National Novel Writing Month - Home

New Staff = Super-Exciting

Lindsey Grant — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:42:59 +0000

Chris Angotti, the Young Writers Program Director, and Nancy Smith, Community Liaison, are settled in at their desks and already making some amazing things happen here in the office and out in the OLL-sphere. We’re so thrilled to have their brilliant brains at work on our programs.

You can learn more about Chris and Nancy over on the Staff page, or send them each a warm welcome via NaNoMail. There’s also an interview with Chris over on the blog. Stay tuned for Nancy’s interview to come!

The merch elves and website gnomes are back from vacation and hard at work on NaNoWriMo 2010. We'll keep you posted on their progress.

Happy end-of-July!
Lindsey

Jamie Meira

Lindsey Grant — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:27:49 +0000

"There is no relaxing in a family of ten kids."

NaNo 2009 was my first time participating. I had a story idea. I had characters. I had plenty of time—I usually get up early in the morning anyway, and by the start of the day I'd have at least my word quota done, if not more. One of my sisters and I had recently inherited a laptop from my older brother, and my sister was happy to monopolize the family desktop. So I claimed the laptop, dubbing it 'Buzzy', due to the noise of its fan. And I had support from everybody—my family and friends, especially the ones that were doing NaNo with me.

November 1 arrived and I couldn't wait. By the twelfth day my word count was over 27K. Yes, there were a few days where I'd stare at the computer screen for several minutes at a time, trying to find something to write. There were a few days when I'd only get a couple hundred words done. But by November 30 I had almost 56,000 words.

I thought, "There, that's over and done. I have until June 30, 2010 to get the proof copy, right? That's seven months away. I can relax."

There is no relaxing in a family of ten kids. There were chores, schoolwork, relatives, birthdays, Bible studies, meetings, sign-language classes. Then in January another sibling came along. He had to stay in the NICU for almost a week. Mom and Dad were running back and forth to the hospital, and schoolwork was not getting done. Neither was the story.

One thing that kept me on track was the writing group I'm a part of. Four of the people there had been doing NaNo as well (two had won) and we were all encouraging each other.

When the baby came home, schoolwork started up again. And then we spent a lot of time with the baby, with each other, and I had to prep for the ACT in February. Again, very little time for the story.

The ACT came and went. As a sophomore, I had schoolwork for algebra 2, chemistry, American history from the Civil War forward, and more. Technically I was supposed to do a research paper, but my Mom let me work on the NaNo proof copy instead—but only if I could finish the story in time.

I finished the first draft and started a completely new draft. The characters were the same, but the plot was tighter. I still think it's a mess, really, but it was better. Slightly.

Then one of my sisters and myself went to help a family in another state for a week. Amidst boxes, children, laundry, and what-have-you, there was no story. Mom pushed the deadline ahead a week.

That's really what killed each and every pushed-ahead deadline I had. I was helping other people. There was no problem with that. But the deadline was knocking at my door. Where did those seven months go?

At 11:58 AM on June 30th, I submitted the document. And collapsed on the couch.

When not plotting and imagining, Jamie's interacting with her ten siblings, two parents, wild wacky writing friends, and twenty-five chickens in and around her family's homeschool. She enjoys just about anything except for geometry, grammar, and being social, and she won't bungee jump or skydive. Her main interests are writing, reading, snakes, spiders, lizards, and any dangerous or exotic animal or plant.

Night of Writing Dangerously seeks dangerous writers

Sarah Mackey — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 21:30:53 +0000

We’ve already had our first official RSVP for the 2010 Night of Writing Dangerously! That means there are only 199 spots remaining for the carpal tunnel-inducing, candy-overdosing, noir-themed night of awesomeness that is the NaNoWriMo Write-a-thon.

This will be our fourth annual Night of Writing Dangerously, and it’s going to be the best ever. In addition to the goody bag loaded with loot, a chance at a glorious selection of door prizes, and epic gifts for our top fundraisers, this year’s attendees will receive a limited edition Write-a-thon poster! We’ve seen the first version of the poster, and it is going to be a knock-out. Worth flying to California for? I think so!

