Creative Book Writing

In this weekly 8-class course, students will learn the writing process of creating a book and becoming an author of their very own book. Each class will build on the previous class topics, making attendance important. We will review the importance of the writing process: Brainstorming, Preparing, Drafting, Revising, and Proofreading. This course is for students wanting to create a  short chapter book or work on a standard novel. (If you are taking this class to work on a standard novel, it is not an expectation that you have a final draft in the 8 weeks. You will have at least 3 chapters that can be beta read)
Topics by Class
*Our first class will cover everything on how to organize your ideas. We will start by discussing the expectations you'd like to maintain throughout the entire 8 weeks. Organizing your ideas will cover everything from character development, questions you should be asking yourself *before you start writing*, to the importance of developing a plot and theme (homework will be to answer questions discussed in class before our next class). 
*Our second class will cover story progression. This is where it becomes clear, as an author, you know what happens in the beginning, the middle, and the end of your story. You will learn a simple method of organizing your BME and how to use an outline. (homework will be to complete BME organizer before our next class)
*Our third class will cover creating a rough draft of your story. This class will touch on telling vs. showing in writing. The difference is in the details. (homework will be to begin writing a rough draft before our next class.) 
*Our fourth class will cover drafting. This will include a lecture on writing for specific age groups, sentence variety, and the correct use of a thesaurus. We will also discuss, as a group, the use of illustrations. (homework will be to continue working on your rough draft)
*Our fifth class will cover going digital if you are not already. The use of a digital program such as Word or Google Docs to edit grammar and spelling. We will also revisit week 4, fluency and the importance of reading your work out loud. As a group we will discuss how asking for help ensures growth as writers (homework will be to begin typing up your rough draft in digital form if you haven't already). 
*Our sixth class will cover the finalizing of your digital rough draft, ensuring that we've checked all the basic writing structures. Each student will be given an opportunity to share their favorite scene of their book. 
*Our seventh class will begin with a lecture on securing BETA readers. As a group, we will create a list of questions we want our readers to answer as they read and after they are done reading (homework will be to email me your final rough draft that is being given to Beta readers). 
*Our eighth and final class, we will discuss what we learned from our Beta readers and how to go about making changes to our book based on this information. Students will also hear what possible next steps they can take with their final product (publishing possibilities).