NOVELISTS UNITE! Ms. Witham’s Essential Reminders and Expectations for Noveling over Break

Happy Thanksgiving Break, Novelists!

You have done an astounding job of noveling so far. Some of you are well beyond the 50% mark and are well on your way to Noveling Triumph. Here are some encouraging reminders to get you there over your break:

1. You Will Write Everyday. Beware of the Dangers of Days Off. Novelists are much more successful when they write everyday, multiple times a day. TRUST ME. NOVEL BEFORE ___(fill in the blank: Napping, Gaming, Instagraming, Tweeting, Sleeping, Snacking)___

**Most mornings Ms. W will be noveling at the Venice Grind cafe, from 8-ish to 10-ish. Stop by and novel, or set up another meeting spot for yourself where you can meet with friends to novel. NOVELISTS UNITE!**

2. You will do Research for your novel. You MUST write down your specific sources at the back of your novel notebook. This can include any of the following:

A. Interview someone who can help you illuminate a character, a plot point, a setting. 

Example: If your character goes on a road trip, interview someone who has road trip. If you want to add a plot twist about a violent storm or earthquake or battle-scene, interview someone who has lived through that.

B. Web Research: Use Wikipedia, Google Images, You Tube to look up settings, diseases, famous battle tactics of samurai. Whatever your novel needs, the Web has information about it.

C. Book research: Novels, non-fiction books, atlases, encyclopedias, magazines: all can be great sources of information. Camp out at the library and watch your novel come to life!

D. Listen to StoryCorps Interviews at http://storycorps.org/

These are interviews between family members, friends, mentors about a wide range of fascinating moments in people’s lives. You will be inspired, and new characters and plot twists abound.
E. Gather Stories at Thanksgiving. Family Gatherings are a great place to sit down and listen to someone's story and see how you can work in amazing experiences into your novel. Everyone has a story~Listen in, ask questions, do an informal interview. The person will be honored to have inspired your writing.

3. You will reread at least some chapters of your novel to identify and begin to revise the three sections you want to “publish.” Feel free to type up revisions~Ms. Witham will be reading excerpts starting December 2.

     Two are specific:

☐ Opening Pages (at least 300 words)  

☐ Scene from the Climax (or a favorite scene from the middle)(at least 300-500 words)

One “Your Choice” Excerpt: (at least 300-500 words)

☐ Scene with a significant literary allusion

☐ Research-based scene (with a Works cited page)

☐ STEMM-Inspired scene (use learning from STEMM classes)

**Please review the pep talks and the Rubric and Three-Step Revision Method handouts Ms. Witham gave you in the last days before the break.**

4. Stay Connected with Fellow Novelists and Update your WORD COUNT!: Please keep checking in on ywp.nanowrimo.org for pep talks and to see how fellow novelists in our class are doing. You will be inspired!

You should be finished with your word count by 11/30/13 at 11:59 if you intend to update your progress on ywp.nanowrimo.org and be proclaimed a “WINNER” of NaNoWriMo. Please see http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/how-to-win for more information.

5. Feel free to start typing instead of noveling by hand! If you do so, I recommend starting with where you are now, and IF you have extra time after making your daily word count goal, you can go back and type from the beginning. Check out the Word Count Validator on the website~It’s exciting to see it tell you that yes, you have made your goal! And remember, SAVE OFTEN if you are typing, and Back up your novel on a flash drive!

6. Get Artistic! Start playing with ideas for your cover or illustrations you want to include. These can be character drawings, maps, illustrations of scenes, you name it.

ART + A GREAT STORY = A Compelling, Intriguing Novel