The Office of Letters and Light Blog

A Frenzied Festival of Plays

Educator Cynthia Garcia doesn’t just teach noveling or scriptwriting to one class at her school in Fairmont, WV. She brings both NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy to the whole student body. We always love her enthusiasm and were excited to hear how her April went. Here’s what she told us about the school’s first ever “Frenzy Festival.”

April was pretty chaotic at our school. Between Easter break, spring break, standardized testing, and “weather days” (Fridays off of school to substitute for the snow days we had built into our calendar but didn’t use), we only had a handful of actual school days all month.

Two years ago, I might have figured April for a lost month, but that was before two NaNoWriMos and a Script Frenzy. I knew better. I put up my “Script Frenzy is Coming!” posters in March, sent for my classroom kit, and let the buzz begin.

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NEO-Driven YWP Frenziers!

For all of our events, the Young Writers Program lends NEOs—small word-processing computers—to a few deserving classrooms around the country. We love to check in and hear about their progress. Laura Nicholson, the creative writing teacher at Huntley Project High School in Worden, MT, recently told us about what her students have been working on this April.

Who knew that writing a script could be such a hard process? My students chose to write their scripts in groups, since I have a creative writing class that consists of four sophomores, four juniors, and four seniors. Each class group has screamed, cried, laughed, forced, and written their way through a short film or stage script.

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Dear OLL

In addition to the many generous donations we receive online, we always get a few contributions mailed to the office. The best part about these is that they’re often accompanied by a great letter from the donor. The other day, we got the note below from Robin, a middle schooler from Washington State who’s been inspired by the YWP.

Dear OLL,

Thank you so much for creating NaNoWriMo, Script Frenzy and the YWP. If you hadn’t created them I wouldn’t love writing as much as I do now. I know you work very hard keeping the sites safe and awesome. Because I had a lot of fun noveling last November I felt confident enough to help out at my local middle school’s Beauty and the Beast stage production (I’m helping out backstage with sets and props). Doing that has also encouraged me to write my own script.

The pictures are of my gerbils Aspen (the single gerbil in the larger photo with a whit spot on her head), Hazel (the orange gerbil drinking water) and Eclipse (the black gerbil who is trying to push Hazel out of the way for her own turn to drink water). And most importantly, the $25 donation to keep the fabulous writing going!

– Robin

Letters and Light Around the World: Tracy Dawson

It’s always fun to hear about kids and teens doing NaNoWriMo halfway around the world. Recently, we were sent an article about Tracy Dawson’s work in the small town of Parkes, Australia (population: 9,826), and we had to learn more. Here, she tells us how she got a program going in a tiny community with no previous writing support.

How did you hear about the NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program, and what made you want to get involved?

Our school had several visits from Dr. Matthew Finch during 2011. He told me about NaNoWriMo and I was very interested and knew several students who were budding writers.

Coming from a rural town without a tradition of a writing community, how did you spark interest among your students?

I mainly publicised NaNoWriMo in school—using our newsletter, signage within the library, communication with English teachers, etc. I also posted on my library blog, Nailing Jelly to a Tree.

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This Is Why I Teach

Elementary teacher Nancye Blair sent along this video and blog post. We love hearing about how the Young Writers Program inspires students and educators—as Nancye discusses how her kids spurred on her own word count. Find out why all of Nancye’s students can say, “I am an author.”

Last month, I took on a challenge that I did not believe that I could accomplish and that I did not even intend to fight to achieve. That challenge was writing my first novel alongside sixteen of my fourth and fifth grade students as part of National Novel Writing Month. When I first looked into the NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program, I saw it as a unique opportunity to encourage my students to write while participating in a global endeavor. Having a clear beginning and end point, along with the knowledge that other kids were simultaneously writing all over the world was very motivating for my students. That, plus the idea that they would receive a real printed copy of their novel launching them to “real author” status, set the group of us into motion.

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The Magic Assignment

The Young Writers Program exploded with activity this past November, with the highest win rate for participants in the history of our program. The success of YWP has everything to do with your participation and donations, and with the fantastic educators we get to work with. Laura Bradley, a middle school teacher in Petaluma, CA, graciously shared her experience with us.