In order to be one of the lucky 199, all you have to do is go here and sign up to start fundraising. Once you’ve raised $200, you can RSVP for the event. If you want to bring a guest, you’ll need to raise $300. Last year we had attendees from all over the world, so distance is no excuse! Keep an eye out for airline sales and start stalking Travelocity for hotel deals.

You can make plans, look for a roommate, and hear about last year’s event over in the Write-a-thon forum. Start those fundraising engines, and we’ll see you on November 21!

Starting the candy fast now in anticipation of the Write-a-thon candy buffet,

Sarah
NaNoWriMo

Mandi M. Lynch

Lindsey Grant — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 23:58:50 +0000

"NaNo came at just the right time to save me from my grief. These 50,137 words mean more than the first three victories ever did or the next however many ever will."

NaNo N'ville 2009 was supposed to be Nashville's best NaNo ever. I, being the ML had poured hundreds of hours, many miles, and my heart and soul into the region long before writers were preparing for the month. They got the calendar and oohed and aaahed—something like 33 events for a 30 day program. How could they not be amazed?

What they didn't know was that the schedule was my way of coping with a deep, dark secret. You see, my Grandmother, the woman who had held baby me for 10 hrs a day while my mother was at work, who had taught me, at the tender age of four, how to mix lemon juice and powdered sugar to make glaze for cookies, who had stacks of old wallpaper books so we could make dollhouses out of old boxes, had Cancer. With a capital C. We had known for a couple years, but this year was different. As summer was turning to fall, we were hearing words like "inoperable" and "incurable" and trying to process it all.

I threw myself—and my region—head first into the whirlpool that was NaNo N'ville 2009. Not only did we have this crazy calendar of events, I had a word goal of 75K—a NaNo and a half. While Mom was in Ohio, I was here, trying to figure out how to put words onto paper while a scrolling marquise in the back of my mind kept reminding me that as soon as this magic was over, I had to plunge headfirst into hell.

It didn't help that Mom called whenever she felt like it—guilting me through write-ins because she'd "forget" that we always met late Sunday morning, or that I had a long standing writing group commitment on the second Tuesday of each month. I was torn between my commitment to NaNo and my Grandmother. Until that fall, I had called her after every write-in and writers group to tell her how it went and if the guy I like showed up or not.

Now I was in a fog, not wanting to leave write-ins because I couldn't turn to her. I hardly had time to hear her familiar "Hello, Dear," and tell her that we had filled a local restaurant to capacity on a night they had stayed open just for us for our Kick Off. The glory of 44 writers at the first write in—three times my highest number up to that point—or our amazingly cool locations 9behind the butt of a 42 foot tall statue of Athena or smack in the middle of the Opryland Hotel) was overshadowed by what was going on.

Ironically, it was a moment of Not NaNo where I kicked this crazy process into hyper-overdrive for me. Sitting next to a friend, who I had always referred to as "He Who May Not Be Named" so that Grandma wouldn't keep asking me how he was, I said that I had to go home or it would be too late. This was a Tuesday, and the upcoming Sunday was the night of the Evening of Scribbling Recklessly, Nashville's answer to the Night of Writing Dangerously. Wednesday, I drove 550 miles to Ashtabula, Ohio, and arrived a little after seven.

The house was suffocatingly still. People used doorways to hold themselves up, waiting for the inevitable. It was November 18, nine days until my birthday, and a mere eleven and a half hours before my world would fall off its axis. I walked into her room and told her I loved her. Her breath was shallow and ragged, and she couldn't speak, so I stood there, holding her hand.

She died less than half a day after I had arrived. Six thirty AM on November 19th. I was twenty-thousand words into a fifty-thousand word requirement. And the Evening of Scribbling Recklessly (ESR) was that weekend.

So the family cried a lot, we made a quick trip to Wal-Mart to by funeral clothes, and I got back into my car to drive another 550 miles back to Nashville. The ESR wasn't just another write in—I had paid for a location, and had piled $2000 worth of donations into my closet in preparation. The event had to go on.

