So you want to be an author...?
Kristy Placido is the author of several novels and advanced-level curricula for TPRS Publishing, Inc. She teaches HS Spanish in MI. Handout.
Novels are a great vehicle for compelling, comprehensible, cultural input. They are a mainstay of the Blaine Ray curriculum, providing a culminating experience for language students as well as an added source of comprehensible input that can be accessed outside of class time. Novels authored expressly for teaching proficiency through reading and story-telling are a key stepping stone on the way to reading authentic literature in the target language.
How to get started?
Choose a geographic setting: Google a country you're interested in using as the setting. Look at people's travel blogs. Read Lonely Planet.
Find existing stories: Cuentos de la Alhambra--Washington Irving, in public domain, can be reworked.
News stories—Chilean miners, mudslides, soccer, watch Univision, etc. for ideas.
Visit websites for charitable organizations, find stories, descriptions of people, places, activities they help with.
Travel/history/culture books
A writer is currently basing a novel on an adoption story.
If you start with a plot idea, look for an appropriate setting to develop your plotline.
If you start with your characters, develop each character before you write the story, think about actual people you know, get to know your characters deeply.
If your story is setting-driven, think about: culture, history, landscape, places of interest, experiences, parks, palaces, homes.
Google plot development for lots of websites that can provide guidance, such as: http://www.learner.org/interactives/literature/read/plot1.html
Outline the story, then begin developing each chapter. Include descriptions of people and places.
Create level-appropriate reading:
Limit new vocabulary (8-20 new words per chapter; 10-15 chapters)
Use tons of cognates, known vocab, appropriate numbers of repetitions: Rule of thumb: minimum 5-7 reps for each new word introduced, preferably within the same chapter. Otherwise, footnote.
Use dialogue to allow for different verb forms.
Ask students for feedback on drafts of your chapters.
Make sure to keep some conflict or suspense for the end of the book. Think carefully about how you will reveal the details or unfold events.
Don't be afraid to scrap ideas and rewrite.
Talk with people you trust about your ideas. Have a native speaker read for correctness and fluency. (Nelly Hughes, Ohio (mexicana) is interested in helping with culture-based stories.)
Before sharing your work, make sure you copyright it: Copyright (c) 2011 Your Name. All rights reserved.
When you are ready to publish, send manuscript to: TPRSPublishing, BlaineRayTPRS, Contee Seeley Command Performance, Self publish: Lulu, Amazon: CreateSpace, Kindle Direct Publishing, etc.
Write every day. Don't put off writing until you have fully formed ideas. Flesh out ideas even if they don't turn into anything.
El Nuevo Houdini: Two in one—present and past.
To see novels for younger learners, check out Karen Rowan series: Isabela, Congo
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