Saturday, October 20, 2012

National Novel Writing Month

So, National Novel Writing Month is almost 10 days away. Here at the library, we've been prepping with some writing talks, trying to get people more involved. We think everyone has a story to share.

To start off, I talked with Amanda J. and Amanda G. about What is NaNoWriMo on 10/10. You can view a shorter version of our talk on YouTube. We talked generally about what NaNoWriMo is all about, how to get involved, rules and regulation, and then I spent some time showing them around the website.

On 10/14, I sat down with Lydia to do a talk called Teens Have the Write Stuff. This talk a was a little more in depth but I think we both had some fun. I tried to bring up some things in the YouTube video that I may have forgotten when I was talking to Lydia.

By the way! On the slide about getting the creativity flowing, the suggestion I couldn't think about was one from Chris Baty's No Plot? No Problem! In it, he says that when you're planning what to write, you should make two lists. The first list is all about the things you LOVE in books --for me that might be magic, cowboys, romance, independent women. In the second list, you list things you HATE to see in books; women who have to be in a relationship to be happy, sick kids...whatever it is. Then, he suggests putting them somewhere you can look at them while you're writing. I think that's a great idea, especially for young authors. Why would you want to read a story filled with all the stuff you don't like?

We will also be doing another talk on October 24th at 5 PM for Adults, So You Want To Write a Novel. I will have the link to the YouTube voice over up for that shortly after the talk, so if you're interested, stay tuned!

For those who are interested in my master list of resources, I have it posted on the WriMos of EC Facebook group, the Elsewhere Facebook group, and can e-mail it as needed. I'll post a complete version of it as soon as all of the talks are done; I don't want to forget anything!

Also, we're doing a Short Story Writing Contest here at the library! Entries should be less than 1000 words (but a little over is OK), double spaced, size 12 Times New Roman font. They can be e-mailed to me at johnson@augustalibrary.org or you can drop them off at the front desk by 7 PM on October 24th. I have NaNoWriMo-inspired goodies for a 1st and 2nd Place winner!

One final thought regarding NaNoWriMo: any WriMo's should be sure to stop in during our Write-In's on Wednesdays from 5PM-7PM. I will have special treats for you --but you have to be a writer!

Happy Reading,
Samma

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