Literacy—Read, Write and Think!

This past summer I went to Open Books for a volunteer orientation. Open Books is all about promoting literacy in Chicago and elsewhere. They work hard, utilizing volunteers, to make young and old literate through social events, programs and field trips.

This is taken from The New York Times article by Jessica Reaves. It is estimated that about 23% of American adults do not have basic reading skills—they are unable to read directions (medications), look for employment or take care of their finances. Chicago’s illiteracy suffers with “53% of adults having low or limited literacy skills”. The numbers might not be exact  but the fact is this city and country should not have a problem with illiteracy.

Since I’m unemployed I decided to do some volunteer work, and what better place to volunteer at than with books. Today I woke up early, got ready and drove to the Open Books warehouse. It has definitely been a long time since I woke that early and had to look presentable. LOL! Anyways, when I walked into the place it was full of boxes of books donated by people. The guys working there set me up on a computer to scan the books for resale. It’s amazing how many people donate, and what is even more amazing are the books people buy. There were old 60's and 70's cook books, travel books and 80's workout books. Do you remember Susan Powter? “Stop the Insanity!” I guess this catchphrase can be used for illiteracy. 

I enjoyed my volunteer work and wanted to share my experience with you, continue volunteering and hopefully I can pay it forward. Aside from the bookstore on Institute Place, they resell books on different websites—Amazon being one of them. (The bookstore is setup so cute. The picture of the fireplace on this post is from the store.) On Amazon, the books are sold under used. So if you are ever browsing for a book, click on used and search for Open Books to help fund literacy.

My next topic has nothing to do with literacy and everything to do with winning.

Did you watch the Bears vs. Green Bay game? The outcome of this game really makes me mad because a) I don’t like Green Bay and b) the Bears could have won the game if offense knew how to block and catch, and Devin Hester learned how to keep his temper in check. *rant over*

Have a great day!

A Tale of Two Years

To celebrate National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), I finally finished my first complete revision of the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo in 2008. It cost me close to 2-years to get my butt going and revise it. For those of you who don’t know what NaNoWriMo is it’s a fun approach to writing. You sign up on the website and on November 1, you begin writing your story. The goal is to complete a 50,000-word novel by the end of November 30. During this time, you can post your progress on the site and encourage others while they encourage you.

I participated in 2008 and completed a 50,000-word novel, and the picture to this post is what I won. Most people think you walk away with prize money, but all you really walk away with is the knowledge of knowing you wrote a novel in one month. To some—like me—it’s a satisfying feeling.

So now what? You could ask someone to read it to see what they think, which is what I did. My Love, who at the time was just a friend, asked if he could read it. I shrugged and said ‘sure’. I had no plans to do anything with it until he read it within a few days and said he loved it. I thought, “Come on, it’s a mess”, but he thought it was great. He’s always been my biggest fan. Before I sent it to him, I prepared him for the mess, because wanting to complete 50,000 words in one month when you work full-time means turning off your internal editor. There is no time to clean-up or fix mistakes. NaNoWriMo helped me learn to write under pressure without going back and editing the crap out of everything I wrote. I was on a clear, direct path to finish and nothing was going to get in my way…and it didn’t. Coming into the last week of November, I still had to write 25,000 words to win and I freaked. How am I going to do that? Vacation days. I used vacation days to finish my 2008 NaNoWriMo.

Fast forward two years and here I am, working with an editor to clean it up. It isn’t a free revision—it costs to have someone do a line-by-line, but my Love convinced me it was worth it. After this revision, I will need to find a few proofreaders to go through it again…and then to go through it again until it’s error free…or at least close to it. Aside from this novel, I wrote my first one back in 2003, which is nicely tucked away in my drawer due to my poor writing.

I toast to those who are participating in the 2010 NaNoWriMo, and wish you all the best. It’s a great adventure, so write hard and TURN OFF YOUR INTERNAL EDITOR . Good luck!