As I was researching World Myths for my upcoming Fall 2020 classes, I ran into a traditional myth about how disease came into the world. I was already familiar with the myth of Pandora, so I started to think: Could this be a resource I could create for families to help them deal with talking about COVID-19? I decided I would write an ebook that would be a discussion guide for families about how ancient stories might help them deal with this current pandemic.
This idea just came to me at the end of June, so I knew a vehicle that would help me get it done. For many years now, I have participated, both personally and as an option for my students, in NaNoWriMo–NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth. The official Nanowrimo program encourages people to write 50,000 words of a novel during the month of November. The point is to generate a lot of content without having the time to criticize your work because you have to churn out an average of about 1,700 words all 30 days to meet that goal. So many people say they want to write a book, but they never get beyond the first chapter because they keep going back and changing that chapter and rewriting that chapter until they give up. Nanowrimo says just keep writing, and go back and revise after you’ve seen where your book is going.
There is a lot of community and support through Nanowrimo, so it has worked for me in the past when I was trying to get something written. However, in April and July, they sponsor “Camp Nanowrimo,” in which you can set your own goals in terms of length and type of writing, but still maintains a supportive community. Since I knew my ebook would be much shorter than 50,000, it was the perfect program to keep me motivated in writing a shorter project. Still, it took me the entire month to get the ebook done. I’m not sure why it says 4/30/20 instead of 7/30/20, but I’m not going to worry about that part.
I’m mostly focused on the part that says I’m a WINNER!