Kids and Writing – Pass it on.

It’s November and that means NaNoWriMo is off and running. What is NaNoWriMo?  It’s an organization that promotes writing a novel of 50,000 words or more in one month. Last year (2010), over 200,000 people signed up for the challenge and more than 37,000 succeeded.

Today, I had the great pleasure of visiting the 4th and 6th grade kids at Loomis Basin Charter School to talk about writing. Their classes accepted the challenge to write-a-novel-in-a-month and seem eager to experience the process. That’s a tall order for first-time novel writers.

Let me tell you, these kids were wonderful! Bright. Inquisitive. Motivated. Every one of them had that special twinkle in the eye that comes from a love of learning and enthusiasm for challenges. It will be fun over the next few weeks to read their ideas and help them grow as writers. On one hand, I would love to encourage a future Hemingway or Mark Twain, but, to tell the truth, I’d be just as happy to have every child achieve a personal “best” and enjoy the creativity that writing evokes.

For me, writing is a passion that stimulates the mind, challenges the spirit and results in immeasurable satisfaction when a “project” reaches completion. That said, nothing could be more fun and rewarding than to cultivate that same love for writing in eager young minds. Thanks to Justin VonSprekelsen for asking me to visit his school. And, thank you to the 4th and 6th students at Loomis Basin Charter School. It was fun talking about the writing process. See you in a week or two!

edit:  Shame on me! In my blog, I forgot to recognize the initiative and hard work of the 4th and 6th grade teachers in providing this wonderful, creative opportunity to their students. Kudos to the teachers for this decision and taking elementary school education to a higher level...you folks are great!