by Stephanie Morrill
Stephanie writes young adult contemporary novels and is the creator of GoTeenWriters.com. Her novels include The Reinvention of Skylar Hoyt series (Revell) and the Ellie Sweet books (Playlist). You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and check out samples of her work on her author website including the free novella, Throwing Stones.
It started as an off-handed comment at dinner. My husband asked me how the announcement of another 100 for 100 challenge had gone over. I told him it had been well-received, and then shared the thought that had been lurking in my mind all day. “I was actually thinking about signing up McKenna.”
McKenna, our six-year-old, heard her name and wanted to know what we were talking about. I explained that Go Teen Writers was hosting a challenge where writers signed up to write 100 word everyday for 100 days.
“And you signed me up for that?” The tone of her voice made it clear that this task seemed impossible. 100 words? No way, Mom!
“I was just telling Daddy that I had thought about it. But 100 words really isn’t that much. It sounds like a lot, but you can do it pretty quickly.” I noticed her marathon training page hanging up on the wall. “Same as the marathon you’re running. You run just a couple laps a day, but it adds up to a lot.”
That was pretty much the last word that I got in at dinner, because McKenna launched into the longest story I’ve ever heard her tell. She plays a game at recess with her friend, Kiara, about a princess and a vampire. This game started when they were in kindergarten so the story of the princess and the vampire has grown quite a bit. As she told us about it, her excitement about turning their playground story into a real story grew to the point that she was soon begging to be signed up.
Combining that with how she described her dress to me last night (“Can you help me find my purple dress, Mom? The one with long sleeves that makes me look like an upside down tulip?”) I can’t help wondering if this is the start of something big for her.
Maybe her excitement will dampen as the weeks wear on, but regardless I love being able to share a part of what I do with her. When I asked her if I could make a short video of her talking about the 100 for 100 challenge, something that I could put on the blog, she lit up. And here she is:
(Many thanks to my husband who performed the surprisingly difficult task of getting the video off my phone, turning it the right direction, and getting it up on the blog.)