Education, Stading Style

This is the first week for my Creative Writing students to particpate in the 100 Word Challenge at 100wc.net.  There is a version of the challenge for adults, too, and so I will post 100 words myself.  Check out their work on our Creative Writing Blog!

My Creative Writing students contribute to a blog each week, “Write.  Then Write More.” The entries will be mostly guided journal responses, but it will also feature some of their on-going projects.

Right now we are in a writing assignment about point of view:  write a short piece in your ‘go-to’ narrator style (mine is 3rd Person Limited).  Then revise that piece twice so that by the end of the assignment, the story is told in three points of view:  1st Person, 3rd Person Limited and 3rd Person Omniscient.

I want to do 2nd Person point of view writing with the students, but not for this assignment.  2nd Person, where the writer is speaking to the reader in the most simple of explanations,  is incredibly difficult to write in fiction.  I think we’ll have to read some of it, first.

So, gentle reader, read more about Point of View in this article and google “2nd person narrative stories” for more information about the concept.

Well, I lost the National Novel Writing Month challenge. My final word count for the month was 30,248 words.

Let me say that differently:

MY FINAL WORD COUNT WAS 30,248! GO ME!

That is a lot of words, and was a lot of time. I found I could do about 1,000 words and hour if I stayed focused on the task…which wasn’t the easiest accomplishment given the young humans in my home. I also realized that I did better when I mulled over the story in my head for a while before trying to write it.

I haven’t given up on the story. I think it is sweet (okay, maybe trite is the better word) and I have a new goal: 50,000 words in 2011. I’m 60% of the way there.

One of the unforeseen effects of this novel writing thing is that I’m now teaching Creative Writing next semester. I had so much FUN just writing, I tossed that elective into the hat for our High Schoolers, and two are going to take it. Maybe I’ll have some time to write some more, because you always want to model learning, right?

The Office of Letters and Lights sponsors Script Frenzy in April: write a 75 page script in a month. That might be fun…we’ll see what my students think!

Write on!