Reading and writing… and instilling a love for both was the reason I just spent a large chunk of my day at our local Waikino School, the primary for our area. It holds a special place in my heart, as both of my boys attended it from Years 1-6. 
Their lovely secretary invited me to be their Visiting Author for Book Week, so this morning I fronted up with my laptop and a pile of books. I was warned that there were a lot of horse crazy kids. Perfect for me, as I write horsey historical and contemporary fiction!
So much more than reading and writing
Imagine my pleasure to see the growth in the school, up to 65 pupils from the 40-odd when my boys were there. Their passionate teachers and principal provide an engaging education, strong in the New Zealand Enviro-School program.
Their unique school environment contains everything from bush areas where kids can build natural materials huts and learn bushcraft skills they’d normally never see at school, through a flock of chickens, all the way to an amazing garden, complete with homemade corners of wattle and daub walls.
The teachers combine all this with the NZ Curriculum to give learning pertinent meaning and encourage engagement, letting students use their reading and writing and other traditional school subjects with these very real, tactile, activities. Creating caring lovers of learning.
Makes me almost wish I could go back to primary school. All this provides a real meaning to l
earning. A bit more than the old reading and writing, and ‘rithmetic.
Reading and Writing: NaNo
Speaking of learning, their principal teaches the Ohinemuri Class of Year 4-6
students, and she kindly let me speak with them for a precious hour. They were a joy to work with–well-engaged and each clearly seemed to believe his or her ideas were valued, yet none of them were attempting to talk over the others. It spoke worlds about the wonderful teaching they’ve had. Thanks so much, ‘Kino teachers!
The kids and I discussed the process of writing, how I became a veterinarian, and then a writer. They wanted to see my books, which, of course, I’d brought, and they wanted a reading. I saved that for last. 🙂
I wanted the time before that to talk about NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program (NaNoWriMoYWP). The acronym stands for National Novel Writing Month for November and it happens online every November.
I told the students I’d used NaNoWriMo (the grownup version) to write A Sea of Green Unfolding, the book which was to have been Book 2 in The Long Trails series… but became Book 3. A story for another time…
Their teacher, by this time in my talk, had already registered their classroom on the NaNo-YWP website and was hooked in! The kids were ecstatic!
What’s the most important thing to writing?
(Other than writing about horses???)
One student asked me what I thought was most important when writing a book. This tied in nicely with what, for me, is the main function of NaNoWriMo… to learn to just write.
My answer? Get the words down on the page, however you want to do it, longhand (as I do, with a mechanical pencil), on a computer, or with voice to text.
I told them about the phenomenal numbers of people who’ve told me they’ve been working on a novel for years. And they are still on the first chapter… because they keep going back to “make it perfect”.
This (surprise, surprise) holds you back from achieving… much of anything. If you’re willing to make mistakes, you’ll truly get somewhere!
As several successful authors say, including Nora Roberts and Jodi Picoult, “You can’t edit a blank page”. Nothing could be more truthful. I even wrote the quote on the board in my abysmal handwriting. So much for being a trained teacher. They simply couldn’t fix my handwriting.
But there’s more to life but nice handwriting… and now I use my abysmal handwriting to write novels. Long ones.
But I digress.
So, who’s doing NaNoWriMo?
For you kids out there, it’s the NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program. Your teacher or group leader can make you a private classroom and help you keep on track to the goals you set for yourself.
They have some great graphics, and as you add your “word count”, or the number of words you write on YOUR OWN story each day, NaNo plots it on graph for you AND for your whole class. It offers great visual images of how closely you’re matching the goals you and your combined classroom members have set. It’s a lot of fun and I think you’ll love it.
For you grownups, there’s NaNoWriMo. You can set your own goals, but it has a minimum of 50,000 words for the month of November. It, too, has fun graphs charting your proximity to your goals, though not in so many enticing colours as those found in the NaNo Young Writers Program.
50K sounds like a lot. When life gets in the way of writing, it can get hard. But what of value is not hard? It sure teaches you to just write and not go back and edit until you’re through! An invaluable lesson for anyone who thinks they might “want to write”.
How many words is that per day? It’s 1666.66 words/day, about five of my handwritten pages, which is also about five double-spaced typed pages.
So, What are You Waiting For?
Looking for a challenge? Love reading and writing? Always wanted to write a book? Go to your appropriate NaNo page (NaNoWriMo or NaNoWriMoYWP) and get started! You have five days to plan that story.
Ready, set, GO!!!!!!
Back to my students…
They wanted a reading from one of my stories, so I read from an exciting part of A Long Trail Rolling, in which Aleksandra is flying down the side of a hill on a Palouse Pony Express stallion she’s never ridden before… while trying to evade arrows…
Now every student in the room understands what a “hook” is at the end of a chapter. They all want to read it now. 🙂
The Story:
She didn’t expect to become a target…but she is one now….
Disguised as a Pony Express rider, Aleksandra is alone and fleeing through 1860s Utah, hoping to keep her father’s killer from discovering their family secret.
Xavier’s kept the world at arms-length since he ran from his troubles as heir of his Californio rancho family. It doesn’t take him long to discover his new rider-recruit is a girl—one he might like to let get close.
They finally start to let each other in, but the cards are stacking against them in an ever-worsening situation. Can they learn to trust each other in time to escape the Indians on the warpath, evade the killer, and win through to safety?
Have a great week, all.
xx
Lizzi Tremayne
Waikino School images on this page credit to http://www.waikino.school.nz/
NaNo images courtesy of National Novel Writing Month.)
