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Write-a-Thon: NaPiBoWriWee by Rochelle Melander

You’ve heard about NaNoWriMo—National Novel Writing Month, when novelists buckle down and write like crazy to complete a 50,000-word novel in 30 days.

Some of you have even heard about Script Frenzy—where writers give up frolicking in April’s spring showers to write a script.

But have you heard of NaPiBoWriWee? National Picture Book Writing Week, held May 1-7, was created by novelist Paula Yoo in 2009 to encourage children’s book writers to write. During the week-long event, writers write a picture book a day.

I  have long loved the idea of writing books fast. The write-a-thon—whether you do it in April for Script Frenzy or on your own—gets writers to do what all writers must do to be successful: put their butts in the chair and write. If you’re interested in writing books for children, NaPiBoWriWee might be a good way to jumpstart your writing career. Any kind of external deadline—even the false ones created by a write-a-thon—can help you finish a writing project.

But don’t be tied to the format. If you don’t write picture books, use next week to blog, write a poem, or draft a chapter of your novel each day. Make the week work for you.

So are you in? Post your goal below. I’d love to hear what you will be writing about next week.

Happy writing!

4 Responses

  1. Charlotte Schmiedeskamp

    I have had ideas for scripts bouncing in my head for years–this is a great time to get started! Looking forward to a creative week!

  2. Joyce

    OK — here’s the start of a picture book about a classic story:

    Long ago, before people bought their food in stores, before people there were sinks where people could turn on the water, before people went to work by car, before stories were even written down — even then — people had food to eat because farmers planted seeds and took care of their gardens. If it did not rain enough one year, the plants would shrivel up all dry, and then there would not be enough food. If it rained too much, then the plants would suffocate in the soggy earth. And if it rained much too much, well then the rivers would over-run their banks and the water would sweep everything away: plants, dirt, and all.
    As you can imagine, people were afraid of the power of the rivers. But they could not move too far away from rivers, because there were no sinks and faucets and washing machines and bathtubs. The rivers were where they got the water they needed to use every day. So there they lived, always fearing that a flood would come and sweep everything away. And they couldn’t do anything about it.
    Now, there had already been wise government officials thinking about this problem. But the more they sat and thought, the fewer answers they had anymore.

    One man, XX, had been put in charge of this problem. He devoted his life to trying to solve it. But he lived his life and died when he was old, just as every man always does, and the floods kept on coming, just as they always did.

    XX had a son, YY. He watched and listened as his father ….

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