found her Hello Kitty notebook and new pencils waiting for her to begin her very first NaNoWriMo through the Young Writer's Program.

 

For the first week, she couldn't wait to write everyday.  On school days, she got busy on her homework just to be free to put her pencil to paper and whittle her story, A Girl Who Lived on an Island Alone.  On the weekends, she often wrote before I even got up.

 

The second week held just as much excitement as the first.  By the third week?  She hit a speed bump and lost some interest.  I wavered between encouraging her to keep at it and not wanting to take away any of her joy in writing.  In early elementary school years, personally, I think it is more important to keep kidlets excited about telling stories than it is to drill in a daily writing habit.

 

And with the end of November rapidly approaching, she began writing again.  A secret smile plays on my lips when I see her smile as she writes her tales.

 

Today is November 30th and my sweet li'l girl entered her story to verify and validate and...

WIN!!!!

 

 

She won her very first NaNoWriMo and I sincerely hope there are more writing experiences we can share still to come.  And every time she grabs her special NaNo Hello Kitty notebook throughout this coming year, I'll be wearing my secret smile.

 



December Daily

December Daily.

 

I tell myself, year after year, to jump in and document December's tale.  Last year, I recorded some of our December stories...though, they never made it into an album of sorts.

 

The whole idea behind #DecemberDaily is to document the traditions and stories occurring throughout our days this coming month.  Ali Edwards creates foundation pages before the first of the month to streamline the process.  And then simply adds photos and words for each day of the celebratory month, documenting both the big and little things life offers.

 

And while it is last minute...again...I can't help but be infected by the enthusiasm for the project shared across the blogosphere, Pinterest, twitter, flickr, and Facebook.  It's as if social media has lassoed me and is pulling me in.  How can I resist sweet family memories and glittery, shiny Christmas bling?!

 

Do you document your stories?  Do you document December differently than other months through the year?  Do you December Daily?  Yes, it's a verb. ;>

 

I've collected a few links from around the interwebs for #decdaily inspiration:

 

Ali Edwards December Daily pages, of course.

 

December Daily 2012 Flickr group.

 

Becky Higgins shares a delightful compilation of Christmas traditions from her readers.

 

Elise Blaha's 2011 holiday minibook is full of inspiration & she has assembled minibooks in her shop too.

 

A Pinterest search always yields oodles of ideas.

 

And remembering to actually use my own Christmas Pinterest Board is nice too.

 

So, where is December taking you?  Go!

Six Words { Write }

Write today.
Write tomorrow.
Write away.

 

~ Check out SMITH for more Six Words. ~
~ Today is the first day of NaNoWriMo! ~

YWP NaNoWriMo

There once was a wee girl who whittled words across the pages of any notebook she could lay her hands on.  When her mother click clacked across a keyboard, she ran for her own pages to wind words around whatever story that whittled itself through her imagination.

 

As her mother began thinking about what story she would write come this year's NaNoWriMo, this wee girl madly wrote her own adventure.  And her mother entertained the idea that flickered in front of her as she watched her daughter write her tale.

 

Could this wee girl join her mother for NaNoWriMo this year?

Yes!  She can and that's exactly what this wee girl, my wee girl, is going to do on Thursday!

 

She is using the Young Writer's Program (YWP) from NaNoWriMo.  And while she's not doing this with her class or anyone in her school, she's going to write her words while I write mine.

 

While working in her YWP workbook for elementary school age kidlets, she turned to me with such excitement in her eyes.  "Can I do NaNoWriMo next year too?" She gushed with pure excitement bubbling over.  And of course, I told her, "Yes! You can do NaNoWriMo every year for the rest of your life, if you want."  Two beats of silence and my wee girl with golden pig tails bounced up and down, "I can??!! Yahoooooooooooo!!!!"

 

So. Unbelievably. Awesome. 

 

We're still picking a word count goal for her.  The last story she wrote, taking a little over an hour or so to write, almost met the high end word count for her age.  So we're going to pick something a little higher in order for it to be something to write towards over the month.  But obviously don't want to make it so high, it's unachievable.  An achievable challenge is the goal.

Thursday, November 1st - the first day of NaNo, my wee girl will wake up to a fresh new notebook with a special pink mechanical pencil tied off in a bow waiting for her words to fill the pages.

 

Tick. Tock.  It's almost here!

NaNoWriMo 2012

It's that time of year again.  No, not the witchy-warlock, sugar induced day we're creeping up on.  Though, come Wednesday, there will be a li'l witch, a grave ghoul, a grown man in a scary mask named Uncle Charlie, and a woman with a pointy witch hat donned for Halloween.  But, it's the day after, November 1st, that I'm talking about.

 

It's NaNoWriMo time again!

Come Thursday, I'll be click clacking the keyboard down the ol' wordy bunny trail.  I followed the trail part of the way last year and am looking forward to what I find along the way this year.

 

If your not familiar with NaNo, simply put, it's a whole lotta people from around the globe, all writing a new fictional novel with a frenzy, attempting to write their way towards 50,000 words in 30 days.

 

Last year, I 'pantsed' NaNo - started writing with merely a brief, vague idea of a story.  I swore I would be a 'plotter' this year and outline what I want to write ahead of time.  And while I've been working out some story ideas, I'm still short of an outline.  Truthfully, I'm still short of a decision about which story idea I actually want to write.  I have three I'm darting between.  All three are different genres.  But, come November 1st, there will either be family drama, a consciousness transfer, or a woman running for her life.

 

Have you ever whipped words together for NaNoWriMo in years past?  Are you participating this year?  If your writing, do you know what words you'll be wicking together?