by Public Service Associate Juliana
November is National Novel Writing Month!
“National Novel Writing Month began in 1999 as a daunting but straightforward challenge: to write 50,000 words of a novel in thirty days. Now, each year on November 1, hundreds of thousands of people around the world begin to write, determined to end the month with 50,000 words of a brand new novel. They enter the month as elementary school teachers, mechanics, or stay-at-home parents. They leave novelists.”
https://nanowrimo.org/about-nano
There are a few things that really matter if you want to write a book, and one of them is carving out the time to do it. We all know there are countless ways to procrastinate, but NaNoWriMo is here to help you say, “This month, everything else can wait.” This month instead of saying “yes” to everything, you say, “I can’t. I’m writing.”
And then you show up to your desk when you say you will, and you write one word and then another and another. This month you write with wild abandon. Once you’ve got some momentum going you will be surprised by the way words pile up.
The library is a perfect place to sneak in some focused writing time. So come find a cozy seat, bring your goals, track your progress, focus on quantity over quality. Save editing for December. This month is about generating words and accumulating pages!
For more guidance and inspiration come browse our shelves! Here are a few great resources to get you started.
- No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty, Founder of National Novel Writing Month | print / digital
- Pep Talks for Writers by Grant Faulkner, Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month |print / digital
- This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosely | print / digital
- The Hidden Machinery: Essays on Writing by Margot Livesey | print
- Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott | print / digital