NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program.

Whoa. I wrote a novel. I wrote a 50,000 word novel. I wrote a 50,000 word novel in one month.

Impressive.

But more impressive is that all of my ninth grade students did too.  645,593 words were written between two sections (myself included).

For the month of November we all participated in National Novel Writing Month and wrote in class nearly the entire month. We used the workbooks provided by the non-profit that runs NaNoWriMo, The Office of Light and Letters.

This was one of the most interesting things I have ever done as a teacher because it was SO hands-off. Students set their own word count goals based on the recommendations of NaNoWriMo and then just needed to meet their own goal. There was some cheating, but for the most part kids just wrote what was on their minds and got the job done.