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Cathy C. Hallhttps://cathychall.wordpress.com/I write, write, write. Then I rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. THEN I submit all those polished-up words out into the world and sell 'em. It's a plan that's worked pretty well.

Earning NaNoWriMo Merit Badges

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I know I usually do my horn tooting on Tuesdays, but I’m just so proud of myself for earning these swell badges that I had to share!

First, of course, I earned the Procrastination Badge. According to the little pamphlet thingie that comes with the badges, one can earn this cute vacuum cleaner badge in a variety of ways:

a. skip writing for more than three days in a row

b. spend over 30 cumulative hours on the forums

c. clean your home instead of working on your novel

Guess how I earned it? Keeping in mind that dog hair is swirling around the keyboard as I type. And that I don’t even know how to get in the forums.

But one badge is never enough, is it? So I went for two. And honestly, I’m really thrilled over earning the Word-Count Padding Badge. I mean, this badge requires mad writing skills.

I had my main character study for a World Geography quiz and added about 30 countries and their capitals. Isn’t that brilliant? I think I may have earned bonus points for choosing countries like Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of the Congo. And the best part is that I can always go back and add more!

And last, but certainly not least, I earned the Nano Socializing Badge by dragging a few friends into Nano with me. Friends who have tons more words than I do.

But do they have any badges? Hah.

Finding Grammar (It’s Everywhere!)

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So, yes, we want our children to learn grammar. We want them to speak well and write well and know the difference between a preposition and an adverb. Okay, maybe that’s asking too much. Especially when they’re bombarded daily by grammar mistakes.