The goal of this class is to finish writing or rewriting your novel. Students should have either written a complete story before or should be in the process of writing a fictional story. We will cover the fictional writing elements: plotting, characterization, setting, conflict, dialogue, narrative technique, point-of-view, editing, and more. 

This class meets the requirements for a US middle school/junior high elective in Creative Writing. Time spent is based off California's 60 minimum hours for the semester. Most students will spend more than 60 hours during the 10 weeks to complete this course. If your state/province/country requires more than 60 hours, please let me know and I can help you with extra assignments to meet the requirement. 

Each class will be broken up into two parts. Part 1: we will discuss a different writing topic to help the students understand storytelling methods and the craft of writing. Part 2: the students will actively work on the item we discussed or will do writing sprints on their short story, novella, or novel. 

Depending on the subject and number of students we will either round robin ideas with the entire class or students will be assigned into breakout rooms to work with a partner on the task.  

Week 1 - Students will share the project they are working on and any difficulties they are having with the project. They will make a writing/rewriting plan for the next 10 weeks with concrete goals and tasks. We'll discuss basics of genre in fiction writing. 

Week 2 - We'll discuss traditional character archetypes in fiction as well as the types of characters that populate the genre they are writing in. We'll discuss and build their characters' back stories and life in their story world. Students will determine their characters' outer wants, inner needs, and weaknesses. If students have already built their characters, they will go deeper into those character sketches. If they haven't made a character sketch before, they will be given the tools to do so. 

Week 3 - Conflict! The heart of any story is the conflict that the characters must face: both outer conflicts and inner conflicts, small and large conflicts, and conflicts for secondary characters. We'll also talk about a protagonist(s) conflict with a person antagonist, societal antagonist, or nature antagonist, and how the conflict will change depending on the style of antagonist. The students will examine the conflict in their own story; have they created enough conflict? We'll also discus narration point-of-view and writing in past vs. present tense. 

Week 4 - We'll talk about the various methods of plotting and story telling formulas (archetypal story structures). Students can use a story map that speaks to them or use their own method of plotting to decide what is going to happen in the story. Students who follow the pantsing method of writing will not be required to plot out their story during the workshop time, but may use the time for other worldbuilding activities. If the student has been experiencing writer's block, could it be the structure of the story?

Week 5 - Don't forget to give some time to your sub-plots. Depending on genre and length the student is going for they will need to include at least one or multiple sub-plots. How to decide which secondary characters warrant a sub-plot. Find sub-plots that can help their hero(s) get what they want or get in the way of the main plot. Looking at their story, they will ask themselves if they need more sub-plots, if they have them but forgot about them, if they need to eliminate one they wrote, if they need to make one bigger than it already is? 

Week 6 - We will go over settings and world building. Where do the stories take place? Both large settings, i.e. Earth, and smaller settings, i.e. the main character's bedroom. What details about the settings should be included to immerse the reader in the location? Have students done enough world building for their stories? Whether that be research on real life items or making something up. 

Week 7 - What a character doesn't say can be just as important as what they say. We will go over the importance of dialogue; including, how to make their characters sound like real people, how to use dialogue tags to help tell the story, and making sure the dialogue either furthers the plot, enhances character, and/or moves the story forward. Inner monologue. We'll discuss the use of inner monologue to let the reader know what their character(s) are thinking. This will link back to the decision on whose point-of-view(s) the story is told from and just how deep into their inner thoughts they want to go as a writer. 

Week 8 - We will go over editing techniques and what to do once they have finished their novel and are ready to tackle edits or rewriting. We'll discuss developmental editing, copy editing, and proofreading. Different ways to conduct their editing drafts (all in one big swell swoop or different drafts for different issues). 

Week 9 - It is workshop week. We will go over how to get feedback from beta readers, writers, or mentors on their story. They will learn how to give feedback by giving feedback to their classmates in class. They will get feedback on their opening pages of the stories that they have been writing and editing in this class. 

Week 10 - What do they do with their stories now? This week's lessons will be determined by the learners. We might do more editing, format manuscripts for submissions, or format books into ebooks for self publication. 

Topics may be moved around based on student interest and requests.