Ready, Set, Write

Allow me to digress (or perhaps progress?) from my "modern-schooling-rant" and share with you something fun that everyone can get involved with in the month of November.

The National Novel Writing Month (fondly known as NaNoWriMo) for Young Writers will officially begin on November 1, 2011. Actually, adults can participate, too (check out the main web-site).

In mid-September our cooperative learning group started making our way through the lesson plans (educators and interested parties can see them here). From protagonist, antagonist, and supporting character development, to plot set-up, the curriculum is fun, stimulating and formulated for several different grades and ages.

After the six weeks preparation, it will be time to start novel-writing on November 1! The focus is on quantity, not quality, until after the month is over. Everyone sets his/her own word goal. Many children in our group (in the middle school category) set their range anywhere from 8,500 words to 10,000 words, with some prolific writers setting their goals even higher. The point is to have FUN, and get creative. The voice inside you that says, "this isn't good enough" is our nasty "inner editor" and just for once, we get to rid ourselves of that nagging nay-sayer!

Preparing for the novel-writing adventure calls for some preliminary exercises that can be completed on a daily basis leading up to the big kick-off. For instance, one exercise calls for "setting and mood" development. It is one such exercise that compelled me to share. As usual the entertainment comes from my eight year old. The idea is to write about a setting, and then have someone guess where or what your setting is. Yesterday he wrote:

"There is chatting non-stop. Notes. A bunch of friends are talking to you. They're so cool you have to have a password to talk to them."

"Errr, a classroom?" I guessed. No. "A secret society, a VIP room?" No. Nope.

Here's the answer: ANSWER