This teaching programme has its roots in National Novel Writing Month, a creative writing programme that is fun and empowering. Students will be challenged to draft an entire novel in one month. For 30 amazing days, our students get to use their imaginations and create!
▲Exhibition of students work
Head of English Department
The Harrow Haikou English Department's Young Writers Programme supports our students to engage in creative writing and learn to understand story narrative, setting, characterisation and storyline design. All Y6 to Y10 (Grades 5 to 9) participated in this programme and completed their novels in six weeks. This exhibition of fiction work is just a small part of what our young writers at Harrow Haikou have accomplished, and we are so proud of their imagination and vision!
Develop a story idea you 're passionate about
Create complex ,believable characters
Construct a detailed plot or outline
Build a strong world for your characters
Learn how an English novel is created from Ms. Hurndell's teaching plan
「Develop an idea for a story you're passionate about that will lead you to chase 50,000 words!」
A good start is half the battle, and before the fiction writing process begins, English Department teachers have led students through extensive prep work, including reviewing various types of novels, videos and news papers and making summaries to record character traits, major plot twists and settings. By studying quality topics and with progressive questions from the English teachers, the students gradually formed their own framework for the novel.
During the study of different types of novels, students can gain insight into others and the world around them. Each person should need to know the meaning of our different identities as individuals, as residents of a community, and as members of a nation.
「When we look closely and critically at ourselves, we discover how our personal perspectives are formed, how we are shaped and influenced by the communities in which we live, and what the growth and events we experience mean. Once we understand our own position in the world, we become sensitive readers who empathize with the characters in the texts we read and better understand their decisions and actions. 」
With this critical thinking, students will gain a deeper understanding of what the novel author had in mind when creating the characters and how key messages are conveyed to the reader through the characters.
Creating your own characters
「Create complex, believable characters. Strong characters can keep you interested in creating a novel.」
Before starting to create a novel, students will need to do a reading summary and create an image of the main characters based on their first week of review, and prepare a PowerPoint presentation to the teacher on the character traits they extracted from their reading. In the student example below, you will see that the character has as many as 46 character traits. Thus, in the student work, you can see a well-rounded, three-dimensional portrayal of the character.
▲Student Example: Character traits setting
「Build a detailed storyline or outline - this will allow you to keep up with your story's development.」
Students should try to build the overall story scene rather than just thinking about how to write a good sentence. This is why Ms. Hurndell emphasized during the first week that students should always do character and plot summaries as they read. Take note of scene ideas in quality novels, which may become a great inspiration for you to draw on and use your imagination.
▲ Record sheet of scene ideas
At the same time, the construction of a panoramic framework allows you to remember the main line of your story despite your wild imagination, without getting lost in your imagination and causing you to be unable to continue writing.
Ms. Hurndell therefore recommends that students divide their imaginary plots and scenes into pre-, mid-, and post-stages, which will help them maintain the integrity of their novel's creation from a big picture perspective.
「Build a powerful world for your characters - one that your readers will want to explore, too.」
Now that you have an outline of your plot, it's time to explore your setting for the novel. The setting of a novel is where and when the story takes place. As you know, most novels have more than one setting. Usually, the author decides to have one big setting (like Los Angeles in 1995), followed by many smaller scenes (like the laundromat, cafe, or classroom where the characters are located). The setting not only serves as a background for the plot in the novel, but also enhances the atmosphere of the novel. This determines the emotional quality of the novel - how you want people to feel when they read your novel. For example: playful, serious, mysterious, tense, warm, dangerous, joyful, etc.
Completing a full story in 6 weeks is not easy, as daily chores, tasks and responsibilities can quickly pile up. While you can never control all the things that pop up, you can make a little room in your busy schedule by taking care of matters (and your busy brain!) in advance. That's why Ms. Hurndell advises students to organize their lives to support your writing goals.
▲ Advices on time management
As you can see from the above schedule for each week designed by the English Department, the teaching team breaks down the large number of writing tasks that need to be written and introduces them in the early stage of the course, giving students plenty of time to practice and improve.
A month of intensive novel writing training is more than just a boost to English writing. Students are able to complete a list of tasks one after another, gaining a sense of accomplishment in the short term, but also learning to analyze a task from a whole picture perspective and learning to organize their time wisely while doing a writing task - This is the overall improvement in skills, thinking and habits that Harrow Holistic Education can provide for students.
Each of Harrow Haikou's curriculum is designed to be holistic and well thought out so that students can fully develop their research skills, critical thinking, problem solving skills, imagination and time management skills, which are not affected by the changing times.
