kid lit nanowrimo discussion and support
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So we have a trip to the local firestation, an inventor goldfish, a goldfish coconut duo, a group of fish that put out a fire, and I wrote a quick story about a sister that tricks her little brother into believing his fish grants wishes.
Quite the spread
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my little goldfish is unlucky and brings 'accidents' upon his owners so he ends up being disposed of each time until a little boy finds him and gives him the home he deserves. After all, the goldfish can't help it that things catch fire...
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Dear rooster, the spaceship laboratory just isn’t the same with out you. When I look out of the window over the the crater pitted landscape I think about the days when we would play, ‘ Let the giant alien monsters escape, then try and catch them again’.
Oh how I miss seeing your flailing wattle atop your head, wobble with energy as you ran along screaming, stumbling from crater to rock, while the Hairy Fourteen Eyed Filbert from the fifteenth moon of the sixteenth planet, chased you back. His seventeen tiny legs running like crazy to carry his huge hulking body at speed.
How beautiful it was when the Hyujumungous Vnoop from the hairy desert of planet Venus decided she liked the taste of your feathers. She looked at you like you were an odd shaped bar of chocolate and chased you whilst licking her lips, into the cave of pointy purple spikes.
You played chase so well too, with the Giant Worm of Moon City, even after he swallowed you whole. Oh how we laughed as we watched the silhouette of your frantic, chicken shaped figure, running around inside his translucent skin.
I still don’t understand why you refused to play for a whole space week.
And how could we forget the Crackled Crannock Crator Cronk from planet Crunk. You couldn’t catch him either. In fact he ran off with you under one of his million armpits, your little chicken feet flailing about wildly, in confusion. Who could have known that’s where it’s mouth was. You certainly can’t blame us for laughing uncontrollably and not helping you in the slightest. You were a great sport, even when you emerged again some days later covered in Crator Cronk saliva, after having spent all that time being licked by its armpit tongue. There wasn’t a single feather left on your pink rooster body. Oh how we still laugh at the time when you promised to take revenge on us all. We know the electronic rooster translator wasn’t working properly and none of it was true. Even when you stormed out into the crater filled landscape we laughed so hard at the thought of you rounding up all of the giant alien monsters and coming back with them to ‘get’ us. It’s just so impossible. How by the many moons of planet Zoupquonk could a bald pink rooster possibly......just wait, one second what’s that noise, and strange giant alien smell. Is something unscrewing the roof of the space lab? It can’t be? Thats so strange, no one would believe this, it looks the shadow of the enormous Blam from the Flam dimension. But he went missing months ago. Aaaargh not the ..... don’t pick me up, I’m a scientist, don’t put me in there, I’m just not suited to being a human pea in a giant game of alien pea shooting. Especially one that’s umpired by a bald pink ROOOOOSTEERRRRRRRRRRR. -
@Braden-Hallett cheers Braden, stupid question, is spitballing, mindmapping and brainstorming the same thing?
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@Marsha-Kay-Ottum-Owen thanks Marsha, it was fun to write, thank you for persevering with it
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@peteolczyk Do you plan these out first or just start writing and go with the flow of whatever happens?
Nicola Schofield
Twitter: twitter.com/NSchofieldArt
Instagram: instagram.com/NicolaSchofieldArt/ -
@neschof I’m just writing as it plays out in my head.
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I have to say, these prompts made me think of stories I would never come up by myself.
Yesterday's story was very unexpected, but kind of sweet. I ended up with a story idea about chasing a seeminly impossible dream, about friendship, and different perspectives. (The writing is really rough, like a barely readable thumbnail :-).Today, my story idea gets weird, and a bit mean. I wrote the first paragraph, and realized what the story was about. I acutally got uncomfortable with my own thought. The story idea is a letter written by a school kid to a bully boy (the rooster) after he moved away. The whole letter is describing how nice the school has became without the bully rooster boy. The letter ends with a thank you note to the bully's mom, for taking him away from the school. I am having a problem with the moral of the story, so I had to stop.
