We published an anthology of short science fiction by eleventh-grade students. You can order a copy here.
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Our final product: Pandora's Book
From the Back Cover: “You stare down at the thick book. Its cover is decorated with markings: ancient runes from a long-dead culture intertwined with modern mathematics. A strange light radiates from the pages as you open the cover with shaking hands...” Within the pages of Pandora’s Book, 52 science fiction stories are held captive. Each story was captured in its natural habitat: the author’s imagination. Start reading, and your own imagination will be filled with body-swapping corporations, government-sponsored cannibals, sentient gibbons, physics-bending astronauts, and much, much more. But beware, once you let these stories into your imagination, they may never leave. Order a copy at CreateSpace |
What students said about the project
"The only tough thing about the project was killing my darlings. For those of you who don't know, this basically means I had to take things out of my story that I might have really, really liked for the greater good of it. I mean I took out a whole character! And he wasn't just a side character he was one of the main characters in my set of three later reduced to two! So that was tough, especially since his namesake was a reference to one of my favorite characters from the book Cryptonomicon. This was just one of the many changes that I HAD to make between my first and final draft."
-Luis (you can read more on his Digital Portfolio) "In my first draft I was having a hard time finding the story. I did not want to 'tell', I wanted to 'show', which hopefully I was able to do in my final draft. What I did on this project and what I plan to do in mu future writing pieces is to always start out with a 'skeleton', because it helps me have a start and end point. All in all I really enjoyed working on this project.
-NaJa (you can read more on her Digital Portfolio) "My down draft changed in lots of ways because of the critique I received from my teachers and peers. The main part they helped me on was making my story in present tense rather then past tense. Now my story makes a lot more sense than it did before. During this project I feel like I got the most peer and teacher critique that I have ever received before and I know if I do that with all of my writing assignments in the future I will always produce my best work."
-Isaiah (you can read more on his Digital Portfolio) "During this project I learned that research is important in creative writing, as well as non-fiction: good research makes good writing. I also learned to appreciate collaboration. In the past I have resented the idea of working with others because I had a 'vision' of what I wanted something to be. I have always had trouble speaking up, so when it came to protecting that 'vision' I chose to work on my own. While working of the cover with my classmate, Aine, I learned speak up for my ideas, but also be open to change."
-Lynnée (you can read more on her Digital Portfolio) "I really enjoyed the process of world and character building from this project. If I am being totally honest, I think that is an activity I am going to start doing when I am bored and have nothing to do. I speak too much to be an efficient author, but damn, world building was so much fun. Constructing characters was awesome because it is literally you building people. What do they look like? How do they think? Why are they who they are? How have their experiences shaped them? What do they like? Who do they like? You get to determine the answers to all of those questions, and many more."
-Rafie R (you can read more on his Digital Portfolio) |
You should take a look at these students' digital portfolios too:
My prototype
This project started with my prototype (actually, it started with my teaching partner Mackenzie suggesting that the team should write science fiction stories when we got back from Spring Break, but my prototype came next).
My prototype started with some notes in my notebook, which I scanned here. Then I typed those notes up and revised them in this doc, which became the model for the "big idea" graphic organizer (see below). I started to research my premise after that, and collected my research here.
At that point, I came at the piece from a different angle. I'd discovered one exceptionally helpful article about archiving the internet in the New Yorker, and it was taking my story in different directions, so made a mind-map based on a key idea from the article, to see what directions it took me in.
And then I started writing my first draft. Full disclosure: after I shared it with students, I never revised or finished my draft (I feel a little guilty about this because I didn't see the process through, and ending stories is really tough, but by this point the project was going and the students' stories were more important than mine).
My prototype started with some notes in my notebook, which I scanned here. Then I typed those notes up and revised them in this doc, which became the model for the "big idea" graphic organizer (see below). I started to research my premise after that, and collected my research here.
At that point, I came at the piece from a different angle. I'd discovered one exceptionally helpful article about archiving the internet in the New Yorker, and it was taking my story in different directions, so made a mind-map based on a key idea from the article, to see what directions it took me in.
And then I started writing my first draft. Full disclosure: after I shared it with students, I never revised or finished my draft (I feel a little guilty about this because I didn't see the process through, and ending stories is really tough, but by this point the project was going and the students' stories were more important than mine).
