My student Garrett insisted he didn’t need to do any of the prep work for writing his novel. “That’s just not how I write, Mrs. Bradley. I’ve got the basic ideas in my head, and when I write, those ideas just flow onto the paper. It works for me!”
Younger Teacher Me might have given Garrett permission to skip the prep work and start writing, but Older Teacher Me knew better. Students might resist putting plans to paper (just like some adult writers we know), but it is a valuable part of the writing process and can be especially helpful in the midst of writer’s block.
My students use the free Young Novelist Challenge workbooks for brainstorming, outlining, planning, and building their stories. When November arrives and they start writing their novel, they keep their workbooks on their desk. One of our recommendations for writer’s block is to step away from their draft and thumb through their workbooks. When they are stuck on what to write next, those workbooks can give them fresh ideas and jumpstart their writing.
Download a free PDF of a workbook and make copies for your students, or give them their own Google Doc workbook to complete online. There are plenty of lessons in the Young Novelist Challenge curriculum for preparing your students to write; here are some I found especially valuable:
Plot
Some writers may prefer to be a pantser (writing by the seat of their pants) rather than an organized planner, but I have learned that younger writers need more planning than they think they do. Without putting some ideas on paper, they will run out of steam in the second week (or second day) of writing, and struggle to move forward without them.
The YNC resources include over a dozen lessons on plot. The most basic has students outline their plot on a rollercoaster. Trying to figure out now when their story will peak and how it will end is a great way to keep them writing toward those plot points in November.
I have also seen students come up with their own ways to organize and plot their stories. Here are some of my favorites from my students, including character sketches, chapter summaries, fantasy maps, and even a mini accordion file.
You and your students might enjoy developing your own outline structures with these visual frameworks. Again, the more time we give students to plan and explore their stories, the better prepared and enthusiastic they will be come November.
Dialogue
The nitty gritty of writing dialogue doesn’t usually spark a lot of joy for my students, but I learned the hard way that they really need at least one dialogue lesson before November 1. The rules of dialogue can be tricky, and while we might want to encourage students to silence that inner editor, dialogue without editing can be a disaster.
There are some good dialogue lessons in the YNC curriculum. Students could practice writing dialogue with characters from their novel, which is a great way to increase their enthusiasm for writing their stories. I also like to bring in some comic strips and have students write the dialogue that is spoken by the characters. Either way, some time practicing how to punctuate, indent, and tag dialogue will pay off in spades down the writing road.
Setting
In my early years of teaching NaNoWriMo, I spent more time on characters and plot than anything else. And then, after a summer vacation in Colorado, I decided I wanted to set my next novel there. I pulled up the Chamber of Commerce site for Steamboat Springs, Colorado and showed my students how it could help me with settings for my novel. We looked at how the site offered ideas for where our characters might hang out, the kinds of activities they might enjoy, what the weather would be like, and how the setting itself could impact the lives of their characters and their families.
Then my students did their own online research, learning about specific cities, states, and even countries where their stories were set. They took notes on details they could use to make their novels better, and in the process, got even more excited to start writing.
Dedicating some prep time prior to November will give your students the tools they need to keep on writing through all the ups and downs of the NaNoWriMo journey.