Will She Make Her Goal?

This month is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), when aspiring writers accept the challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in one month (that means writing an average of 1,667 words per day). Winners get the satisfaction of knowing they wrote a novel.

Dd16, who has written several novels in her short life already, decided to tackle NaNoWriMo this year, and despite a few days of writer's block, has written 13,500 words so far. She tells me she must up her daily average to about 2,000 words to make the goal of 50,000 words total. This might be hard for some people, but since she has my genetics in her to balance her father's quiet demeanor, I'm thinking she'll pass 50K if she puts in a little time each day.

When she announced her goal to us last month, my dh said we should count her writing time as part of her school day, which makes sense. To sweeten the pot, we've told her that if she reaches her goal of 50,000 words and completes her novel, we'll have it printed at Lulu.com, where a single copy of a 200-page book will set us back a whopping $8.53. Seems like a reasonable price for such a good incentive. One catch, however: she has to submit her manuscript to my red pen first. Our older kids said I used it mercilessly on their work. It's true; that's why they're both good writers.