Our+novel

toc The purpose of this page is to coordinate 8 students + 1 teacher in writing a novel in one semester while studying the development of the novel in a senior elective course.

**What is a novel?**
examples: -POV -Character Development -Left room for interpretation -Conflict: something for the reader to figure out -Relationships -"Hooks": voice of the character, action -Symbolism -Diction || -Endings -Diction -Setting || -__Entertainment__: especially a book we choose; Escape: into a 'fantasy', -__Understanding__: It allows you to engage in the reading: description, emotions,
 * //Grendel, Casino Royale, Tarzan, Sense and Sensibility, Harry Potter, Fight Club, The Once and Future King, Velocity, Misery, The Westing Game, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Twilight, The Scarlet Letter//
 * **Similarities** || **Differences** ||
 * -Character Driven
 * What is the purpose of reading a novel?**

**Characters**
**Step 1:** Find a picture of someone who could be in our story. Imagine who will be in our story. 1. Basic biographical details: name, birthdate & place, age, height, weight-make all this up! 2. Current situation: what is he/she doing right now? thinking about? Why? 3. Future goals in life: what are the most important things in life to this person? What does he/she want to be doing in 10 years? 4. Fears: what is this person most afraid of and why? 5. Conflict: describe several conflicts in this person’s life including 1) person vs. person, 2) person vs. nature, and 3) person vs. self 6. What is this person’s greatest achievement in life? 7. What is this person’s biggest mistake? My name is Wendell Frank Lowell and I am 56 years old. My friends call me Frankie and you can too. This is not the first time that I have had, shall we say, a little discrepancy with the po-lice. Well, clearly my biggest mistake here was jumping the median. If I had stayed on the north side, I would have made it to the woods and disappeared, no problem. Now I’m caught, in jail, and they won’t even give me any Lucky Strikes. Wish I’d known that was going to be my last; would have savored it even more. I was framed, of course, if it wasn’t for that pesky alpaca…well, you don’t want to hear about that. Fact is, I’m here and tomorrow morning I’ll face the judge. When he hears how I found the gun in my ex-wife’s Suburban under the seat. I //don’t// know how she got it or why it was there. I was really just trying to turn it in, actually. I //was// on my way to Nevada-Las Vegas. That’s where the money is and that’s where I’m going to turn my life a-round! Bad luck can’t follow me that far-cause that’s all it’s ever been-bad luck. My daughter says “Good and bad luck are synonyms…for good and bad judgment” or some such that she must have learned in college. But I say-right! When you’ve had as much bad luck as I have you stop blaming yourself and look to throw the blame where it’s deserved. Wasn’t it bad luck that I got married to Gloria when I was seventeen? If I’d a known the monster she’d turn into in just three months, I’d a thought differently on that. And what about Maureen? She left me high and dry and now she’s driving the Volvo kiddo car and I’m here with //her// gun //falsely// accused of a robbery or some such. Clearly, there’s no justice and no luck for me!
 * Consider the picture that you found and write a 200 word description of this person as a potential character in our class novel.
 * Consider these questions in your description. Write about some or all and make up some of your own details to make your imagined person really come to life!
 * [|Mrs. Clark Evans's inspirational picture>]

Our faithful Alpaca is named Gerald. He grew up in a middle to upper-class family in Chile, and has always lived in the lap of luxury. His age is approximately 13 Alpaca years (which is roughly 41.7 human years), and weighs about 350 lbs, which is quite healthy for an alpaca of his size (nearly 7 feet tall). Gerald decided to leave home at the age of 4 (alpaca years, that is) due to a sudden desire to see the world. In a traditional coming-of-age tale, in his travels Gerald learned about both the hardships as well as the wondrous gifts that can be found in life. He's grown up to be a hardened, emotionally stable being with an incredibly perceptive mind... the problem is he can only communicate telepathically. In today's day and age, there aren't many people who are born with telepathic abilities; and even they are, there is an even slimmer chance that they will hone their skills and be able to use it at will. It is for this reason that Gerald's life has been lonely. Gerald's greatest accomplishment is being the... to be continued!! - First Chapter: Gerald gets to Chicago by hitching a ride with Zach (Tinsley's character). That much is clear, but what happens along the way? Only one thing is for certain... they're in for one wild ride.
 * [|Brendan' picture]

Alison May Clatterbuck was born on April 17th, 1985 in Schenectady, New York. Her friends and family usually call her “Ali” or “Ali May”. She is 24 years old, trying to make a living. Coming from a low income family she has not had opportunities that her friends have had such as going to college. She is 5’8” and 147 lbs. She has shoulder length, chestnut brown, wavy hair – she often pulls it back to keep hair from getting in her face. She has hazel eyes that change in the sun to an indescribable yet breathtaking color. Often times when she wears the color green, her eyes tend to have more green pigment. Alison often receives compliments about how beautiful her eyes are. She is a reserved, well mannered lady who never gets in trouble. Ali is very kind and loves to those in need. Technically she is unemployed but she has many “odd jobs” – she babysits, writes opinion columns in her local newspaper, and helps out at the hospital. Whenever they are in need they always call on reliable Ali. Her dream job is to get a stable job in the New York Times and be a well known reporter.
 * [|Lauren's Picture]