Professional models of science fiction short stories
You can find a list of great models (most with a link to a PDF) here.
- Note: these PDFs are only accessible to High Tech High Chula Vista students.
How we wrote the stories:
Below, you'll find a step-by-step guide to doing this project. You can see all the presentations Mackenzie and I made for this project by going to "What We Did Today" starting on April 14th.
Step 1: coming up with a premise
In most cases, your premise will be an idea that you can phrase as a "what if" question. Here are some examples (note: there's nothing official about these "premises")
One way to get started on your premise is to find a "seed text" that you can branch off from. You can find some good seed texts in this document.
Another way to get started is to use a writing prompt. You can find great writing prompts in this slideshow.
- Jurassic Park: what if a theme park owner cloned dinosaurs?
- Star Trek: what if in the future, we live in an intergalactic federation of planets that requires the intergalactic equivalent of UN peacekeepers?
- The Matrix: what if the whole world is a hallucination managed by robots who have enslaved the human race?
One way to get started on your premise is to find a "seed text" that you can branch off from. You can find some good seed texts in this document.
- When you read the seed text, look for the "big idea", for "golden facts" (facts that could helps with world-building or story development) and for "sparks" that ignite potential ideas.
- Make a mind map branching out from the seed text's "big idea". You can see my prototype mind map here.
- You can see the mind maps that students made (in groups) here.
Another way to get started is to use a writing prompt. You can find great writing prompts in this slideshow.
Step 2: initial idea development
Make a copy of the Big Idea graphic organizer and complete it.
Make a Google Drive folder called "[Your name] Science Fiction Project Folder" and save this graphic organizer in it.
- You can see my initial "Big Idea" notes here
- You can see the second and third draft of my "Big Idea" here
- You can read what a student thought about the Big Idea graphic organizer, and see the one she made, here
Make a Google Drive folder called "[Your name] Science Fiction Project Folder" and save this graphic organizer in it.
Steps 3, 4, 5, & 6: world-building, character development, research, & "logical leaps"
(not necessarily in that order)
At this point, it's up to you what order you go in. You'll need to do some "world-building" (that is, figuring out how the world where your story is set "works"), do some research to ground your world in reality, and develop your characters. Each of these will affect the others, so it doesn't matter what order you start doing them in.
You also might find it helpful to draw characters and their clothing, sketch out maps, draw landscapes, and do free-writes about the world and characters you're creating.
Save all of these in your Science Fiction Project Folder
- Make a copy of the world-building graphic organizer and complete it.
- Make a research doc based on my prototype
- Make a copy of Mackenzie's logical leaps graphic organizer and complete it.
- Use the "facebook profile" graphic organizer to get going on character development (ask me for a hard copy).
You also might find it helpful to draw characters and their clothing, sketch out maps, draw landscapes, and do free-writes about the world and characters you're creating.
Save all of these in your Science Fiction Project Folder
Step 7: take another look at your Big Idea Graphic Organizer
Your ideas have probably changed a lot based on your world-building, character ideas, and research. Make sure your Big Idea graphic organizer is up to date!
Step 8: write your first draft
Just write. Don't worry about starting it well, and don't worry about it all being coherent. Maybe it'll be lots of different fragments. That's fine. Your first draft might contain elements of 10 totally different stories about the same characters, and that's totally cool.
Revision will be the time to trim it down into one story.
Save this in your Science Fiction Project Folder
Revision will be the time to trim it down into one story.
Save this in your Science Fiction Project Folder
Step 9: revise your draft
You may start again from scratch, cut your story down, add to it, follow side characters until they become central characters, who knows?
What is certain is that you'll develop your descriptions of character, setting, and action, and you'll tighten up the science!
Naturally, expect to do many revisions before you're finished with this step.
What is certain is that you'll develop your descriptions of character, setting, and action, and you'll tighten up the science!
Naturally, expect to do many revisions before you're finished with this step.
Step 10: format & submit your draft
The standard format for your book is here. Use it as a template for your story.
Step 11: editors proofread all final drafts, meet writers for conferences if necessary
Step 12: designers put together final draft and submit to CreateSpace
What you'll be putting on your DP when this project is over
You can find the DP requirements here