Writing creatively takes concentration, and members of the Minneota School NaNoWriMo class get plenty of that.  Studying her writing carefully (right) are Fanya Knee, as Donna Knee kept  on typing.

Photo and Text by Byron Higgin

The Great American Novel, is, well, a novel idea.
So much so that many give it a try. But alas, few succeed.
Teacher Karla Olson, an english teacher at Minneota Public Schools loves a good book — and she loves to write.
So she’s giving her students a literary chance to succeed.
“We formed this group called “Vikings of Verbosity” Minneota Writing Club, which  participates in the prograrm NaNoWriMo  on the Website.
“I want the kids to just start putting things down on the computer. They can fix it later. They need to just start  inputting,” said Olson.
One of the students is Theo Buysse, a freshman, and he’s working on his first novel, a rather zombie-like tale that already has four main characters.
He’s also invented a character who will, “Come in at the end, called the Olsonator,” with his teacher’s name included.
“We also have students from Lester Prairie,” said Olson.
The idea is to put down 50,000 words, then work on the novel.
Olson is in her fourth or fifth year of guiding the writers.
She and Justin Helmer are the staff while the students are: Rachel Cheadle, Theo Buysse, Aiste Miskinis, Candace Thooft, Kajsa Christenson, Anna Scheer, Donna Knee, Desiree Sik and Fanya Knee. The Lester Prairie Student is Shane Cory.