Daniel Schwabauer, an award winning novelist and playwright, has created an amazing one year writing course for high school. At the end of the year you have your very own adventure novel. This is a practical course on fiction writing. It covers all the basics and provides strong peramaters and boundaries for that writing. The finished production is an adventure novel. So, along with teaching about plot, setting, characterization,and proper writing technique, this course teaches your budding novelist how to build suspence in his/her novel. Your child will be writing about a Heroic Quest. The best thing about this course is that it is written from a Biblical worldview and upholds our Christian values.
The One Year Adventure Novel kit comes with a textbook, The Compass, a workbook, The Map, and a set of DVDs. I love the DVDs! Each video segment opens with an Indiana Jones-type intro complete with action music and clips from old adventure movies! Four questions are asked, “What makes a story a story?” Why do we look for truth in books?” “Could it be that our thirst for story and our search for meaning are somehow related?” and “What if purpose just be another word for adventure?” Then we move to a beautiful study filled with lovely old books where our author begins to teach the lesson. There are 78 lessons on 7 DVDs.
The complete homeschool writing curriculum package includes The Compass, The Map, 7 DVDs, a teacher’s guide, and a copy of the novel, The Prisoner of Zenda. There is also a bonus DVD disk with 26 quizzes and 14 classic adventure novels (Huckleberry Finn, Treasure Island, The Jungle Book, The Blood Ship, Captain’s Courageous, Black Rock, Tarzan, Rupert of Hentzau, King Solomon’s Mines, Wulf the Saxon, Peter Pan and more). The cost is $199.00 for the entire package. You can order from their website: http://www.oneyearnovel.com/
Daniel tells us in the beginning of the course that there are three basic plot types in novels: the romance, the character change, and the heroic quest where the the protagonist must overcome trials and adversity to achieve the “story goal.” In lesson 3, we learn how to write a synopsis that has two parts, a situation and a question. The situation in our synopsis is the way things are (the Context), someone to care about (the Hero), and something to want (the Story Goal). The question in our synopsis is something to dread (the Villian), something to suffer (the price paid), and something to learn (the Theme). Throughout the whole book we read excerpts of good books, classic adventure stories, that illustrate what Daniel is teaching us. I’m so excited about this curriculum!
In high school, I teach speech and essays freshman year, research writing sophomore year, fiction writing junior year, and delight-directed writing senior year. I have used, and been very happy with, Writing the Novel Way from Konos for fiction writing. I will continue to use and point people to Writing the Novel Way, but this fiction writing curriculum, One Year Adventure Novel, stands alone, apart from other writing curricula. Your child will learn about writing in a more in-depth way than I have seen in other writing curriculums. I am very impressed.
My friends, Laura and Karen, and I are going to use the One Year Adventure Novel curriculum next year with our high schoolers–a senior, two juniors, two freshman, and two seventh graders. Now, we will adapt things for our seventh graders! Did I mention that I want to be part of the class?
You can learn more about One Year Adventure Novel curriculum at their website here http://www.oneyearnovel.com/ or visit the author’s publishing company, Clear Water Press, website here http://clearwaterpress.com/index.html. On the One Year Adventure Novel website, there is a showcase for student novels. You and your child could take a look at those completed works to see what the year will hold should you choose to use this amazing fiction writing curriculum.
Blessings to you and your family!
Meredith
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