Tag:

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo’s Young Writer’s Program (YWP)

by Peggy Reimers October 17, 2023

written by Peggy Reimers

I have been tasked with checking out another great possibility for students: NaNoWriMo. That is quite the name! Is NaNoWriMo an abbreviation, acronym, or initialism? Check out the video if you want to know how to pronounce it. Let’s start at the beginning, learning about what NaNoWriMo is; and then, let’s explore the NaNoWriMo Young Writer’s Program (YWP).

What is NaNoWriMo?

November is National Novel Writing Month (NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth), which is abbreviated as NaNoWriMo. (I can see why!) The goal of this annual creative writing event is to encourage and challenge participants to write a 50,000-word novel in just 30 days. If you are doing the math, that is 1,667 words per day. This global event brings together writers of all levels and backgrounds to work on their writing projects.

But NaNoWriMo is also a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides tools, structure, community, and encouragement to help people find their voices, achieve creative goals, and build new worlds — on and off the page.

What is the NaNoWriMo Young Writer’s Program?

According to the website, “NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program (YWP) takes a joyful, focused approach to creative writing and makes it accessible to young writers, educators, and families.” It provides educators with standards-aligned resources and lessons for supporting writers who are under 18 in writing a novel during NaNoWriMo and in completing smaller writing projects all year long! Additionally, it offers tools to track progress, a writing space, workbooks, and motivational materials. Students can sign up on their own or as part of a class set up by their teacher.

To work on a novel, you can join an official event like NaNoWriMo in November, or Camp NaNoWriMo in April and July, set a word-count goal, and try to reach it by the end of the month.

What ages can participate in the YWP?

Participants 17 and under (18 is okay if still in high school) can sign up for individual accounts. If students are participating with a teacher or group leader, they can join the online classroom created by their teacher to stay connected.

Do students have to write 50,000 words?

No, the YWP allows participants to set individualized goals. 1,000 words? 10,000? 100,000??? It’s up to you! One can use the progress-tracking tools on the site to stay on track. If no official event is happening, students can create a personal challenge with their own deadline for a new or existing project.

Young writers can write directly in their YWP writing space or in a separate document, find inspiration in YWP’s noveling resources, and tap a worldwide community of fellow writers for support in YWP’s forums. But it’s not just about November. YWP supported educators and students in writing projects all year long through their resources!

Sign up for NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program.
Tell a little about yourself.
Use the Educator Resources.
Create your virtual classroom(s).
Enroll students in your class with a unique classroom code.
Help students create their novels.
When the challenge begins, students start writing!
Track student progress.
Keep your students motivated.
Students write until the very end of the challenge.

NaNoWriMo provides virtual classroom spaces on their site, as well as student workbooks, Common Core-aligned curricula, and free motivational materials.

Screenshot by Emily Horn: NaNoWriMo’s YWP, **Educator Resources Page**

Sign Up for YWP

Educator FAQs

Take advantage of this global movement! Inspire your students of all ages and backgrounds to take on the exhilarating challenge of writing a novel in just 30 days. The Young Writers Program (YWP) ensures that this creative journey is accessible, joyful, and educational for young writers. So, if you want to boost writing skills, work on a specific genre of writing, develop students’ research skills, and more, NaNoWriMo might just be the perfect adventure to embark upon. Get ready to let creativity run wild and bring ideas to life, one word at a time!

Follow NaNoWriMo:

X (Twitter)

Facebook

YouTube

Instagram

Featured Image: Screenshot by Emily Horn: NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program, Home Page

October 17, 2023 0 comment

Uncategorized

What Is NaNoWriMo?

by Andrew Roush November 3, 2020

written by Andrew Roush

Creative writing can be a challenge. Faced with a blank sheet of paper, a blinking cursor, or a stack of ideas, we might balk. This feeling is the dread specter of writer’s block — a feeling that, no matter how prepared to write about something we may be, putting words to the page in the right order (and in the right amount) can be paralyzing, even for seasoned writers.

Archers often experience what’s called “target panic,” where their body and mind lock up when the archer aims for the target. Golfers get the “yips,” a sudden inability to carry out the fine motor skills required for the sport, especially when putting. Aviators, motorcyclists, and race car drivers sometimes fall victim to “target fixation” — becoming so focused on a target that they increase their likelihood of unintentionally colliding with it.

Unblocking the Writer

Over the years, many solutions and aids have been developed for creative block. Mind mapping, discussion, journaling, and more have proven effective. And sometimes, forcing oneself to put something on the page, no matter how unrefined, can help.

A writer friend of mine recently offered me advice on starting a draft: Just write it. Write it all down, and when you’re done, you can edit what you have into something closer to your goal. Sometimes, the best way to write is to simply do it.

That’s the idea behind National Novel Writing Month, known colloquially as “NaNoWriMo” (naa-no-rye-mo). Started in 1999, it’s an event and a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people create their first book, novel, or other creative writing endeavor. To do so, participants agree to do their best to write 50,000 words — a novel’s worth — during the month of November.

