kid lit nanowrimo discussion and support

xin li

@Braden-Hallett I am thinking about picture book, age group 4-8. (but I know my daughtor loves a lot of book in that age group, even though she's 2,5 years old).

peteolczyk

@Braden-Hallett Hi Braden, at the minute I'm writing with my ten year old girl in mind. She loves the humour of the Mr Gum series and Andy Stanton books. (They're illustrated by Dave Tazzyman who is well worth checking out too.)
I'm going to try a couple of your prompts next with my 6 year old boy in mind.

Heather Boyd

Story 3
*Note: I couldn't get the entire 433 words on Corel Painter (kicked me out 3 times) so for Instagram they are getting a snip, but you guys get the whole thing because I like you guys. lols

Unknown to Sebastian, his parents had planned a surprise for their son. They have known for over a week that rain was expected to downpour during his birthday. Sebastian loved the beach and every year he went with his family to enjoy celebrating the day; building sand castles and searching the rocks for crabs. He joined the crabs in the clapping when he found one.

It rained and rained, day after day. Now the streets were not flooded, the drains did their job well. But everything was wet and would be for tomorrow. Sebastian's mother tried to comfort him and gave him something to help him sleep. Sleeping on his bed under his window, the sound of rain, the droplets falling fell away as he dreamt of warm sunny days.

His parents got busy; Sebastian could sleep through anything and his parents took advantage of this.

Now when Sebastian woke up, he did not need to look out the window to see whether the rain had stopped. He pulled over his bed covers and started to cry.

“No, no, no, I asked for no rain. You don’t care about me, why do I bother praying,” he cried.

Sebastian had started to move around under the covers quite a bit and his mother heard him up.

“Sebastian, get up! Your father and I have a surprise for you. Come into our room to see!” his mother loudly spoke from down the hall.

Sebastian could not see how anything would get him out of bed. So he ignored his mother and stayed angry at God.

His parents waited and then his father spoke loudly, “Sebastian! Take your head out from under your covers; we know you’re up. I promise you will love this surprise.”

Sebastian peeked over his covers and all he could see out the window was the rain.

“Rain, rain, go away…” he mumbled under his breath.

He squeezed his eyes closed, and scrunched up his face in protest.
But then he remembered what his parents had said. In one breath he turned over his covers, and placed his feet on the floor. His face turned from grey to the brightest shine! His frown turned to the largest grin he ever had. His bedroom floor was covered in piles of sand. All around his room and even under his bed. His door was left open a foot and he leaned over to see sand down the hall to his parent’s room.

He looked out the window and it was still raining, but the rain did not bother him as much as it had.
-Heather Boyd

Thank you,

MOO

Am I loading my stories on the wrong thread? Just wondering. Thanks.

Heather Boyd

@Marsha-Kay-Ottum-Owen I don't know, I just copy and paste and edit it (parag) and submit.

Heather Boyd

@peteolczyk said in kid lit nanowrimo discussion and support:

the Crackled Crannock Crator Cronk from planet Crunk

first I skimmed over then I gave it a stab lols

Heather Boyd

@neschof I'd like to know how they made it out... lols.

braden H

@Marsha-Kay-Ottum-Owen said in kid lit nanowrimo discussion and support:

Am I loading my stories on the wrong thread? Just wondering. Thanks.

Sure

People can post if they want to or not. I'm writing, but I'm not going to be posting much writing.

Heather Boyd

@Braden-Hallett how do we know your writing then. Just kidding

MOO

PROMPT 4
My name is Jeremy Brown and there is an elephant sitting at my desk. There is also a monkey by the window, a snake curled up in the trash can, and a tortoise under my feet. My “school” is at home with my parents and all these animals. Today we are looking for our little lost goat He is very small and wanders around eating the grasses and bleating for his Mama. My Dad hid him from us so we could learn to do tracking. It will be useful for me to know. Later we will go to the shore and do math using shells and writing in the sand with a stick while we fish and hunt for edible plants. My favorite part of school though, is cooking. Because I am always hungry.

