This fall, 28 JWI 5th and 6th graders embarked on a journey most people would never even dream of attempting. These brave souls took the NaNoWriMo challenge and successfully wrote an entire novel in thirty days!
During NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), thousands of people across the nation attempt to write an entire novel in thirty days. Novelists begin writing November 1 and must finish their rough drafts by midnight, November 30.
JWI writers set word count goals between 10,000-25,000 words and wrote furiously at school and at home to meet their goals. Writers participated in a variety of writing workshops before, during, and after the craziness of November writing. October workshops focused on finding story ideas, mapping out the story, goal setting, and strategies for writing without distraction. In November, students explored the book publication process, learned strategies for crafting strong fiction, and studied cover design options. December was dedicated to revising and editing the novels to get them ready for the publication deadline.
Dwight Watson and Adena Pregler at the Jenks Print Shop brought the students’ work to life in professionally printed and bound novels. A copy of each completed novel was added to the library collection at JWI for other students to borrow. There are already waiting lists for several of the novels!
The culmination of the NaNoWriMo journey was in March when all 28 authors were honored at an Author Celebration, surrounded by family and friends in the JWI media center. The smiles of both authors and guests were infectious and the authors’ feeling of accomplishment filled the room with positive energy.
We are so proud of our student authors for attempting such a massive challenge!
NaNoWriMo by the Numbers:
7- The number of years JWI has participated in NaNoWriMo
9-The number of 5th graders that participate in NaNoWriMo 2023
12- The number of 6th graders who wrote a novel in both 2022 and 2023
19- The number of 6th graders that participated in NaNoWriMo 2023
212- The total number of novels written by JWI students as part of NaNoWriMo
25,238- The number of words in the longest rough draft written in 2023
54,580- The longest novel ever written as part of JWI NaNoWriMo (2021)
Priceless- The sense of accomplishment felt by out student authors