Sunday, November 22, was a pretty day in Nashville. The sun was out, it was warm enough for a NaNo t-shirt and a pair of flip flops, and I arrived promptly to set up the event. The hot guy showed up, worked magic on strands of Christmas lights and folding tables, and helped me turn a dated, 60s era banquet hall into NaNo magic. Writers came from as far away as Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Six hours and 147,063 words later (including over 9K from visiting ML, Cosman!), we cleaned up, and I left my region in the very capable hands of two of my Wrimos. I had managed four or five thousand myself, which was a pretty good feat, especially considering that my ML duties meant that my laptop wasn't even turned on until an hour into the event. Somehow, I had managed to churn out words, although not the important ones I had wanted to write. You know, a Eulogy for the woman who had cheered my victory for the last three crappy novels.

By the time the cats were packed and the car loaded, it was something like midnight. I had another 550 miles to drive—the funeral was at noon, and I didn't have time to rest. Fortunately, the night was on my side, and I made it with about half an hour to spare. My best friend showed up at the funeral home, clung to me for the rest of the day, and somehow I got through. Considering everything, NaNo should have been the last thing in my mind, but I would've given my laptop to get to hear her congratulate me for the write-a-thon's success.

Thirty-seven hours after I had woken up and loaded my car for the ESR, I finally made it to bed.

The rest of NaNo was interesting. I felt detached, like-I-was-floating surreal. I can't say I wanted to be at a write-in, because that wasn't it. I needed to be there. I needed the excitement and the inside jokes. I needed a stupid comment about a moose, a few dozen funny shaped paperclips, and my bag of extension cords and power strips. The morning we spent with Athena seemed twelve lifetimes away, and it was hard to put words on paper.

November 30, I sat at my Uncle's house, sans internet, typing madly. I'd look at the clock between sentences, worried that every second was a second closer to failure. I had refused failure in grand fashion before—14K in the last day my first year as ML—and I wasn't about to let it in this time. If my sacrifices, my week away from my region, the TGIO that I wasn't going to be at (affectionately dubbed the "kick in" by a confused newbie Wrimo), and the sixteen hundred miles of driving that I financed on my almost-maxed Visa card, were for anything, they were for Grandma. And I couldn't let her down.

Her house was empty when I pulled in the drive and walked into the dining room. The internet was at her house, installed for my mother's use in the months she stayed there as primary caregiver. I stuck my memory card into the computer and validated—50,137. It wasn't my goal, but I was a winner just the same.

I went over to her room and stood in the doorway. The crisp, white comforter had been made back onto the bed, a blood red carnation on the pillow, left by Ducro when they took her away. The cold wooden frame held me vertically as I let the emptiness of the room engulf me. Italian music from decades gone by wafted across the room, filling the silence that none of us could quite stand. As I stood there, tears poured down my face.

I opened and closed my mouth a few times before I could make any sound come out. "I did it," I whispered. "I won. You'd be so proud of me." So I could write about boys on quests for kings, Asian violinists and men with boats, but the one thing I wanted to write was conspicuously absent.

Grandma taught me to love unconditionally and to appreciate every success, no matter how small. Ironically, she made it in print almost as quickly as I had—in her case, the lyrics to a song she had written for me that I printed in the literary magazine that I own. She was so proud of that magazine! So, yeah, when she wrote the lyrics out by hand and gave them to me in September, I couldn't imagine not printing them. Her small success had made her as giddy as the little waddling duckies in the song.

NaNo came at just the right time to save me from my grief. These 50,137 words mean more than the first three victories ever did or the next however many ever will. When Ashley-Dylan and his epic quest make the rough matte pages of a real book, I already know what the dedication will say.

As for her Eulogy, I probably would have cried too much to get the words out. They're a few months late, so I can‘t use them to pad my word count, but here they are. To Grandma, with love, from her favorite (four time!) NaNo Winner.

Mandi M. Lynch wrote her first story on an old typewriter at the tender age of five. She later illustrated it herself in crayon. At age twelve, she won a short story contest sponsored by her local library, which her Grandmother never let her forget. Mandi, a four time NaNo ML/Winner, seriously hopes her career didn't peak then. Now, the owner/editor of Ink Monkey Mag lives in the 'burbs of Nashville, TN, with her three cats, DC, Brynn and Alix, none of whom write due to lack of thumbs.

