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Education

How classes use Writer Emergency Pack

October 11, 2022 Education, Follow Up, Writer Emergency, Writer Emergency Pack

Since the launch of Writer Emergency Pack in 2015, we’ve partnered with youth writing programs to get decks into classrooms and after-school groups. By far our biggest partner is NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program.

With the arrival of Writer Emergency Pack XL, I asked NaNoWriMo’s executive director Grant Faulkner for an update on how the original decks are being used.

JOHN: A lot of people are familiar with National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), but what is Young Writers Program?

GRANT: It’s a version of NaNoWriMo, just for kids. When I was a kid, I didn’t dream of writing a novel (and I was bookish). Because of our Young Writers Program, though, now nearly 100,000 kids write novels each year, and educators from over 9,000 classrooms around the world participate.

The challenge is, like NaNoWriMo, to draft an entire novel in November. We believe that giving kids agency and making writing fun is the best way to learn. For 30 wild, exciting, surprising days, kids get to lock away their inner editor, let their imagination take over, and just create! You might say our pedagogy is rooted in joy.

What are students doing in the program?

We provide teachers a virtual classroom so they can do things like read student novels and create chat topics. And then we also provide kids with free classroom kits — which include Writer Emergency Packs! — workbooks, and Common Core-aligned K–12 lesson plans.

Kids set word-count goals for the month (appropriate to their age and capabilities) and then draft their novel right on our site. They track their progress, and then they also get support from published authors and an international community of fellow novelists.

photo of high school classroom, students looking at teacher

How are teachers using Writer Emergency Pack in the classroom?

I’ve heard so many stories. I’ve heard of teachers who weave cards into the mini-lessons they might do on things like conflict or characterization. I’ve heard of teachers who hand out cards to students who might have hit a wall and have writers’ block. I’ve heard of teachers who give the cards to groups of students and have them use the cards to collaboratively create a story together and then tell it to the class as a way to warm up to write in November.

There is one commonality, though: all teachers make the cards part of the classroom, which is important, because the classroom becomes a writing community during NaNoWriMo.

What feedback have you gotten from teachers about the decks?

They love them! The cards are encouraging, approachable, and fun! They provide the same lessons a book might—but in a single illustrated card. Like NaNoWriMo itself, the cards are all about sparking the imagination, making writing not about a teacher’s red correction marks but the joy of storytelling.

Do you think the new decks will have the same reaction?

I do. I think the size of the cards makes them more inviting. All of the relevant information is now on a single card, and with 52 cards there’s enough for every student in class, even bigger classes.

And, just one more thing: I know adult writers who use the cards as well (me).


Writer Emergency Pack XL is now on Kickstarter. For every deck we send to backers, we’ll be sending a deck to our youth writing program partners, including NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program.

Photo by Kenny Eliason/Unsplash

Becoming a Professional Screenwriter

Episode - 381

Go to Archive

January 1, 2019 Education, Film Industry, Los Angeles, QandA, Random Advice, Scriptnotes, Transcribed, WGA

John welcomes Tess Morris, Christina Hodson, Nicole Perlman, and Jason Fuchs to discuss their paths to becoming a professional screenwriter. They track the progression from glass bead day jobs to navigating general meetings to planning inconsistent finances to actually calling oneself a writer and even getting paid.

We also answer audience questions about career longevity and leaving writing behind.

Links:

  • Thank you, Tess Morris, Christina Hodson, Nicole Perlman, and Jason Fuchs!
  • T-shirts are available here! We’ve got new designs, including Colored Revisions, Karateka, and Highland2.
  • John August on Twitter
  • Craig Mazin on Twitter
  • Tess Morris on Twitter
  • Nicole Perlman on Twitter
  • Jason Fuchs on Twitter
  • John on Instagram
  • Find past episodes
  • Scriptnotes Digital Seasons are also now available!
  • Outro by Matthew Chilelli (send us yours!)

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 1-9-18: The transcript of this episode can be found here.

The One with Mindy Kaling

August 7, 2018 Broadway, Education, Film Industry, Genres, Los Angeles, QandA, Scriptnotes, Story and Plot, Television, Transcribed, Writing Process

John sits down with writer/actor Mindy Kaling (The Office, The Mindy Project, Champions) to talk about her origin story, her big break as Ben Affleck, what it’s like to simultaneously showrun and star in a sitcom, and the nature of half-hour comedies.

We also answer a listener question about point of view and its relationship with genre and medium.

Links:

  • Thanks to Mindy Kaling for joining us!
  • Champions is available to watch on NBC.com.
  • You can watch a recording of her play, Matt and Ben, written and performed by Mindy and Brenda Withers. It premiered at the Fringe Festival in New York.
  • Keep an eye out for Four Weddings and a Funeral.
  • The End of the Fucking World and Godless on Netflix
  • The Visitors by Ragnar Kjartansson at The Broad
  • The USB drives!
  • Mindy Kaling on Twitter
  • John August on Twitter
  • Craig Mazin on Twitter
  • John on Instagram
  • Find past episodes
  • Scriptnotes Digital Seasons are also now available!
  • Outro by Timothy Vajda (send us yours!)

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 8-14-18: The transcript of this episode can be found here.

All About Family

May 1, 2018 Adaptation, Education, Film Industry, Follow Up, Formatting, News, Scriptnotes, Transcribed

John and Craig partake in another installment of How Would This Be a Movie? Which story is destined for the big screen: The millennial mother with her surprise, Youtube-guided childbirth? The couple that has the same fight for decades? The Japanese families-for-hire?

We also follow up on the logic of multi-cam formatting, Georgia’s success in diversifying crews through training programs, and effective character descriptions.

Tickets are now on sale for our next Scriptnotes Live Show on Tuesday, May 22nd at the ArcLight in Hollywood, with guests including Lisa Joy and Jonah Nolan of Westworld.

Links:

  • Our next live Scriptnotes will be Tuesday, May 22nd at the ArcLight in Hollywood. Tickets are on sale now — proceeds benefit Hollywood HEART, which runs special programs and summer camps for at-risk youth.
  • How 50 Famous Female Characters Were Described in Their Screenplays by Kyle Buchanan and Jordan Crucchiola for Vulture
  • Woman tells incredible story of how she used YouTube videos to carry out waterbirth of own baby she doubted she even had, while alone in hotel room written by Tom Embury-Dennis for The Independent
  • The Worrywart vs. the Zen Master by Tom Bowman and Brigid Schulte for Slate
  • Japan’s Rent-A-Family Industry, written by Elif Batuman for The New Yorker
  • Choir!Choir!Choir! is a choir in Toronto that meets once a week for drop-in singing events.
  • QTAKE Monitor is an app that lets you watch shots on set from your own device.
  • The Scriptnotes Listeners’ Guide!
  • The USB drives!
  • John August on Twitter
  • Craig Mazin on Twitter
  • John on Instagram
  • Find past episodes
  • Outro by Nicolas Curcio (send us yours!)

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 5-8-18: The transcript of this episode can be found here.

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