I think we can all agree that the last few days have been really crazy here on the Blockchain. When I got the news that Steemit Inc. had been purchased (which still feels so surreal), I was drinking some morning coffee and cruising Twitter. My jaw dropped, and I hollered over to the hubs what had happened.
Also, our personal world is completely up in the air. We got the news a month ago that the farm we helping on has been sold. We have until May.
There seems to be a pattern here.
Anyway, in another funny turn of events, the one aspect of our life that is always moving and shaking, that has my brain constantly in motion is school, and we are in a current project that has the whole household calm and quiet.
The world is turning topsy turvy!
They all have a passion for story-telling and reading, and they have all started writing books, but over time their interest waned leaving half written pieces of art. Haha.
So, here we were at the school table, and the other two looking at me with dewy eyes asking if they could be apart of this too. It's funny because this felt like a hard choice. With looming schoolwork of their own to get through, was it wise to let them take this on?
Then I thought..."Oh my gosh, I homeschool for this very reason." If there was ever a time to help them learn new skills, it's while they are doing something they love!
It took just a bit of rearranging. For instance, instead of having my oldest do all of the grammar and vocab that goes with his English, he would sub it out for writing a novel and still easily keep reading the Odyssey.
I've always thought that playing to the kids' strengths was the best way for them to learn. They feel much more confident, and it brings a joy to the room. So, in this case, they all love to tell elaborate stories with heroes and villains. Their favorite genre, collectively, is medieval fantasy, and those can't be told in a small setting, lol. In fact, when we've had small writing assignments, it's been a huge challenge to reel them in. I say something like, "This needs to be a short story, only a page long." and they look at me like a shot their dog.
Now, there might be parents out there that only wish their kids would be that excited. The problem, again, is that if I let them go on and on, the story itself would never be finished. Whatever the equivalent analogy to "champagne taste on a beer budget" is for "big huge dreams and small attention spans" would be applicable here.
The key to this madness was structure.
So, as we followed the guide to writing a novel, I told them they we were going to follow it step by step. That no one here had ever successfully written a book, and we were not going to pretend that we knew how.
As hard as it was for them to admit it, they agreed that it was best to put down any pretenses and to come out with a humble perspective.
The first two weeks were a lot of fun. They made lists of fun new nouns, adjectives and verbs that could replace any that might be overused. Then they created the main characters. The protagonist and sidekick, and also the antagonist and sidekick. They laid out their plots, followed by subplots that keep the audience engaged. We went over all the parts of a story and reenacted a book we all knew well. Then they formulated a list of chapters. We ran into a small problem here. When I said, ten chapters should be sufficient, that was close to a criminal offense. I ended up loosening the reigns a bit with our oldest with the hopes that with enough chapter structure he would be able to stay on course.
For a fun surprise, we stumbled on the Pixar's guide to story telling via Super Carlin Brothers on YouTube. They have the best videos about Harry Potter...for reals. Anyway, using that, they compared their stories and it was a lot of fun! Of course, it's been applied to most of our movies and favorite books now, lol.
Just as our middle son had just about had it with prep work, as he was covered with extensive notes and a hand-drawn map of the world he made, the writing began!
Our youngest loves to utilize our desktop computer, so she's been clicking away on that, and our oldest loves to use a laptop, but our middle son is not a fan of tech or of typing so he is diligently hand writing his story.
But, as the other two are killing it, chapter after chapter, he has not made as much headway and he started getting a little bummed. He mentioned that he loves saying the book while someone else does the typing...something that they have worked to do together in the past. But with everyone busy with their own, we had to think of another solution.
That's when we realized that they probably have an app for that.
And they do! We discovered Write Naturally on our Windows Store, which would allow him to speak his story, and it would write it for him. Arguably, you could say this is a disservice, that this a great time to get him typing or really work on his handwriting. But right now, the focus is on building his skill at writing and completing an entire novel. If hand writing this whole thing, or forcing him to type would hold him back, then I don't think it's in his best interest.
Again, this is great time to teach to their strengths. As he says the story, the app isn't foolproof. He'll have to make sure the grammar is still correct, and that the dialogue is structured correctly. He'll have to edit as he goes!
I'm really excited to see how it all turns out. Of course, I did realize how much reading I'll be doing over the next few weeks. It's a lot, especially when I realized reading from where I had previously left off wasn't enough. "But mom, I changed some things." As long as they don't take out whole chapters and start over, we'll be okay.
Take care!
Much love,
Stacie D
