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A Silent Education: Our Quiet Challenge in Provence

Struggling with my latest read, I think about all those people starting out on the NanoWriMo trail and all those old stories gathering dust on the shelf, my finished and unfinished novels, the new one I would love to start and the words of my friend Bernadette, who suggested to me yesterday that I write a story directly into this blog.

It’s an idea with merit and one that will help me overcome another little dilemma, that of a 10-year-old girl who wants her own blog, whose little fingers have occasionally and so she says ‘accidentally’ found their way in here.

So this will be our collaboration, I will write the episodes and she will create the illustrations, which seems appropriate as this story is going to be about her, about an aspect of our journey together that is worth sharing, because I know our experience is already helping others going through something similar.

So, next up Episode One : The Benefits of Insomnia written by me and illustrated by my daughter.

Here is the cover she designed today, there is a colour version, but she wants me to put it up in black and white.

And just to clarify, that’s her on the left and me on the right. (She has used her artistic ability liberty to remove her curls and make herself as tall as me).

26 thoughts on “A Silent Education: Our Quiet Challenge in Provence”

    • I think we are going to have fun here, she’s already made pictures for the first four episodes, I hope I can keep up with the writing! I like this better than a word count challenge and it makes the writing less solitary because we are doing it together.

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  2. I’m intrigued Claire and look forward to following your story and watching it unfold. Tell your daughter that I love her illustration – such a difficult thing to do, drawing on the computer. And what a lovely idea to collaborate with your daughter!

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    • Thanks Edith, she’s very excited about our little project and will want to know about all the responses, so I will certainly be sharing them – she is a real talent on the computer, I am in awe of the digital art she can create.

      Yesterday she did some pen drawings and said to me, can you imagine how long it would take for me to draw this on the computer? And seeing what she can draw, I just nod my head in agreement, because it is all so wonderful and creative and everything is possible in her world.

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      • Well I shall be an avid reader. Reading your posts it is blatantly obvious you can write so I shall pressure you no more. I know I will have fun reading them though. Crikey I’m almost a blog groupie, I didn’t know they existed, or maybe I’m a pioneer…

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  10. Pingback: The Benefits of Insomnia « Word by Word

  11. My reflexive cynicism about kids spending too much time online has just melted. What a lovely way to share the gift of creativity with your daughter and for her to share her art with the world. I look forward to seeing the story develop!

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    • Thank you, I usually write about books, but since I am stuck midway in a giant book and little inclination to read further, we decided to embark on this project together.

      We had to share the little notebook PC and her abilities in digital art have come about from not having internet access, if I was using the computer she made pencil drawings while she was waiting, these I will most certainly keep, they are a delight!

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  13. Pingback: Episode 2: We are not living in France! « Word by Word

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