A group of fourth- and fifth-grade students at Newton Rayzor Elementary School completed a monthlong project Monday that encouraged them to use their imaginations in writing their own novels.

DRC/Britney Tabor

Newton Rayzor Elementary School fourth-grader Genaro Vasquez works on his novel Monday, as students completed their projects for National Novel Writing Month’s Young Writers Program.

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For National Novel Writing Month — or “NaNo WriMo” — two fourth-grade classes and one fifth-grade class participated in the Young Writers Program, which challenged grade school students to set a word count and write a complete novel in 30 days. The young authors worked on their stories throughout November, with the guidance of teachers and local author Misa Ramirez.

Fourth-grade teacher Barbara Cantu said the project was about students and teachers putting their “inner editor away” and writing steadily without revisions or edits.

“The kiddos are allowed to write and write and write to their hearts’ content, without somebody, another adult, coming along and saying, ‘Maybe we should do it this way,’ or ‘It would look better that way,’ or ‘Let’s add this word or let’s add that word,’” she said. “We’re just trying to help them to see that they’ve got an imagination that can just go to town when no one is interfering with it.”

In the project’s final days, students would find their own quiet spaces in the classroom to write, while others discussed ideas for their stories with classmates. Students were given about 45 minutes daily to work on their novels.

Fourth-grader Matthew Aubrey said participating in the project made him feel like a professional.

“It’s awesome,” Matthew said. “It’s just fun putting your memory on paper so everybody can read it. It’s just fun.”

Created in 1999, NaNo WriMo set out to encourage aspiring adult novelists to write complete 50,000-word stories within the month of November. The Young Writers Program was founded in 2005 for students younger than 17.

DRC/Britney Tabor

Newton Rayzor Elementary School fourth-grader Laney Smith works on her novels Monday, as students completed their projects for National Novel Writing Month’s Young Writers Program.

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Newton Rayzor students tracked the progress of their novels throughout the month by logging onto NaNo WriMo’s Young Writers Web site, and they set class goals to write a total of 50,000 words. Individually, student word count goals ranged from 2,000 to 8,000.

More than 119,000 adults and 22,000 young people participated in the project last year.

Ramirez, an Argyle resident who has a daughter at the school, said she introduced the project to Cantu as a way to bring a love of writing and the written word to the classroom.

Ramirez, who writes mystery novels, said the project gave students another outlet for expressing themselves and encouraged self-motivation.

“It allows their creativity to take charge,” she said. “I think it gives them an opportunity to really stretch their creativity and think outside the box.” 

Throughout the month, Cantu and Ramirez wrote their own novels alongside the students and provided mini-courses on such topics as character development, exciting openings and use of dialogue. Life experiences and imaginative thoughts were put into the students’ writings, Cantu said.

Cantu said the project appealed to students, who wanted to keep working on their stories after the 45-minute writing period was up.

“These kids have never done so much writing as they’ve done this month,” Cantu said. “I’m excited about it.”

Cantu said students will write second drafts throughout December and have the stories revised and edited. By next semester, Cantu said, she hopes the young authors can see their novels published and read excerpts to peers during a party in class.

BRITNEY TABOR can be reached at 940-566-6876. Her e-mail address is btabor@dentonrc.com.