Celebrate National Novel Writing Month with Kearney Branch's Monday Night NaNoWriMo Write-ins

October 21, 2011

Write the next great American novel in 30 days or less!

No, it's not a late night television infomercial pitch. It's the goal of National Novel Writing Month, better known as NaNoWriMo.

Each year thousands of writers around the globe pledge to write a 50,000-word novel from start to finish in November. The event is designed to inspire writers to just get something down on paper.

Ever inspirational, the Kearney Branch will sponsor NaNoWriMo Write-Ins each Monday night in November from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. to help writers get those 50,000 words flowing. Part social gathering and part energizer, our write-ins will offer helpful exercises and support, as well as coffee and snacks to keep our writers going. The write-ins will be lead by our own in-house novelist, Laura Moore. Moore will post weekly installments of her own NaNoWriMo project on this blog to share the experience with write-in participants.

"The 50,000-word challenge has a wonderful way of opening up your imagination and unleashing creativity," according to NaNoWriMo Founder and Executive Director Chris Baty, who started the event 12 years ago in San Francisco. "When you write for quantity instead of quality, you end up getting both. Also, it's a great excuse for not doing dishes for a month."

While it was designed to be just for fun, the NaNoWriMo method seems to inspire marketable works. At least two recent bestsellers- Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - got their start as NaNoWriMo projects.

If you'd like to know more about NaNoWriMo, sign-up for this year's event, explore the organization's writing tools, or join an on-line writer's support group, visit nanowrimo.org.

Sara PD.
Kearney Branch