Have any of you ever heard of National Novel Writing Month before? The month of November has been set aside every year for the past fifteen years by the NaNoWriMo organization for budding authors and students to devote one month to writing an entire novel! I think that this idea is really cool, because it not only encourages writers to write every day, but also puts them in a community of other writers to help them with the process if desired.
You can use this as a resource for yourself, to help you write that epic novel you have been planning in your head, or you can use it as a classroom resource! There are teachers out there brave enough to lead elementary through high school students on the month long journey of writing their own novels…how cool is that?!?! Check out the links below to access these awesome resources!
For Your Novel: http://nanowrimo.org
To Write With Students: http://ywp.nanowrimo.org
Workbooks for Young Novelists: http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/workbooks
Fun Fact: Popular novels such as Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen were both written as a part of NaNoWriMo!
I’ve tried NaNoWriMo before, but school has always gotten in the way. I think it’s an amazing idea though!
This is an exciting resource, Lauren! Plus I know how pumped you are about it (: It portrays good writing as a subject the entire nation values and gives students a very important reason to write and show their best work. I can imagine students really getting in to this!