A Novel Idea

I had to make my son stop writing.  Did you hear me?  I had to make my son STOP writing!

This is the same child who once spent one hour in his classroom staring at a blank peice of paper, followed by a half hour inside from recess... staring at a blank peice of paper... followed by an hour in the guidance counsellor's office, you guessed it... staring at a blank peice of paper.

This particular episode of Ultimate Writer's Block culminated in an IEP where it was suggested Asher get tested for ADhD.

So what clicked?  What did I do to make his writing flower blossom, his inkpot overflow, his quill quiver, his keys click?  What is the secret to unleashing the inner author?

I don't know.  I didn't do it.  He did.

Well, he did it with the help of an advertisement in "Home Education" magazine for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), which happens to begin November 1st.  At 9:25pm, when we were all supposed to be silent reading in our cozy upstairs family room, my children turned into frenzied authors with a drive to tell their stories!

I helped Cady log onto the web site, www.nanowrimo.org.  We navigated the children's section together, she completed her profile, took out a pencil and journal and began to write.  The poor dear got 117 words before she crashed, curled up next to our dog on the couch.

Asher snapped my laptop away from me at the first opportunity.  He logged onto the web site himself, set up his account, perused the various sections on the kids pages, and then opened up a new document.  He played with fonts for a few moments before digging into the meat of his story!

Honestly, I thought he would get frustrated and peter out.  He didn't.  He kept going until he hit five hundred words, which is going to be his daily goal for next month's project.  He hit that five hundred word mark at midnight. 

With a face flush with pride, or perhaps monitor heat, he looked up and said, "Five hundred!" 

My heart filled with joy as he read me his story about a rich child super-athlete and how his life is momentarily disturbed by a green PBJ-hurling space monkey.  He happily and thankfully accepted my "professional" editing advice (advice, suggestion, NOT command- he was the author), which amounted to a "grammar-check," essentially just telling him when he should probably start a new paragraph or insert a comma before a quotation mark.  He also quickly learned how to utilize spellcheck and a few other Open Office Writer tools.

I'm not sure if it was the initial web page tie-in, the thought of "joining" a group (you can have writing buddies, get advice, and link it to other cool writing tools), or the simple fact that HE chose to do it that made him so excited. 

I'm pretty sure, okay I'm quite confident, that Cady was motivated by an opportunity to WIN something.  She's always been on the hunt for the prize.  (She's hoping for a stuffed animal.) But Asher... I'm not sure what his motivator was for jumping into the noveling experience.

Whatever it was, I'll take it. 

I'm just glad he was able to stay up until 12:20am to hit his goal. Lord knows I've done it a few (hundred) times.  There will be no stifling of literary enthusiasm here. 

Now I hope he keeps up this energy through the entire month of November, during which time we will be setting aside some other curriculum in order to focus on the novel-writing.  I, myself, decided to take the challenge alongside my children.

Cady pledged 6,000 (painstakingly handwritten) words in thirty days to complete her novel.

Asher pledged 25,000 words in thirty days to complete his novel.

I pledged (the required- for adults) 50,000 words in thirty days to complete my novel.

Wish us luck, and we'll see you when we come up for air.  Or coffee.

Check out the link here:  http://www.nanowrimo.org  Click on the Young Writer's Program.  From there you can download a complete workbook!  An excellent resource for your young budding author.  Or, ehem, yourself!  And the best thing is, it's FREE!