NaNoWriMo

At the beginning of November, Cat's writing teacher challenged her students to participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and write an entire novel by the end of the month.  Cat's teacher set her standard at 1000 words and if you reached your goal, you would receive free printed copies of your book.  Cat got busy.

Cat wrote everything out by hand, then she, Ben, and I worked together to get it typed.  (She wasn't happy that she was required to participate in the typing - she said all of her friends' parents just typed their stories for them.  Yep.  We're those parents.)

Cat had a few chapters written when we started the typing.  The first two chapters put her over 500 words.  And when she was finished her grand total was 5,091 words.  Not too shabby.

I won't post the entire story here, but I'll give you a little book flap summary.

Crys is a 16-year-old girl who has to deal with an annoying 14-year-old sister and life with a single mom.  She feels like she doesn't have much going for her - until she discovers that she has power to control the elements.  After repeated attempts on her life by a surprising antagonist, Crys finds out who she really is, why she has such amazing powers, and what world she will call home.

It was funny to have this story be a topic of conversation during the last month.  Several of us in the family were somewhat offended at some point during the process.  "Her little sister is annoying?" - from the little sister.  "Why doesn't she have a brother?" - from the little brother.  And of course (spoiler alert) "Why is the mom evil?" - from the, ahem, mother.

In the end, though, I'm proud of Cat for coming up with a story she really likes and is proud of.  And there's definitely the possibility of a sequel!