NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program: Write a Novel in a Month!

Join thousands of writers around the world and complete a novel in one month! 

NaNoWriMo is a non-profit organization that encourages writing. During the month of November every year, NaNoWriMo hosts an online event that encourages writers to complete a novel with a word count goal of 50,000. I will be hosting this month-long event for middle to high school students (grades 6-12), using the curriculum that is available year-round to educators. 

Upon enrollment you will be given instructions on how to register an account. I have set up a private classroom on the NaNoWriMo website where we can brainstorm, host live timed "write-ins", encourage one another to meet word count goals, and upload our work to track progress. During this month your student will be learning how to start, write, finish and eventually revise and edit their very own novel!

At the end of the month, any student who has reached the 50k goal will "win" NaNoWriMo, and there are several prizes earned from the website itself. However, students can also set their own word count goals and will receive a completion certificate from the site as well, when they have reached their word count goal. You can download and print the certificate, and if you write your story on the website itself (the site supports its own version of Word), you can download print out your story in book page size.

Our class schedule is as follows: 

Week 1 - Introduction and brainstorming. I will assist students in setting up their NaNoWriMo accounts and joining our custom, private classroom, where they will be writing their novels. Students will learn how to make their own "thought cloud" and prepare their stories by brainstorming the plot and settling on details, such as character names and setting. To prepare for this event, please print out the workbook that is provided upon enrollment.

Week 2 - Novel writing basics (character development exercises, discussing plot, climax, resolutions, etc). Students will be asked to share elements of their story to see where they might make improvements, and to encourage other students that might be "stuck". 

Week 3 - Write-ins and word sprints! We will be writing live together and comparing word counts. Word sprints are a great way to push through writer's block and get your ideas on paper. 

Week 4 - Now what?! Revising and editing your novel! Basics of proofreading and editing your novel, and discussion of publication options.

So... what can you write about? Anything! It can be fiction, short story, a script, fanfiction, a collection of poetry and more!

For this course, I will be providing lesson plans and worksheets that are accredited and meet USA Common Core standards (writing and language arts). I will also be sharing many of my own personal writing tips and tricks. There will be several time slots scheduled for writing in-class, but students will be expected to do most of their writing offline. Many writers schedule a time every day to write, whereas some prefer to write in larger blocks. The YWP site will track and chart their progress and award badges for every day students log in and write. It will also allow students to have conversations with one another within the classroom, via the forum page. I will frequently post a question or conversation starter during the week to help get the creative juices flowing, and students can post comments and replies to these posts. It is helpful if the student has access to the website via their own personal device; you can access the website via desktop, laptop or mobile device. I will be monitoring all replies and conversations as administrator.

This event always proves to be exciting and fun for all! It does, however, require a minimum of 3 students to be effective. At times, our classes experience last-minute students who enroll within an hour or two of class start time, but if a third student has not enrolled 24 hours before the class is scheduled to start, I will send a message to all enrolled students and you will have the option to wait until closer to class start time to see if we get any last-minute enrollments, postpone the class to a future date, or request cancellation with full refund. To help meet the class minimum, please consider sharing this class with other parents that you think might  be interested! I offer sibling and group discounts to any group of 3+ students that enroll together.