JOIN: Celebrate This Week

Every Saturday, join me as I CELEBRATE This Week 

with Ruth Ayres from Discover. Play. Build.

Last week, I was celebrating because NaNoWriMo was starting. I finished my beat sheet. Thanks to Elizabeth Eulberg, I discovered Blake Snyder's Save the Cat and I used the beat sheet to revise my first NaNoWriMo project and I used it to draft my 2nd YA and now my 1st MG. 

Hold it a second, can I just stop and say it's so wild for me to even be able to write those words above!? It just hit me and now I have to stop and marvel at what I've accomplished. I mean this in the most humble way. Over the last four years I've spent so much time writing and that last paragraph made me realize what all of it has added up to. Whoa. I still feel like that first-time NaNoWriMo-er not knowing at all what she was doing...and maybe I'll always feel a little of that.

So anyway, over the summer I came up with my why. It's taken me a long time to get here and to know myself but I know I'm all about the growth mindset and believing in the impossible. I like to think of myself as a daydream believer (I wouldn't be here blogging at Story Exploratory if not...it's a total dream come true.) and so the words, "I believe I can and I will" seemed perfect.

Growing up, my dad always repeated these words to me: "Anything is possible, if broken down into manageable segments, stabilized by balance, and purified by belief." Those words are a big part of why I so strongly believe in the growth mindset and the potential inside each and everyone of us. 

Which brings me back to NaNoWriMo...here are some of my tweets from the week. Writing isn't easy, it takes dedication and a lot of strategies to know how to persevere through all the crazy feelings that come up when I write. The more I talk to writers - and even creators in general, the more I realize how we all deal with emotions when we write or create. This week, I took to Twitter as a way to let my thoughts out as I wrote!

And now I'm off to really, actually, and truly read what words I wrote last night! I was so tired but I was determined to write something. I vaguely remember writing a scene from my traumatic 5th grade spelling bee into one of my character's back stories...that should be interesting!

What are you celebrating? 

Nano or writing or anything else, please share!

I've got (virtual) confetti at the ready. 

Thanks for stopping in to explore with me!

JOIN: Celebrate This Week - Story Exploratory and NaNoWriMo

Every Saturday, join me as I CELEBRATE This Week 

with Ruth Ayres from Discover. Play. Build.

Last week, while the kids were at swimming lessons, splashing away in the pool, I bought a domain name and set up this blog, a sweet place for me to explore my story, share my love of writing, and hopefully inspire others.

So here we are.

And I'm so happy you are here to celebrate with me today!

Thanks to the remarkable Ruth Ayres, Saturdays are reserved for celebration. I've been celebrating with Ruth on my Teach Mentor Texts blog for a long time. It's definitely a highlight of my week and I'm happy to bring celebration to Story Exploratory. 

To be honest, making the choice to start Story Exploratory didn't just happen on a whim at swimming lessons. I've been thinking dreaming about how I might share more of my story as a writer for a long time. Writing makes me feel empowered and maybe it sounds cheesy but I would love if others would get to feel that way too. Sharing my story seems like the best way to start. 

That doesn't mean it wasn't scary. But I decided that when something feels scary, it doesn't mean you should give up. It means you have a chance to be brave.

So here we are (again).

Starting Story Exploratory is enough to celebrate but I'm starting on another crazy adventure tomorrow too.

Tomorrow is November 1st and that means NaNoWriMo! Just typing it makes me wince but I already signed up so I'm not looking back now. The first time I tried NaNoWriMo was in 2011. I so totally did not win NaNoWriMo...at all. 

Of course, that's part of what freaks me out about doing it now BUT I wouldn't have a super polished novel that I'm querying if I hadn't started it four years ago. 

It seems worth it to start a new draft...to get as far as I possibly can...whether I win NaNoWriMo or not. So I signed up. 

Last night I worked on my beat sheet, which is my super-skeletal outline based on Blake Snyder's Save The Cat. If you're thinking of writing a novel, I definitely recommend it. I've been thinking about these characters for a couple of years and finally getting ready to tell their story is exciting. Plus the story is set at a pool so I get to "live" in summer even though it will be November. How fun is that!?

I'm looking forward to having so much more to celebrate here. If you're doing NaNoWriMo too, please let me know! We can suffer the torture have so much fun together.

And if not, *maybe* next year. ;) 

No, seriously, if not, what are you celebrating? I've got (virtual) confetti at the ready! Thanks for stopping in to explore with me!

NaNoWriMo 2010

This month I am joining in on National Novel Writing Month - NaNoWriMo!  The idea is to write 50,000 words in one month.  I was hesitant at first, but now I am embracing the concept of just getting all my thinking inked and then being able to go back to edit and revise.  As a student, I was lucky enough to have teachers who taught with Writer's Workshop.  I wholeheartedly believe in the process of writing, but it has been a long time since I sat down to draft a narrative (don't worry, I haven't forgotten the pages upon pages I wrote for National Boards last year...but that wasn't this kind of writing...).

I forgot how hard it can be to write without thinking too much!  When I write with my students, I am a pro at the free write.  I can easily sit for ten minutes and just write as much as I can about anything and everything that comes to mind, but so far, writing a novel has me looking like my 2nd grader: blank page in front of me, looking at the wall, now looking at another wall, now looking back at my blank page, writing one idea, then looking at the wall, and now the other wall...I have my ideas but I'm thinking too much about exactly how I want to say it.  In the true spirit of NaNoWriMo, I'm going to push myself to just write, and to get my ideas down.  I know I will have to go back and make changes. I know I will have to edit.  I know I will have to revise.  And that's okay!  You are free words, you don't have to be perfect, you just have to spill forth!  For now, I just have to work on getting my thinking inked or I'll never even sniff 50,000 pages.

It's day three and I'm already learning about myself as a writer and identifying with my students as writers.  In the past few years, as I have been reading and reading and reading like crazy, I have learned about myself as a reader.  I have read enough books that I have experienced the thrill of finding an amazing book that brings me to hysterical tears and wailing and books that are hard for me to connect with where I find myself understanding the frustration of struggling with a book.  Gaining this perspective has helped me identify with my students and be able to better teach them with this perspective.  Last year I decorated a writer's notebook with my students at the beginning of the year and filled mine little by little as I went.  I love having that as a resource that I can refer back to now that I want to write more about my ideas.  As a writer, I understand how important that notebook is now!  I recognize how safe it makes me feel to know I can look in there and get an idea when I stare at this blank screen and think I have nothing to write about!  And last night, as I reread what I have and thought about the dialogue I have included already I could feel my worries about it not being right and not being good.  I'm sure my students have that feeling, too.  Already, I am anxious to see how I grow as a teacher by participating in NaNoWriMo and becoming a writer as much as I have become a reader.

A little tired, but overall, enthusiastic! Day Three - 6:00AM

What are you thoughts about NaNoWriMo?  Have you joined in before?  How did you do?  What have you learned about yourself as a writer?  If not, how do you feel about teaching writing?

I'll post more about NaNoWriMo and what I learn as I go along!