If you have a writer in your life, the chances are that you’ve been seeing them progressively less and less this month, and whenever you did manage to catch a glimpse of them, they mumbled something like “wrimo and daily wordcount” and ran back to their laptop. Don’t despair, your friend is likely participating in NaNoWriMo, a national novel writing month, the goal of which is to write 50,000 words in a single month.
If that fast-typing evasive creature aka wrimo is you, let me congratulate you! You rock! Novel writing is not easy and completing that first draft is often the biggest obstacle every writer faces. Together we can do it!
Now think of me as of your novel-writing cheerleader handing you a warm banana in the middle of the marathon race because on Nov. 15, I’m organizing an official NaNoWriMo participant-hosted writing event called “The Writing Oasis at 100 Bogart.” (Neat, I know.)
The goal of my event is to get writers together and to use our joint excitement and creative energy to vamp up our daily word counts!
Held at the new, beautiful office/coworking space 100 Bogart (where I’m also a member), we’ll meet at 6 p.m. and will write until 9 p.m. We will have free coffee, tea, water, and possibly beer. (Any beer or beverage sponsors, please holla at me!)
After the Writing Oasis, everyone is welcome to join us for meet & greet beers at nearby Pine Box Rock Shop!
National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo as writers in the know call it is a fantastic internet-based writing self-competition (meaning you only compete with your own self) to write 50,000 words (about 200 pages) in the month of November. The participation is free (though you’re encouraged to donate) and all you have to do is to register online and enter your daily word count. You don’t have to share your manuscript with anyone but yourself.
NaNoWriMo was started in 1999 by 21 brave writers, who swore to complete their first drafts in a month. By 2001, NaNoWriMo had already 200,000 participants!
The idea behind NaNoWriMo is that you don’t write a masterpiece in a month, you merely begin one. NaNoWriMo encourages its participants not to go back and self-edit, but to keep going forward and putting the story on the paper, no matter how shitty that first draft is. (And trust me it gets pretty shittastic at times). The good news is that come December you can start revising your manuscript with a firm grasp on what the story you’re trying to tell is about.
The initiative is beloved by both newbies as well as pros. In fact, many beloved best-selling novels were started during NaNoWriMo. (Think “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern, “Fangirl” by Rainbow Rowell, or “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen.) So there is really no reason why not to do it.
If you didn’t know about NaNoWriMo, it’s still time to join. And don’t forget to come to the NaNoWriMo Writing Oasis at 100 Bogart on Nov. 15 from 6 to 9 p.m. RSVP on Facebook. Oh and let’s be buddies!
Cover image: Kimberly Farmer/Unsplash
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100 Bogart
A beautiful new office & coworking building.
100 Bogart Street (off the Morgan Ave stop on the L train)
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