The One Year Adventure Novel: a Creative High School Writing Curriculum

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Our family loves a good story and I have several budding authors.  As soon as they could type they were writing out their stories.  While they always thought they had a great story, once it got beyond a few paragraphs it was hard to follow.  They didn’t have the knowledge of story structure to keep a story going like they wanted.  

Thankfully, we found a homeschool creative writing curriculum that teaches exactly that.  One Year Adventure Novel from Clear Water Press, the same people who created Cover Story which we used and loved last year! 

My oldest has been spending the whole year writing her first novel for this writing program this year.  While writing a book sounds overwhelming, One Year Adventure Novel breaks it down into bite size weekly assignments.  

Teaching Students to Love Story

One thing that has drawn our family to Clear Water Press’ products is their focus on story.  Daniel Schwabauer (fondly known as Mr S. to the kids) spends time in all his programs encouraging the kids to love the story writing process and teaching them about what story means for life and how it can help us connect with others. When we write stories we can share our own feelings, emotions and experiences without being too vulnerable because we can share our experiences through the characters we create.

Teaching The Structure of Novel Writing

How does one go about writing a novel in one year and have it turn out well?  The answer is lots of planning and following a proven formula.  The One Year Adventure Novel curriculum kit includes a Textbook, workbook, streaming video lesson access, a copy of Prisoner of Zenda, teachers guide and bonus resources.

The curriculum kit includes a copy of the novel, the Prisoner of Zenda and the textbook includes many excerpts of classic fictional works.  All of these examples help the students learn from the masters as they brainstorm and write their own novel.  

The entire first semester of the curriculum is planning. The student is planning the characters and the setting, and is  brainstorming what conflicts or dilemmas the characters may encounter along the way and how they would react and the implications of those reactions.  

Each week, students watch 3 video lessons and complete activities in their workbook which make them think through different elements of the storytelling process.  Some weeks there are short reading assignments as well as they look at classic examples of specific aspects of the story.  

By Christmas Break they have done the planning for their story and it is time to start writing the rough draft.  During the second half of the curriculum, students continue watching 3 video lessons each week to help their writing but instead of writing in the workbooks they are writing a chapter a week of their new novel.  

Our student is very creative and loves to write and it has been an enjoyable challenge for them.  They found the most difficult part was thinking through the details that a novel requires.  A short story has much less details and dialogue than a novel but that is also what makes a novel fun to read when it is done right.   

Support for Young Writers

A wonderful bonus of the One Year Adventure Novel experience is the support and community available to young writers.  Included in the curriculum kit is the details for these additional resources.  My favorite part is that they don’t expire at the end of the year like the video access.  They are resources that my student can continue to access and use to grow their writing and creativity for the rest of their high school years.  

Webinars

The video lessons are pre-recorded and can be accessed at any time.  Twice a month Mr. S hosts live webinars with additional information and a time for students to ask questions.  What is extra special is the connections and discussion that happen in the chat during these webinars.  After attending our first one, we quickly learned the community we were joining was much more than just a creative writing homeschool curriculum.

Student Forum

The Chat during the webinars are very busy because the students are chatting and connecting all month long in the student forum. This moderated space allows students to share their writing for feedback and try out characters in role playing stories.  All the moderators are former students who have grown up and want to give back.  

It’s a valuable tool for students to build their characters and connect with equally creative kids when they may not have the same kind of connections in their local homeschool community.  

Students must take One Year Adventure Novel to join the forum but they can stay in the forum until they age out at 20. There are spin off communities for older OYAN alumni to stay connected as adults, too  I continue to be excited about the community and connections my student is building and how it is helping her creativity grow.  

Summer Workshop

With so many shared connections and creative juices flowing in the community.  Clear Water Press hosts  an annual in person meet up each summer called the Summer Workshop.  Our family is hoping to attend in the next few years. 

 It’s a special time for many students to meet in Kansas and continue to grow their writing with guest speakers, small group workshops and opportunities for critiques.  Since all the students have the same foundational knowledge as writers in the One Year Adventure Novel  program, the workshop can start at a different place than a general workshop might.  There are opportunities for parents and siblings to participate as well in the week long event.  

Novel Writing for Neurodivergent Students

Writing a novel in a year is a big task for anyone.  One Year Adventure Novel makes it manageable by breaking it down into weekly assignments.  The time management aspect of the workload is something that could need extra help from a parent to do well.  There were times my student struggled with not knowing how to start the next part and got stuck.  Being able to talk through it with them is important.  

My neurodivergent student is very creative and that creativity was guided by the program to write an amazing novel.  It’s something they will be proud of for years to come.  I’m glad we could use the flexibility of homeschooling to do such a fun project for her writing credit this year.