For those of you that follow me on social media, you know that I like to refer to my children as my Minions. I do my best to train them well, though I am far from an ideal evil genius, but I do what I can.
This month has seen the start of a new training exercise. The experiment may go down in a giant pile of flaming tantrums. Regardless, I push onwards with it.
I have decided to enroll the elder two Minions, v1.0 and v2.0, in the annual struggle of mind over matter that I have been a part of in the past. It is a mighty battle of will over words.
It is called…
More specifically, the Young Writers Program side of it. It’s a thing I’d kicked around doing with them for awhile, but they never really showed much interest outside of voraciously reading a certain series of fairy books (now a series of thicker mermaid books for v1.0). Suddenly last week, Minion 1.0 brought forth a liberally interpreted Pokemon fanfic she’d been working on for two days which was roughly 2 pages front and back, and one filled on a single side. College ruled. Hand written. About 1000 words. And she wasn’t finished with it.
Oh yes, it was definitely time.
I thought, as long as I’m dragging one into the November frenzy it wasn’t any more work to drag the other along as well. I promptly printed out two copies of the Young Writers Program elementary aged workbook, bought two binders, two notebooks, and a set of special pens specifically for this event. I carefully three-hole punch the workbooks, organized the binders, and set them out neatly on the table. I explained to them what we would be doing and what they could expect. We read the opening letter of the workbook. 2.0 seemed very excited. 1.0, eh, she was a little less than thrilled that I wanted her to write something all her own (read as: PLEASE STOP WITH THE POKEMON ALREADY). But they both signed on and tonight was our first night of workbook pre-November work.
From here on out, these posts will be titled with YWP Day #___, so don’t expect clever titles on every post.
Summary of workbook pages completed:
- Putting away your inner editor
- What makes a novel?
The second section we completed felt more like homework and wasn’t all that entertaining.
The first section, however. Oh man. It was a fierce battle to maintain my “I’m taking you seriously” face. Too freaking cute.
Putting Away Your Inner Editor involved an explanation of what the Inner Editor is, and then a place to draw said Inner Editor. You then cut out the figure and put it away somewhere so that it doesn’t bother you in November while you are trying to write stuff.
I went into this fully expecting Minion 1.0 to draw me (given my constant, nagging corrections on her spelling homework). I was pleasantly surprised when she drew this:
Minion v2.0 went above and beyond the call of duty on this assignment. Not only did she draw her Inner Editor, but his girlfriend too.
It is going to be an interesting November, folks.
x
Lisa says
Have I mentioned recently how much I totally love you? This is awesome! Good luck!! (AND DON’T FORGET TO WRITE YOUR NOVEL!)
Love,
Your outer editor.