Here is the googleDoc I will put all the stories from this momth.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fbO3zseYKkad9cmlRO3EvQ1vdIr1-7kBOIODBkN1Ngk/edit?usp=sharing -
Story 2
I want to write so the first story had a cover image like the front of a book, the following will not. Thank you,
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@xin-li that’s interesting and slightly strange that my rambling on this prompt could be interpreted with a bullying theme too.
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@peteolczyk said in kid lit nanowrimo discussion and support:
@Braden-Hallett cheers Braden, stupid question, is spitballing, mindmapping and brainstorming the same thing?
I'm sure there's a difference somehow
I think mindmapping is more of an organized approach using a central concept/theme while brainstorming and spitballing are throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks.But then, I could be wrong
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@peteolczyk @Braden-Hallett I always took mind mapping as a visual drawing of circles (words) and lines ( like a spider) and brainstorming purely putting down words in a list, and spitballing a verbal activity to stimulate ideas.
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Well, I got something done. It's 11:45pm
Dear Rooster: Life isn’t the same without you. I miss the crazy tuft of hair on top of your head and your crowing howl that woke me up everyday with the sunrise. I named you Rooster because you kind of looked like one and howled like one every morning. You were an odd dog but my best friend in the world. I can’t sleep at night because I miss you and also, I worry that I won’t wake up for school in time!
I miss you at breakfast. You liked eggs, I didn’t. I used to slip them to you under the table but now, I have to eat them all myself! I don't really feel like eating now, anyway.
I miss you when I get in trouble. You would come and put your head on my lap and whine a little for me. It always made me feel better. I was never alone with you around.
I miss the feeling of your fur under my hand when I rubbed you’re head, the goofy way you twisted your body around and wagged your tail when I came home after school everyday. And you’d do that crowing howl again, I always felt happy with you.
I have your picture by my bed. Sometimes I talk to it and tell you about my day. I think about good times we had together playing in the back yard. Your favorite dirt spot, where you liked to lay around is still there.
Mom and Dad are thinking of getting another puppy. It will be weird to have a different dog around. You were one of a kind. I guess it will be okay though. Just weird. It won't be you. Rest in Peace, Rooster. I’m going to try to go to sleep now. Goodnight.
Pete
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These prompts are pretty challenging for me. It's good though. Hopefully it will start to spark some ideas. It helps to see what others are comign up with. It might help me to think outside the "block"
Marsha Ottum Owen
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@Marsha-Kay-Ottum-Owen it can be challenging to come up with something that doesn't resonate, that's for sure
Sometimes you get something worth pursuing from the exercise, though. -
I'm curious, what is everyone's target age group? Are you writing board books? Picture books? Who are you planning to have read these stories?
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@Braden-Hallett
I would say picture books for the main focus. But my rooster loving wolf may not fit in that category, unless I made it more about friendship, lols. Today’s I wrote notes on but not written out but it be much closer to a picture book as well because I can visualize some of the scenes, that’s why I like writing very visually descriptively.
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@Braden-Hallett for this month where i write from a daily prompt i don't go for an age group specifically. So i really just write down what comes to mind. But when it comes to serious job i am open to illustration of children's books as well as making comics for young adults. I am still developing my style and haven't come to a definite conclusion yet
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(sorry for just cutting and pasting but, I am keeping them all on ne document and don't want to send the whoe thing.
Prompt 3 desert, broken heart, birthday cake
Little Lanore loved music. She could strum her guitar and sing so beautifully it would break your heart! She loved to ride out onto the desert on her favorite horse, Brave, and let her rip. She played by ear with all her heart and soul. Anyone who heard her had to stop still and listen. They just couldn’t help themselves!
One person that would always listen was a little boy named Willy. Willy was a skinny little youngin’ He was sickly with something called Dandelion Dance. Why they called it that I will never know because it sure didn’t allow him to dance (though he would of liked to when he heard Lanore play and sing those tunes!) No, he was stuck abed. Just lying there day in and day out watching the sun rise in the morning and the sunset at night. Of course he ate in between, and Mama or Papa would help him with the necessaries and help him clean his self up. But it was Lanore’s music that brightened his days.