It’s a tall order, and many don’t succeed, but that’s not entirely the point. Regular writing can help prompt students to explore writing in new ways, write about topics they care about, or simply learn what it takes to explain their ideas in writing.

Inspiring Young Writers during National Novel Writing Month

To help teachers and students engage in the month-long writing binge, NaNoWriMo has developed the Young Writer Program, designed to inspire young people to write under the theme “Your Story Matters.” Educators can check out the FAQs about the program here, learn more details on the Getting Started page, and walk through the sign-up process here.

Educators should also check out The NaNoWriMo Classroom, an online resource made specifically to get students involved in the month. The NaNoWriMo Classroom offers daily agendas to help build young novelists, as well as thoughtful questions to consider, FAQs, and tech tips to help you keep the writing process going.

I have never in my life tried to do something so daring and adventurous. I am a pretty daring person, but I do not think I would try to write a novel on my own without any support or encouragement. So thank you.
— Julia, 13 http://www.nanoteacher.org/student-testimonials.html

Have you ever taken part in NaNoWriMo? Are you trying it this year? Let us know in the comments!

More Creative Writing Resources from TCEA

Photo by Stas Knop from Pexels

November 3, 2020 0 comment

English Language Arts Writing

Unlock Your Students’ Stories with Tools to Support Creative Writing

by Susan Meyer November 20, 2018

written by Susan Meyer

Creative writing is the makerspace of the mind. A truly open assignment where students are free to follow whatever crazy directions their stories takes them? This is a priceless avenue for invention.

Right now, we’re nearing the end of Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month). This is a 30-day period when writers around the world write like the wind. The goal is to produce a 50,000-word novel during the month. This writer has personally started and failed the challenge three times. But luckily, I never consider the undertaking truly a failure. After all, even if you don’t hit a certain number of words, there are always things to be gained from writing stories. Writing builds confidence, encourages creativity and self-expression, boosts the imagination and problem-solving skills, and helps you learn to clarify your thoughts.

I want to share some tools to get your students writing down their craziest, most outlandish, off-the-wall stories. Here are some ideas to get started.

Spark Inspiration

Writer’s block. Sometimes the most difficult task is overcoming the blank page. Here are some tools to help your students answer the question: What should I write about?

Thanks to the collective hive mind of the internet, there’s no shortage of writing prompt generators. These provide free plots ideas to start a narrative. This site lets you choose your genre and what type of ending the story will have. And this one from Scholastic lets you choose your grade level for age-appropriate writing projects. This Google Doc option doesn’t create full plots but instead offers imaginative phrases to get those wheels turning.

For your more visual writers, check out this Emoji Writing Prompt Generator. A few randomly-selected icons might spur your students to write the next great American novel.

Finally, if you don’t want a whole plot mapped out for you, there’s this fun generator that creates the first line of a story for you. This could be a fun classtime writing activity if you assign all students to write using the same first line and discover all the different directions their stories can go!

Write Online

Once they have their idea, the next challenge is putting pen to paper. Or, times being what they are, fingers to keyboard. Typing out a story has some distinct advantages. You can easily share it with others for collaboration. It’s often faster than writing by hand. And you don’t have to worry about your only copy blowing away or getting thrown in the fireplace or some other very literary scenario. Here are a few places students can start their next writing project:

Of course, it would be impossible not to include Google Docs. This tool makes word processing in the cloud simple. Changes are automatically saved and your students can also easily share their work with you or other students for comments.

Draft is another free tool designed for online word processing. It has some unique features that make it great for young writers. It provides a word count at the bottom of the screen and lets them know how many words they are writing per day. It also allows them to make “to do” notes in their stories so they can easily come back to things they want to elaborate on more.

Of course, there are also some downsides to writing on a computer instead of in a notebook. Namely: distractions. Calmly is a writing tool that tries to keep the writing process distraction-free. When you start typing, all of the distracting menu options disappear, so you have a blank canvas to work on.

Refine the Work

One of the fun things about creative writing is you can let all the ideas flow freely and not worry about editing. Those NaNoWriMo winners who get to 50,000 words certainly don’t end up with a completely polished, ready-to-publish piece in 30 days. While the goal of encouraging creative writing might not require polishing, you can still provide some tools if your students are happy with their story and want to take it to the editing phase.

Grammarly is a free proofreading extension you can add to your web browser. It will correct typos and grammatical errors in everything from your emails and social media posts to your creative stories and poems.

Hemingway App is a way for writers to improve the readability of their work. It highlights sentences that are hard to read and offers suggestions for fixing them. Depending on their personal style, your budding writers may or may not find this useful. If they enjoy figurative flourishes and are more of a William Faulker than an Ernest Hemmingway, this might not be the tool for them.

Go Forth and Create

In the same way that students can find value in makerspaces by creating things without strict parameters, so too is there great value in free writing. Allowing students to use their imaginations to whip up whole worlds from thin air is powerful. Do you have any favorite writing tools? Please share them in the comments below!

November 20, 2018 0 comment