Weatherman speaks to aspiring novelists

Ariel Votipka is writing a novel.

"It's a romance novel," Ariel, 16, said. "It's about Mike Alger and his love of weather. It's about how he loses his weather-telling powers and goes on a search for them."

Ariel was one of the 40 students at Sierra Lutheran High School who learned about writing novels from weatherman and novelist Mike Alger on Monday.

Instructor Amanda Dykes said she read on the KTVN Channel 2's Web site that Alger had published a novel, "Snow Storm," in 2002 and had asked him to speak to the ninth- and 10th-grade students at Sierra Lutheran.

"We're writing our own novels because November is National Novel Writing Month," said Dykes.

"I understand you're embarking on a fairly ambitious project," Alger told the students.

He said he didn't like writing when he was growing up. He considered it a chore and something to do to get through school.

"I wish I wouldn't have taken that attitude," he said. "Rather than being a necessary evil, it's an opportunity to be creative."

Alger, who has been a meteorologist with KTVN in Reno since the late 1980s, gave advice on how to start writing and tips on how to get published.

"It's better if you're not worried about making money," he said. "I never did it to make money on it and it's a good thing," he said. "If you broke it down it was about 13-14 cents per hour."

Cameo Lommori, 16, asked Alger what he considered the hardest part of writing a novel to be. He answered that getting started was hardest.

Cameo said she liked mysteries and had been inspired to get underway on her novel after Alger had spoken at her school.

"It helped because he's a real author and he wrote a book," she said.

Zach Borgman, 14, is writing a mystery for his story project.

"It's a true story about a guy stealing money from our church," said Zach. "He gets caught and kicked out of Carson Valley. I've seen him in real life."

Not only students are writing novels for National Novel Writing month.

"I'm going to do this project along with the students. It was neat to hear somebody who's been there and done it," said Dykes. "We're prepared to write a full-length novel, anywhere from 15,000 to 50,000 words."

Alger told the students to enjoy themselves and not to be afraid to take side trips on their journey of novel-writing.

"Develop your own style and don't worry what other people think good writing is," he said. "If you like what you write, it's good, it's great."

Alger told the students to try to write a page every day and shared advice given from mystery writer J. A. Jance, "A writer writes. Are you a writer today?"

More information about National Novel Writing Month is at nanowrimo.org.