31 Novel Part 3 // Due the week of May 10, 2017

Hi Everyone!

Same as last week—write your next 4-5+ pages, and read the next 4-5+ pages of your partner's novel, leaving at least 4 comments. Be sure your comments are specific and explanatory. Answer the question of why you feel the way that you feel.

Something that always helps me is to go to a coffee shop, especially on a nice rainy day like what we're having and just write :D

Have fun and email me if you have questions!

30 Novel Pt. 2 // Due the week of May 4, 2017

Hi Everyone!

The homework this week is to write the next 4-5 pages of your novel, and to read the first 4 pages of your partner’s novel and comment at least 4 comments (our usual comment rules—no grammar but rather big picture comments.) You can comment using the "insert comment" function of Google Drive so that you don't have to actually write on their paper. If you're not sure how to "insert comment," Google "insert comment google drive" and the phrase will bring up some tutorials.

Thanks and email me if you have questions!

29 Novel Beginning // Due the week of April 26, 2017

Hi Everyone!

This week, you are starting your novels, so start by writing the first 4-5+ pages of your novel! (minimum 4)

I will not be grading you on grammar or how perfect it is—the key of this assignment is just to get you writing more than you've potentially ever written before! A lot of people think, "I could never write one thing that was 15-20 pages long!", but this year, you'll get to see how you absolutely can!

Here are a couple of tips if you get stuck:

• Change the plan! If your plot diagram has your character spending the next ten chapters on a bus, and you're feeling bored, change it up! Add a second love interest! Add a ghost! Add a bus crash! Whatever keeps you interested!
• Skip around! If you feel like a certain scene that you've planned is kind of boring but you really think it's important, skip it for now and come back to it later! (Just add a sentence or two explaining the missing section, so that your partner isn't super confused.)
• Brainstorm with a friend or family member! There's nothing like a second mind to give you exciting ideas to add to your novel! They can also help you flesh things out, so you can see if your character needs more development, or what have you.
• Email your partner if you want some advice!
• Look up novel writing inspiration on Pinterest (with a parent's permission and overseeing) to get some inspiration!
• If you are still having trouble, it might be necessary to just start from scratch and plan a new novel—not all ideas you have will provide enough inspiration for a full novel. At that point, brainstorming a new idea with a friend is a great idea! (This last option is not recommended but rather only for desperate situations :D)

Most importantly, let your creativity run wild! Have fun! 

28 Novel Plot Diagram and Scene List // Due the week of April 18, 2017

Hi Everyone!

This week, your homework involves more thinking than writing, but it is still very important because you are brainstorming the novel! If you don't like your ideas later on, it will involve a lot of make-up work, so make sure you like your idea now :D

• On a piece of paper, plot out your novel using a plot diagram. Make sure to have at least 5 rising action events. Also make sure that all of your events (after the inciting event) build on each other to increase the tension.
• 

• On Google Drive, write out a scenes list of around 15-25 scenes that will occur in your novel. Each scene should have 1-2 complete sentences that describe it. i.e.:
• Betty is walking down the street in the alien world of Lum. Suddenly, an alien boy gets hit by a car, and Betty stays with him until the ambulance comes. (Exposition and Inciting Event both happen in this scene. That's okay.)
• Betty visits the alien boy in the hospital. He's unconscious, but she talks to him about her sad life story, thinking he can't hear her.
• The boy wakes up the next day, and tells Betty that he heard everything she said and she's embarrassed (when she visits him that evening). The boy asks her to visit again.
• When Betty visits again the next day, the boy is missing from the hospital. The doctors all act like he was never there, like Betty is insane. Betty realizes there's a conspiracy going on.
• Etc, etc, etc.

Be ready to talk about your ideas in class next week!

27 Narrator: Objective Point of View // Due the week of April 13, 2017

Hi Everyone!

First let's review the three different points of view:

1. First Person POV: I, Me, My (is the main character)
1. I stepped into the spaceship.
2. The dragon flies past me. 
2. Second Person POV: You, Your, You're (is the main character)
1. You stepped into the spaceship.
2. The dragon flies past you.  
3. Third Person POV: He, She, They, Bob (is the main character)
1. Bob stepped into the spaceship.
2. The dragon flies past Bob.

Therefore, the narrator is sometimes also the main character (first person), and sometimes the narrator is watching the main character (third person), and sometimes the narrator makes the reader into the main character (second person). 

However, there can be some overlap. For example, in a framing narrative, a person speaking in first person is often telling the story about someone else, in third person. 

But now onto what we will really be practicing: The three different levels of knowledge for the narrator:

1. Omniscient: The narrator is inside every (main) character's mind. He knows what Belle and the Beast are both thinking.
2. Limited: The narrator is inside only the main character's mind. She knows what Belle is thinking, but not the Beast.
3. Objective: The narrator is inside no one's mind. He must gather and describe what Belle and the Beast are thinking just from their body language, facial expressions, dialogue, and more. He can't say "She was sad…" because he can't know that she was sad. He can only say, "Tears dripped down her cheeks, and her lower lip trembled…"

HOMEWORK: 

Write a short story of ~1-4 pages in objective third person point of view. (You can use a framing narrative if you'd like, but the narrator still must not be able to know the main character's inner thoughts.) It's harder than it sounds, so really read over your story when you're finished to try to catch any deviations from objective POV! 

Try, as usual, to include an exciting bang at the end, and imagery, and also remember that it should be whole by itself—not the first chapter of a novel. 

We'll get to write the novel next, so that's when we'll do the first chapter!

This is our last short story, so have fun with it!

Email me if you have questions!

26 Peer Review Imagery // Due the week of March 26, 2017

Hi Everyone!

For homework, write at least 5 comments for each of the paper that we have not yet read in class. Be sure to write complete sentences that explain why you believe what you believe about the paper.

1. Be specific
2. Be kind
3. Be constructive

Email me if you have questions!

25 Imagery // Due the week of March 18, 2017

Hi Everyone!

This week, you learned about using imagery to paint a picture in the minds of your readers! Imagery uses all five senses to do so, using:

1. Similes (comparisons using "like" or "as")
2. Specific adjectives and adverbs
3. Specific nouns
4. Specific verbs

• A paragraph with bad imagery:
• The girl walked into the candy land. It was really amazing and neat. It smelled wonderful. Everything tasted great! She saw so many cool things!
• This description includes multiple senses (smell, taste, sight, etc), but it's not specific enough to actually give us an image in our mind.
• A paragraph with good imagery:
• The girl walked into the candy land and was hit with the strong smell of chocolate mint. Above her, she saw light, puffy pink clouds that were close enough for her to touch. When she grabbed one, it was so soft she could barely feel it—like a down feather. Immediately, she stuck it into her mouth and tasted grape sweet and sourness. 

Homework this week is to write a ~1.5-4 page story that has an exciting ending just like the last one, but also really focuses on including a bunch of imagery, probably with some sort of world-building! It's not a lot of space for a story, so remember, you're not writing a novel—the plot should be relatively simple (but with a twist at the ending helps).

(4 pages is pushing it for length; lots of people wanted to be able to write more so I extended the 3 page limit, but try to not make it more than 4 pages. I love that you guys want to write more, but it just makes it tough for peer reviewing to make it too long. We will be getting a chance to write novels at the end of the year, and those can be as long as you'd like :D)