To honor National Novel Writing Month, as you know, I entered NaNoWriMo’s contest. While I have actually written much this week, I have yet to get to know my new friend, my character Cybil more, but she is waiting, a tad impatiently, but she is waiting.
Always looking for an opportunity for my students to write for the “real world,” I was excited to find this contest for a young adult novel, hosted by Gotham Writers’ Workshop. What makes this an attainable goal for my students are the two guidelines: a title and 250 words.
I wish you could have been in my class yesterday when I introduced this topic to my class…Kaitlin’s fingers immediately went to work. Almost as if she needed me to say…”write a young adult novel.” At one point, I asked…just to clarify…and, yes, through her fingers came the tapping of a novel, a well into which I just happened to “tap.”
Another student expressed her unhappiness with the guidelines. “Only 250 words?” I simply encouraged her to continue to write, for I am sure when she wins this contest that the literary agent will want to see more than that mere 250 words. Right?
The moral of this blog post is this: you never know when that one creative assignment is the inspiration for great rewards.
Who knows…the next Laurie Halse Anderson, Jodi Picoult, Stephanie Meyers, P.C. Cast…that author just might be sitting in my room.
Listen…can you hear the tapping of creativity?
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Interested in another teacher’s experience with this project? Please check out this article ”A School-for-Scribes Program Turns Kids into Novelists” in Edutopia spotlighting teacher Carol Pogash and her students.