We have been stranded in this place since I was about three years old. We were on a boat in a storm and we crashed here. Now I’m 6 years old. I don’t know any other life than this one. I can’t remember very much at all about the other place we lived. The only people I see are my parents. They tell me that out there across the ocean there are more people than I could count! I guess I had many friends there when I was small. I do remember one called Benny. He had orange hair and he laughed a lot. I think we played together. Also, I have a grandmother and grandfather there. I remember that they really liked me a lot and it was fun to visit them but, I can’t remember what they look like very well. Mom and Dad want to leave this place someday soon. I’m not sure I want to go! It is a nice place here. The sun shines, there are plenty of animal friends and we have a cozy hut to live in. My friends are the animals here. At least, most of the animals. I have been taught which ones to look out for and the other animals are good at warning me when a hunting animal, or predator, is near. They protect me so I am not afraid.
My parents have been drying fish and fruits and storing them. They are trying to build a boat that will be very big and strong so that we can survive on the ocean because they don’t know the way home and they said it might take a long time. They saved some things from the boat that they can use. They also made some fishing baskets and some big knives in case we need to fight off a shark! They are still learning about boat making. And how to make clothes and baskets but they are pretty good. They are a lot better than they used to be. And they are watching the stars at night and making charts. They hope to be able to read the stars like a map to find our way to some land where there are other people. I am learning how to read and write english words and numbers. I like words best. We don’t have any real books but we have figured out how to make some paper and we can make ink out of ashes and fat. I am making a book of the alphabet. That’s my schoolwork. It’s kind of hard right now but I will get better, they say. I am making pictures of animals and writing their names right now. My Dad helps me spell the words right. It’s a little smeary but I have lots of time to work on it. I have an idea to use tree sap for ink...I haven’t tried it yet. Mom says it might be very sticky and that mixing things up together is called chemistry (or cooking if it’s food).

So, that’s why I have an elephant sitting at my desk. By the way, my desk is a half of a log on some rocks. We made it ourselves because we are survivors and Mom says that is what survivors do.

to be continued.......someday

braden H

@Heather-Boyd :smiling_face_with_open_mouth_closed_eyes: lol

eriberart

I joined in yesterday for the Jeremy Brown prompt, but I think posting it for me is out of my comfort zone! Writing is not my strongest point :smiling_face_with_open_mouth_closed_eyes:

braden H

@eriberart Do what you can! Writing is just like any other skill. Practicing the craft is part of learning the craft

braden H

The opening and ending lines from one of my prompts:

"Uh oh... I need to pee..."

"Uh oh... I need to poop..."

When in doubt, scatological stories are always winners :smiling_face_with_open_mouth_closed_eyes:

MOO

PROMPT 5
An old flashlight and a shadow that has a mind of its own leads to a very strange first sleepover.

NOTE: This is pretty rough and I'm sure the meter is off but, it's written.

A story was told me along time ago
About some kids and a shadow show
The cousins had come to stay overnight
Mel was prepared with an old flashlight,
They plopped on their sleeping bags facing the wall
The short kids in front, ( in the back they were tall).
Munching on popcorn, the lights turned down low,
They eagerly waited for Mel’s Shadow Show.
He wiggled his fingers and cracked the bones
Then asked them politely to turn off their phones.
With great skill he fashioned a Red Riding Hood
And a ravenous wolf that lurked by in the wood.
A Granny that screamed and jumped out of bed
So the wolf took her place and tried to eat Red.
A hunter came running to save the day
But the wolf, apparently, got away!
Mel put his hands down and turned on the light.
Something was wrong, it wasn’t quite right!
That hunter was meant to get rid of the beast
That’s what Mel’s hands showed…. he thought so at least.
So, where was the wolf? Where did that guy go?
The show had gone wrong but the kids didn’t know.
They put on their PJs and chattered and played
Wherever the wolf went, I guess it had stayed.
The kids were all sleeping but Mel was awake
He stared at the wall and then started to shake!
The shadow was back, it reared up on two feet
It opened its mouth showing ugly sharp teeth!
Mel dropped his old flashlight and covered his head.
That’s all that I know, that’s all that was said.

Now turn off the lights and get back to bed!

MOO

@Braden-Hallett I want to hear the middle

MOO

shadow wolf.png

Played around on GIMP with the shadow wolf. Very rough and done with my mouse and fill but, thought I'd share

MOO

PROMPT 6:
I don't know who these people are but they have NO idea how to run a pirate ship.

Four brothers in a bathtub playing pirates.
“Me mateys are gettin’ it all wrong. Where’s the sharks? No plank! No peg legged captain. no eye patches or parrots. What kind of pirate ship is this? ARRRRRR!”

That’s all I’m doing today

braden H

@Marsha-Kay-Ottum-Owen It's far to strange and grody to publish, lol. But it gave me an idea for something worth writing instead

MOO

@Braden-Hallett Ha! Ha! Okay, I don't want to read anything grody!