Friday Feature: NaNoWriMo

Colleen HroncichMy oldest child wrote a novel when she was 13. It wasn ’t very long, but it had a plot, dialogue, character development, and a conclusion that hinted at a sequel. We still have several paperback copies of her book, which she received after participating inNaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month.NaNoWriMo, which takes place each November, challenges writers to draft an entire novel in just one month. While you can do outlining, character profiles, and other planning in advance, the actual writing should start November 1. For my daughter, like many other participants, the 30-day deadline really spurred her to keep at it.NaNoWriMo ' sYoung Writers Program is specifically geared towards writers who are 18 and younger. At the beginning of the month, participants choose a word count goal for their novel. Middle and high kids sign a “contract” pledging that “notions of craft, brilliance, grammar, and spelling are to be chucked right out the window, where they will remain, ignored, until they are retrieved for the editing process.” Younger children have a simpler version of the contract. The goal isn’t perfection—Evi l Inner Editors are banned—but persistence and progress. Both contracts include celebrations at the end of the process.My daughter participated eight years ago, and the program has changed some since then. Unfortunately, the biggest change seems to be that they no longer send participants free paperback copies of their completed books....
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs