Drumheller Mail reporter, Lacie Nairn, joined grade 4 students at St. Anthony’s School on Thursday, November 19 via Zoom call to answer questions about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and what it is like to work as a reporter.
Nairn previously spoke with grade 4 teachers, Ms. Sarah Boyne and Ms. Vicki Black, about their students’ participation in the annual writing contest, NaNoWriMo. Following the interviews, Ms. Boyne invited Nairn to join students via Zoom to talk about her fifth year participating in the contest, and what it is like working as a reporter with The Drumheller Mail.
“It is an absolute honour to have been offered the opportunity to speak to Ms. Boyne and Ms. Black’s students,” Nairn says. “The students had plenty of thought-provoking questions and it was amazing to see so much enthusiasm.”
The students asked several questions, ranging from when Nairn first started writing and why she started participating in NaNoWriMo, her favourite books, and whether it gets easier to do NaNoWriMo after the first year.
Nairn gave students some writing tips and read an excerpt from her current NaNoWriMo project. She told students to be proud of how many words they write for NaNoWriMo, regardless of whether they reach their word count goals or not.
The students also asked questions about working as a reporter for The Drumheller Mail.
“It’s especially important right now with COVID to stay informed, but it can be something as simple as, for example, the town putting in a new park,” Nairn said. “My job is to help people stay informed and understand what is going on in their community.”