My name is Zach Milberg, I'm 28 years old, and I drive for a living. I grew up in Düsseldorf, Westphalia, Germany as an only child, and decided to follow in my father's footsteps and become a transporter at the age of 23, after serving in the German military for two years. I speak fluent English, and learned it as a second language early, because my mother is from the U.K. I would like to break away from my father's profession and find one of my own, as luck has rarely been on my side. Though I drive the autobahns every day in my 25 year-old Renault pushing 150 m.p.h., I can't seem to drive a brand new truck down a road for a delivery. My company gave me an older truck after my first incident, which I broke when a load of bricks jacked-up the truck on it's back wheels. I've yet to be fired, but if I mess up again, I'm out of a job. God forbid, that were to happen, I'd like to move to America, and make a new life for myself, and hopefully hold a job I'm good at.
 * [|Matt's Picture]

My Name is Marcus Nelson and I’m about 5 foot 9. I don’t have a job right now but I am currently looking for one. I’m a pretty interesting guy; I have a wife and 2 children, twins; a boy and a girl. I graduated from high school in 1995 with B’s. I had intended to go to college the next fall but then we needed an emergency wedding, if you know what I mean, so I had to drop out before I ever started. Life hasn’t been too bad; I have my family and my Harley what more could a guy want? Well I don’t know but my wife says I should get a job. So I went to look for a job and after I had gone to a couple places and picked up a few applications I got myself some food and sat down. I was just enjoying my lunch reflecting on my life when I saw a woman wearing nothing but antiwar words on her bare skin. I was quite surprised not only because a naked protesting woman was walking around but because this bare woman happened to be an old friend of mine from high school. My Name is Luigi, Luigi Angelo. I was born in Napoli in 1870 and moved to Chicago in 1920. I’m now 62 years old. I have Grey hair, 6 feet tall, 167 pounds. This will help you to find my body today, in the Burnham Park. I won’t be the single one…
 * [|Marcus Nelson (aka Megan's picture)]
 * [|Nicolas's Picture]

Yesterday, Don Vitellini sent his men to my place, and my son was killed. I was there too and was injured at the arm escaping. I can’t let this go unpunished. This war has lasted too long, and now, it’s time to end it. Besides, controlling the alcohol market has always been the job of our family.

Please bring my body to my second son. He will take care of it. I’m sure he will be able to keep the business working. A business in which Don Vitellini’s family won’t be a problem anymore. I should have already taken care of it a long time ago.

Luigi

Ps: Tell Tony I trust him to help my son. It’s why I refused him to come with us. He’ll pay you for your job. And maybe you could join our family.

My character's name is Emma. She is 15, and a sophomore in high school. She lives in Redding, California with her best friend's family. She doesnt get along with other people very well. She has been dating the same boy for 2 years, and she really likes him. He is 18 and a senior at a different school. Emma doesnt do well in school, she doesnt find the subjects they teach in school vaulable. Her interests lie elsewhere. She thinks people learn more from their experiances than they do in a classroom. Emma isnt afraid of anything, really. Emma is a good listener and good at keeping secrets. Bad / interesting things happen to her, and though she pretends to be annyoed by it, she secretly likes it. She isnt very good at art, or things like that. But she loves singing and cheerleading.
 * **Kelsey's character**

Name- None/ We don’t know Age- We don’t know for sure, but young. Height- 6’0” Physical Description- Tall, tan, fit, blue eyes, brown hair, wears faded/ ripped blue jeans that he’s obviously mended a few times, dusty and broken in old cowboy boots and hat with a regular button up shirt, We can see a few stains…blood? Just a regular dude. Background- From a miniscule farm town. His mother died when he was 12, his father was a farmer. Biggest Accomplishment- Nothing Biggest Mistake- Leaving her behind. Whereabouts N’ Such- He’s on the run, just drifting from place to place, he’s running from something. Running to something. What? Filled with regret. With loss. He’s basically a mystery and we have to learn what we can about him as the story progresses.
 * **Danny’s Character:**


 * JONATHAN'S CHARACTER:**

[|BALTHAZAR]


 * 1) Name: Balthazar. Birth date & Place: September 9th 1999/ September 9th 01 B.C./? Sandusky Ohio. Age: 9/2009/? Weight: 999 Kilograms

My character’s name is Balthazar; born September 9th, 01 B.C….resurrected September 9th, 1999; host’s birth date: unknown. Bathazar was born in what used to be the great, powerful and expansive empire of India. However, the location of his resurrection was far less….historical. He was resurrected in the resort town of Sandusky Ohio, Cedar Point to be exact. He is 2000 years old in spirit, 9 years in age, and Bathazar’s host is yet to know his age. He is the height of a tall man, standing about 6’4. Bathazar’s weight is a bit on the chubby side, coming in at 999 kilograms. He is currently the protector of an amusement park in Ohio called Cedar Point. Balthazar keeps his presence secret by impersonating a mascot for the park. He is a black, purple, white and light blue goat with pink, yellow, green and black dreads. He is thinking about a woman, and a great danger at hand. We have yet to know why. The most important thing to him is the safety and security of the park. He has little compassion for the thousands of seasonal visitors to the park. Bathazar’s greatest concern is that the park survives for an eternity. He isn’t concerned about what happens in ten years, just as long as he is still alive and the park is safe. Balthazar’s greatest fear is Llamas and Alpacas; they are his greatest enemy. This person’s great achievement in life is keeping greatest secrets of the earth safe for thousands of years. His biggest mistake is being blind to the secrets’ greatest threat.

