Discoveries Unbounded

We are now into the second month of The Year of Discovery and already I am immersing myself in a plethora of new activities. For instance, I have started a new part time job at my local chapter of The Boys & Girls Club. This new job entails taking over their Aldebaran Robotics program for middle and high school students. This robot, named NAO, is a fully programmable bipedal robot capable of everything from holding a conversation, to breakdancing. I'll be sure to post some more about this soon.

I've also stumbled across a program for fledgling writers called NaNoWriMo.

I love this logo.

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Every November, hundreds of thousands of people attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in just thirty days. Just the mere thought of this piqued my interest. I am attempting to get my school on board with this idea so that in November we can hold write-ins in the library and really get the students involved in creative writing. I have also been able to team up with two local libraries to get the community involved as well. While I have been facing a little bit a resistance, it seems to center around two notions.

1.) Why do you have to wait until November? You can write a novel at any time...
2.) NO ONE can write a novel in a month. If they do, it is trash anyway.

While I agree that if you have an idea for a novel you certainly do not need to wait until November to start writing it, I also feel that some people need something to help them set a goal. The pressure of a deadline can do wonders for the psyche. Furthermore...

Of course you cannot write a novel in a month. Yes, if you do, its probably going to a amorphous pile of strange and twisted ideas. It will also have a boatload of grammatical errors. The point being that achieving the goal is more important than the content of said writing. In fact, the editing and review process is part of the eleven months (or beyond) afterward to really flesh out your ideas. This is an amazing opportunity to be able to work with a group of people (both locally and through the internet) on improving not only one's writing, but also their thought processes.

Personally, I know of at least ten students who would salivate over this even more than I am right now. Of course, if only there were a way to speed up the months until November.

Enter....

Camp NaNoWriMo!!!

Camp NaNoWriMo is a sort of online summer camp that takes place in the months of April and July. During these sessions, writers young and old can attempt to write 50,000 words during the month. The best part about this program is that members are allowed to pick their word goal. If 50,000 words is just simply too many, one can choose a goal that is more suited to their level. I will be doing Camp NaNoWriMo this April and hopefully recruiting some peers and students to take the challenge with me. This will serve as a good trial run in the hopes that this can become a regular program at our school. 

I already have a pretty good idea for my novel. Getting it down on Google Docs... well that's another story.

For those interested, here is a few starting points.

1. NaNoWriMo
2. Camp NaNoWriMo
3. Aldebaran Robotics