Six days left for a proof copy (and other trivia of questionable relevance)

Sarah Mackey — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:46:42 +0000

It’s June 24! Do you know what that means? Well, it means a lot of things. It’s Thursday. It’s been 346 years since the founding of the colony of New Jersey and 130 years since the first-ever performance of “O Canada.” It’s Mercedes Lackey’s birthday. It’s 130 days until NaNoWriMo 2010 starts. (Only 130 days! It’s practically next week! Quick, who has a plot bunny I can borrow?)

But of more immediate concern, it is only six days until the CreateSpace offer for 2009 NaNoWriMo winners expires. That means if you want a free shiny paperback copy of your novel, you need to get hopping! More details can be found over on the I Wrote a Novel, Now What? page. If you have questions about the offer, the CreateSpace discussion thread is chockablock with helpful people and suggestions.

Off to hunt the elusive plot bunny,

Sarah

Cheryl Angst

Lindsey Grant — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 22:36:41 +0000

"Every student who won brought a copy of their winner's certificate and we plastered the boards with them. We had streamers, balloons, music, and a pile of manuscripts over six inches thick."

I decided to write a novel alongside my students as they participated in the YWP in 2009. Writing alongside my students was absolutely amazing. We worked through everything together, which is how I came to write the book in the first place. I gave my students the exercise of summarizing their as-yet-unwritten story in a single sentence, and I created an example (something about a former military commander being sent to investigate rumours of an alien threat against humanity). We then fleshed out our sentences into a paragraph (three disasters and an ending). Again, I provided an example. By this time, my students were drooling over the prospect of writing their novels and, to my surprise, they were begging me to write one for the examples I'd given.

50,000 words seemed like an awful lot on top of teaching full-time and raising a family, but I figured if I expected my students to write every night, I should continue to lead by example. Writing, suffering, and sharing together, our passion was infectious. Students who were reluctant to put a single sentence on paper were NaNoMailing me with excerpts and updates. Every morning before the bell, the computers in my class (normally a zone of gaming that only middle schoolers would find entertaining) were crowded with students fighting to "do their NaNoWriMo."

We tracked our progress with the stickers and chart provided to us by the YWP, and we celebrated each person's moment of achieving his or her goal by presenting him or her with an "I eat novels for breakfast" pin. I had students writing their brains out at the very last minute. I met the 50,000-word goal with a few days to spare. One student hit her goal with less than five minutes to spare!

On December 1st we celebrated. We held a TGIO party in the classroom. Every student who won brought a copy of their winner's certificate and we plastered the boards with them. We had streamers, balloons, music, and a pile of manuscripts over six inches thick.

A lot of what was written was paranormal, sci-fi, or CSI-type stories. There were a few high fantasy novels, and a couple bordering on chick-lit, but the majority contained some paranormal element. My students loved hearing updates on my novel, begging for more about its most loveable characte, an alien named Kree. Their attachment to Kree actually led to one student creating a fan site for the little guy!

My students were as invested in my writing as I was in theirs. When the dust settled, and their novels had been read and graded, I decided to edit mine and send it out in the hopes of getting it published. I taught my students to aim high and reach for their dreams, and not to give up at the first setback. I was honest with them—I told them about each and every rejection. At first they were angry, saying things like, "That agent doesn't know what he/she is talking about," but I reminded them that life isn't like a Hollywood movie, and that getting a book published is hard. I explained the query process and talked about how I was editing and revamping my work based on the feedback in my rejections.

The first time an agent asked to see more pages, I thought my heart would explode. When I told my class, they cheered. When the agent ultimately rejected my novel, my students consoled me and told me not to give up. I kept on.

I've been away from my class for a few months, working for a local university in their teacher education program, so I wasn't able to keep them in the loop in terms of what was happening with my manuscript. However, when the offer from Lyrical Press Inc. came through I knew I had to tell them. I arranged to speak with them at the start of their gym period, and the whooping and hollering erupted before I finished my first sentence.

We'd written together, edited together, and suffered the sting of rejection together. My students cheered me on when I was tired (that last week of NaNoWriMo was a killer), and they never lost faith in my book. And like a fairy tale ending, their faith was rewarded.

