On Friday, December 13, Gia Batty’s Independent Novel Writing Course held a showcase of their writing in Foster Gallery. A small group comprised of six girls from classes I and II, Independent Novel Writing is a course in which students elect to take on the challenge of writing a novel throughout the course of the year.
Tate Donnelly, Adelaide Gifford, Avery Miranda, Ellen Efstathiou, Olivia Martin and Hana Qaswari invited Nobles faculty, staff, students and parents to hear them read excerpts from their novels-in-progress. Each student opened with a brief explanation of the premise for her novel and then proceeded to share an excerpt. One could instantly see their level of commitment to the writing process and their investment in the work that they have done.
Batty started the independent novel writing course last year with just one student, Tate Donnelly, and this year it has grown into a larger group of dedicated writers who choose to meet twice a week outside of their regular class time, writing, critiquing others’ work and revising their own.
“The showcase,” says Batty, “Was a way to share all of the awesomeness with the Nobles community. I had no idea if anyone would come and I’m so glad we had an audience…there were a bunch of faculty members there who teach, advise or coach the students.”
The writing shared by these six students was impressive, funny, entertaining, intriguing and downright good. The premises for the novels were diverse and covered everything from genetically modified test subjects trying to figure out how to escape a quarantine lab to the internal conflict of a boy who is enrolled in a school for “ruthless monster hunting,” only to discover that he actually feels empathy and compassion for the monsters.
Batty, who has shared her own writing with the students throughout the course, says, “Writing is so lonely sometimes, and for the girls to have this group to talk to about their characters and their worlds is just so amazing. I know they’re proud of what they’re doing and I’m glad that so many people got to see what they’re up to.”