[|Working Plot timeline]
This timeline records dates of significant events in various characters' lives

Getting Together-Dialogues
**Step 2:** Choose two characters and write a two page dialogue between them. Consider the point of view and the scene that would bring these two characters together. Mrs. Clark Evans: a dialogue between my guy Wendell and L. Angelo (Luigi's grandson) who came to visit Wendell in jail. Here is some more information about Wendell: while he is in jail a number of other characters come to visit him, Angelo wants him to do something illegal and in exchange Angelo will help get Wendell out of jail. (Thanks to Nicolas's idea on [|the discussion board]). Wendell prefers to be called Frankie, but he is a loser and everyone pretty much ignores what he wants and just calls him Wendell anyway. His greatest weakness is his addiction to cigarettes, which the police are purposefully keeping him from having while he is in custody. And finally, I just have to say that I personally hate cigarettes and made my character a smoker because it is an indicator of what a fool he really is.

Megan's Dialogue: Marcus and Emma's first meeting.

Danny:Note: This dialogue isn’t between my character and someone else’s, it’s just between my character and a bartender that I made up for the sake of the dialogue. You’ll probably think that this dialogue doesn’t really tell you much about my character, and you’d be more or less right. While we do learn a few things, it’s overall tone is fairly ambiguous. This is for good reason, since we don’t know a lot about my character. He is mysterious and quiet, and since this is a dialogue that will be incredibly apparent. Don’t be confused by the mysteriousness of my character, embrace it! I know all of you have very set ideas of your characters (or at least that is what I assume), and when there is no elasticity between the ends, it will be very hard to make the ends meet. You can think of my character as the wild card, and while I have my ideas of his story I’m open to your ideas as well. As this process moves on our stranger will become more and more defined! I don’t know about you guys, but I think it’s a pretty cool idea.

Lauren's Dialogue: Alison goes to interview Frankie in jail.

Nicolas' Dialogue, Between Luigi and Zach's grandfather.



Matt's Dialogue, Zach is driving towards Chicago from a private airport to hand deliver something, and Gerald manages to tag along.

Jonathan'a Dialogue Between Balthazar and Emma

Building the Pieces
Step 3: Write a chapter! Write 7-10 double-spaced pages by the end of class on __Wednesday, February 18__
 * plot planning
 * setting
 * point of view

Refining Your Plot

 * use details to reveal character & build your plot
 * read this quote from "Hemingway and the creation of twentieth-century dialogue - American author Ernest Hemingway" bnet. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0403/is_n4_v42/ai_20119140. 07 Feb. 2009.

"In 'Notes on Writing a Novel,' Elizabeth Bowen cut to the crux of exactly why modern dialogue is so difficult to write. She observes that it must imitate certain 'realistic qualities': spontaneity, artlessness, ambiguity, irrelevance, allusiveness, and erraticness. Yet, behind the 'mask of these faked realistic qualities,' it must be 'pointed, intentional, relevant. It must crystallize situation. It must express character. It must advance plot' (255). It must, in other words, be truly verisimilar - like reality, but not an actual transcription of reality itself. 'Speech,' Bowen goes on to say, 'is what the characters do to each other'; aside from a few extreme physical acts, it is 'the most vigorous and visible inter-action of which characters . . . are capable' (255). Consequently, speech 'crystallizes relationships. It should, ideally, [be so] effective as to make analysis or explanation of the relationships between the characters unnecessary' (255). Although dialogue is not generally effective as a means of exposition, of conveying necessary information (what invariably occurs at the beginning of a play, and that takes all of the considerable artifice of the theater subsequently to overcome), it can express present relationships and, by implication, their past as well. But to do so effectively requires great talent; dialogue must imply subtly, suggestively, and never through direct statement. Usually, the way characters say something is more important than what they say."
 * read my comments on my own dialogue [[file:L. Angelo and Wendell dialogue-comments on a rough draft.doc]]

 Step 3: Write your first chapter: How did our characters arrive in Chicago, IL?

Next Step: Revision #1
You each wrote a chapter, I read them all, and made these notes. Step 4: Review my notes and then revise your chapter by next __Tuesday __ Revised Chapters Then, you will all read what we have for Part One before starting our planning for Part Two. Add ideas about part one to the discussion board on this page!

**Final Step: Edit your paper**
Correct each mark on your final draft so your paper is fully ready for PUBLICATION!

Publication Possibilities:
https://www.createspace.com/pub/l/books_value_fiction.do?rewrite=true&ref=256608 [|www.lulu.com]