Creative Writing Publishing Project – Meghan Powell

2017 Mini-Grant Recipient

44 students participated in writing and publishing original books using publishing software. The projects could include a short story, novella, children’s book, poetry collection, etc. Most included a collection of their work from an entire year in creative writing class. (click on photos for better viewing).

This was a 6-week process from prewriting, research, writing, revising and publishing. Students wrote, edited and published their own books online, learning about page formatting, indexing, copy editing and page proofing. They designed the entire layout of their books, including its cover.

Specific terminology and skills learned include: finding and correctly using public domain images online, creating a word document and changing it to a PDF, embedding fonts in Microsoft onto a PDF for the publishing site, taking and uploading photos for the “about the author” page, designing and formatting within the publisher site, editing, ordering, and updating their personal online publishing account.

All students took their books home to read with their families. The first 6 students received theirs in time to visit the elementary school and read to the kindergarten classes. That was a great sharing experience. Ten seniors printed a second copy, many of which remained at the school as examples for other teachers or future English classes. The project also made an anthology of many upperclassmen’s original writing to share in the school library.

Students make a big step forward in becoming real published authors as they take their books home and share ideas with their family and the community. Overall, the project was a tremendous success.