Student Notebooks
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This Week’s Focus
Scholastic Art & Writing Competition 2026
Deadline: January 7, 2027
Sometimes an old piece contains an idea that is better than the writer you were when you first attempted it. This fall, you may choose one previous piece and reclaim it. This is not simply an editing assignment. You may change anything.
The original draft is source material, not sacred text. For next week, bring 2–3 previous pieces that still have something you like about them. Do not revise them yet. For now, simply ask: What is the spark worth saving?
Homework
Week 5:
Homework is due by 7 am on the day of your class. Any homework submitted after that is considered late. That means, you are not allowed to finish it right before class. If you do, it will still be incomplete as I will have already checked your work. Please plan ahead!
- Finish warm up if needed
- First draft of piece #1
Note: I have listed in parenthesis ( ) where each assignment should go in your notebook. If it is not in the correct section, I will think your homework is incomplete.
Archives
Week 4:
- Finish warm up if needed
- First draft of piece #1
Warm Up: The Missing Sentences
Opening: When I opened the envelope, I knew someone had lied to me.
Challenge: Continue the scene in four sentences, but do not reveal what is inside the envelope.
The goal is to create curiosity without confusing the reader. You must decide what to reveal and what to withhold.
Week 3:
- Make any changes to your blueprint that are needed
- Make any changes to your Unexpected Story and Voice Without Biography pieces that are needed
- Finish your warm up if not done and your 100 word assignment (see above)
Warm Up:
Prompt: Your character opens a door and immediately wishes they hadn’t.
Write exactly three sentences.
Sentence 1: Establish the moment.
Sentence 2: Change what the reader understands.
Sentence 3: Make the reader need to know what happens next.
The Challenge: You only have three sentences. Make each one do its job.
For Homework:
Prompt: Someone realizes they have made a serious mistake.
Write the scene in exactly 100 words. Not approximately 100. Not 99. Not 101. Exactly 100. Your goal is not to squeeze as much information as possible into the scene. Your goal is to decide what deserves to be there.
- Does every sentence have a purpose?
- Does every detail earn its space?
- What can you cut without losing anything?
- Where could one precise word do the work of several?
- Have you given the reader everything they need, but nothing they don’t?
Make every word earn its place.
Week 2:
- Finish your Voice Without Biography See above for details.
- Blueprint your first piece and be ready to discuss next week.
Write 500–750 words featuring a narrator the reader comes to understand deeply.
You may NOT directly explain the narrator’s:
- Age
- Personality
- Background
- Emotional state
Instead, reveal the narrator through:
- What the narrator notices
- What the narrator ignores
- What the narrator assumes
- How the narrator interprets other people
- What the narrator cares about
- Word choice
- Sentence rhythm
- Reactions
- Decisions
The reader should finish the piece feeling that they know this person even though you never stopped to explain who the person is.
Ask yourself:
- What does this person see that someone else might miss?
- What does this person misunderstand?
- What does this person care about?
- What does this person refuse to acknowledge?
- What can the reader understand about this person that the narrator never tells us directly?
Week 1:
- Finish your unexpected story. See above for details.
- Read through samples on the website and choose your Scholastic categories (This is tentative and can change later) www.artandwriting.org
- Brainstorm and choose your Piece #1 idea. You may not choose flash fiction for your first piece. It can be your second piece if you would like.
- Gather reclamation pieces (returning YWA members only).
Prompt: Someone receives something that was never meant for them.
This Week’s Assignment: The unexpected story.
Choose the strongest idea you came up with during your warm-up. Write a 750-1,000 word story based on the prompt above. Your challenge is to take an ordinary premise somewhere the reader could not have predicted at the beginning while making the direction feel believable once we arrive there.
Surprising does not mean random. Avoid adding a twist simply to shock the reader. Aim for the kind of surprise that makes a reader think: I did not see that coming, but of course.
Your originality might come from:
- The premise
- The character
- The perspective
- The conflict
- The consequences
- The structure
- The meaning
- The way several of these work together
Before you write, ask yourself:
- Am I choosing this idea because it is the easiest one to write?
- Have I encountered a version of this story before?
- What makes my version different?
- What possibility have I not explored yet?
- Is this the most interesting version of this idea?