The bell rings, my classroom door flies open, and Tony comes hurtling through. “Can we write today, Mrs. Bradley? Please, please tell me we’re gonna write today!” He glances at the white board, sees “writing” on the agenda, and throws his hands up in celebration. “Yes!”

In 20 years of teaching, I have never seen students this eager to write. Sure, I have had success in the past with writing assignments that were tailored to engage my often-reluctant eighth grade writers, and I have seen them respond with enthusiasm to many writing pieces. But I am sure that I have never had students beg for writing time day after day. Nor have I seen them write silently and focused for a solid 45 minutes, day after day. So what is this magic assignment?

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Conquering the Middles: A NaNo College Essay

Every year, we have some young Wrimos who not only write their novels in November, but are preparing to take the leap into a new phase of their lives: university! We were lucky enough to have lightonwings share her college application essay with us:

Success doesn’t come easily.  I have learned this lesson every November for the past three years.  November is National Novel Writing Month, a donation-funded literary challenge that entices thousands of people to write fifty thousand words in thirty days.  Since my freshman year, I have balanced thirty-day “noveling” with schoolwork and extracurriculars and succeeded every time, but never without an intense amount of struggle.

The big point, for me, of National Novel Writing Month is that success only comes if I drag close to two thousand words from my fingertips every day for thirty days. While the novel is new and fresh, this is a treat, but the middle of every novel is pure drudgery.  Plot holes become apparent.  Characters seem trite and irritating. Plenty of days, stuck in the middle, my inspiration was nonexistent and writing was torture.  But because I wanted a finished novel, I kept pushing, learning the huge lesson of November; if I continue to pursue, I will eventually succeed.  

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Pep Talk from Christopher Paolini

The YWP has hosted a lot of amazing pep talks this year, but we’re especially proud to have Christopher Paolini give us some mid-month advice. Christopher wrote the first book in the Eragon series when he was 15, and his most recent installment was an instant blockbuster (489,000 copies!) upon its release last week. Which one of our young writers will be the next Paolini-eque success?

Dear NaNoWriMo Participants,

No doubt you are currently hard at work on your novel for this year’s contest. As someone who once wrote 200,000 words in three and a half months, I know exactly what you’re going through.

So. Here’s my advice based on over 10 years of working to deadlines.

First, writing your book is going to be difficult. Know this. Accept this. Embrace this. It may be fun as well, but make no mistake, what you’re attempting is a major undertaking.

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Donation Day Thank You!

Thank you so much to everyone who donated or bought something in the OLL store for Donation Day yesterday! In 24 hours, you contributed $51,645! As the parent nonprofit of NaNoWriMo, we’d think it a feat to reach 50,000 units of anything in a short amount of time. But raising that much money for NaNoWriMo and the Young Writers Program makes us absolutely ecstatic. And so, so grateful.

We had over 1,400 people donate yesterday. That’s the kind of grassroots support that most nonprofits would give their organizational eyeteeth for. To our amazing donors on Donation Day and throughout the year—we appreciate you so much, and we look forward to using your contribution to make the world a more inspiring place.

- Chris B.

Writing with a Kindergartener

This year, I have the pleasure of participating, not only in my 10th NaNoWriMo event, but also doing so alongside my five-year-old daughter. She’s always been imaginative, but previously wasn’t able to sit still long enough to participate. Now, though, my big kindergartener is ready for the Young Writers Program!

I set up a camera for her, and she tells me her story, in all its rambling, slightly incoherent glory. I finally (as of today) wrote more than she did, but she’s been steadily skunking me in word count!

It has been so incredible to see my own daughter take to writing the way I’ve always hoped at least one of my kids would. I guess it was inevitable. I did fail NaNoWriMo 2005 because I had her on November 16th (I still got 18K that year, though!), so she was born into the madness. It was natural that she should eventually join it. Yesterday, she thrilled me even more by joining me at a write-in, and asking me to help her write more of her story by herself. She drew her pictures, and then told me what she wanted to write. I wrote the sentence down, and she faithfully transcribed it. I didn’t correct her grammar.

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Today is Donation Day! Hooray!

We’re a grassroots, participant-funded nonprofit. If you believe in what we do, please keep NaNoWriMo and the Young Writers Program going strong by making a donation. Our goal today is $100,000. Thank you so much for helping us give a creative boost to kids and adults around the world this fall!