Little Lanore didn’t know the boy Billy. She didn’t know he heard her music. If she would have known, she would have been proud of it. She didn’t realize how good she sounded. She just liked to play and sing because it helped her forget the things that made her sad. Things like her grumpy old Granny who just made her work all morning long, everyday of the summer. Granny didn’t like her, she was pretty sure. When she sang, it made her think of her parents far away. They used to play and sing together until Dad got sick and Mama had to take him to a town somewhere so he could get treatments. Lanore had to stay behind. If she didn’t sing, she’d be crying. But, Granny wouldn’t allow music in her home. So, everyday when chores were done and Granny was napping she hopped on old Brave and headed to the desert to pour out her heart in song.
Now, there’s another little character in this story that neither Lanore nor Willy knew about. His name was Ruther. He was exceptionally small and extremely magical! And, even though the kids didn’t know him, he knew them very well. He was like a secret guardian assigned to look after Lanore and Willy and try to help them without being found out. Ruther had a plan to get these two kids together somehow. He’d been working on it for awhile. It was Ruther who had planted the idea in Lanore’s head, at night while she was sleeping, to ride out to the desert while Granny napped everyday. It was he who made sure that Willy was able to hear it. He had a plan that would change everything for the two kids.
Soon it would be Willy’s birthday. They couldn’t do much for him but they would sure have a cake! Papa hired a woman to make a very special cake for Willy that year. A fancy decorated cake covered with strawberry cream frosting, Willy’s favorite. They splurged a little because Willy couldn’t do much else but look out the window and eat anyway. Papa would head out across the desert in the afternoon and they would have it for dinner that night. The cake? That was Ruther’s idea too.
Ruther’s next idea was to get Lanore to the desert at the same time Papa rode through to get the cake on Willy’s birthday. And so, it happened. Lanore finished up her chores and hopped on Brave with her guitar. She arrived to her usual spot and started to play. Just then, Willy’s Papa came along. When he heard the little girl’s beautiful voice he stopped still to listen. His heart ached, it was so beautiful! He dismounted from his ride and sat on a rock near Lanore. She was so involved in her singing that she didn’t notice him there. He was so enthralled with her music that he didn’t notice a snake behind him where his horse stood. But the horse noticed! That horse was deathly afraid of snakes! He reared up, whinnied loudly and hit the trail leaving Papa without a ride. Without a horse, he wouldn’t be able to get the cake! He didn’t worry about the horse, he would find his way home but, without a horse, he wouldn’t be able to get the cake!
The ruckus got Lanores attention. She saw the consternation of the man and asked what had happened. He explained his dilemma and, she being a kind and generous girl, offered him the use of Brave to go get the cake. It wouldn’t take long and she would wait for him there. He took her offer on the condition that she would come to their house afterwards to celebrate with Willy and have a big piece of cake. She couldn’t say no to that! Granny wouldn’t even miss her. Her naps were very long. Now, you wouldn’t usually go off with a strange man or lend him your horse just like that but, this is a story of better days when a person could. It’s part of the magic. Just so you know!
Papa happily rode off to get the cake and Lanore sang a heartfelt song about birthdays and cake. It wasn’t long before he returned and they double rode back to Willy.. Now the magic is about to happen…
Ruther knew that Willy’s wish was to be able to feel healthy again. To get out of bed and dance and play. And he knew that Lanore’s music could heal him. He had put a spell on her guitar the night before. And he knew that it would only work if Lanore wished that Willy could be well. He knew that Lanore had a good heart. All she had to do was play and it would be the best birthday Willy ever had!
What Ruther didn’t anticpate was Granny waking up and interfering!.....
To be continued……...
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@Braden-Hallett I have no idea. Just writing. For prompt 3 I woud guess about 7-10?
