Episode 10: Doing NaNoWriMo with Your Children

with Book Coach Kemlo Aki

Book coach Kemlo Aki's daughter was 11 years old the first time they did NaNoWriMo. And guess what? They both won! Listen to today's episode to see how Kemlo used NaNoWriMo as a tool to instill a love of writing in her children. I'm going to call Kemlo NaNoWriMom from now on!

IN TODAY'S EPISODE

  • Kemlo wanted her kids to have a passion for writing first. And let the more technical aspects of writing come second.

  • When using NaNoWriMo as a tool with kids, you have to shift your perspective and evaluate success in a different way.

  • NaNo with kids is more a way to practice writing and creating a writing habit. It’s for the fun of telling stories, writing something, experimenting with words.

  • It also helped her children not be so intimidated by word count. Later when they were asked to do a five-page paper it felt like nothing!

  • In the end, her daughter would sometimes polish parts of her NaNo work and publish it privately as a gift for family at Christmas.

  • When kids have a goal that is meaningful to them, it’s more motivating than some top down imposed goal of so many words.

NaNoWriMo was about not being intimidated by having to crank out pages. So later when they had to writes essays, it was like, ‘What? Five pages? That’s all?’
— Kemlo Aki

Kemlo’s Recommended Reading 

Families Writing

By Peter Stillman

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Episode 11: Wattpad and NaNoWriMo

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Episode 9: NaNoWriMo Tips, Fast-Draft