I thought I was writing a book about aliens and space ships, but in reality it was about discovering and sharing a journey with my students. It may be my name on the book's cover, but the kids in my class are the heart of the novel.

Cheryl teaches middle school in a suburb outside Vancouver, BC Canada, where she participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time in 2009 along with her English Language Arts class. This was her first time participating and her first time winning. While she was thrilled to win, she was even more excited when all but three of her students met their word count goals!

The Summer of Social Networking

Lindsey Grant — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 21:03:07 +0000

Here at the office, we’re spending our summer months catching up to the rest of the modern world and their newfangled technologies. This week, Chris, Tavia and I had our first encounter with this cool thing called Skype. We used it to interview long-distance applicants for the YWP and Community Liaison positions and, well… it blew our minds. We like it so much that we now Skype with each other in the office. (In fact, by the time NaNoWriMo rolls around I anticipate an all-Skype-all-the-time office environment.)

We’ve also gotten a crash course on using Facebook. Ever heard of it? In two short months, our NaNoWriMo Facebook page has gone from crickets to crazytown. If you haven’t already, check out some of the discussions taking place over there. We have pictures, too!

Off to investigate this MySpace business,

Lindsey
NaNoWriMo

Exciting staff news

Chris Baty — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 21:55:19 +0000

Last week, I posted the news about Tavia moving to full-time Operations Manager, which means we're on the hunt for a new Young Writers Program Director. I'm excited to announce that we're also looking for a full-time Community Liaison.

This is part of a long-standing plan that has me moving to full-time Executive Director for the Office of Letters and Light---NaNoWriMo's parent nonprofit---this summer. I've been serving as part-time ED for the past four years, and we've grown to the point that it's definitely time for me to go into full-time big boss mode. I'll focus on expanding the awesomeness of NaNoWriMo, Script Frenzy, and the Young Writers Program, establishing new organizational friends and connections, making sure that our programs have the funding they need, and ensuring that our websites, products, and materials are in line with our mission.

As part of this change, the great Lindsey Grant will be moving up from Community Liaison to full-time NaNoWriMo Program Director. When we first hired Lindsey two years ago, my biggest thought was: "Holy cow, we got lucky with this one." Lindsey is organized, incredibly hard working, and a hilarious writer. She knows OLL inside and out, having participated in two NaNoWriMos and Script Frenzys, overseen the Municipal Liaison program, and answered thousands of emails from participants. She's got vision and spunk, and I couldn't imagine a better person to take over as NaNoWriMo Program Director.

You'll still be hearing from me plenty through the NaNoWriMo site, blog, and emails. I've also rented several billboards in your hometown that I will be using to publicly shame you should you fall behind on your word count this November. Just so you know.

Lindsey and I are sitting down with staff now to work out the final list of improvements for NaNoWriMo and the Young Writers Program. It's going to be another incredible autumn of literary abandon (my 12th!), and I'm so excited to be a part of it all.

I'm excited for you to be part of it, too.

Write on!

Chris

Sarah J. Stevenson

Lindsey Grant — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 22:55:46 +0000

"Lucky me—I got to be on NPR, thus fulfilling one of my lifelong intellectual pipe dreams. And with the esteemed Mr. Baty, no less."

Back in 2006, I was frantically trying to reach my 50,000-word quota for NaNoWriMo, certain I wasn't going to make it since I'd lagged behind at the beginning of the month. A few days before the end of November, I responded to a post on the NaNo forums: Guests were needed for a segment on Insight, a program on my local NPR station. The segment was about NaNoWriMo and featured an interview with Chris Baty plus a couple of NaNo participants.

Lucky me—I got to be on NPR, thus fulfilling one of my lifelong intellectual pipe dreams. And with the esteemed Mr. Baty, no less. (Interesting side note: I agreed to participate by phone, but declined to drive in to the station in person, because at 1.5 hours each way, the commute was going to cut severely into my NaNo time!)

During the show, I got to read a passage from my NaNo project on the air, and somehow all of this gave me the motivation to squeak past the 50,000 words by the time the deadline rolled around. I was a winner! I sent a quick follow-up e-mail to the producers of Insight to let them know, yes, I actually DID finish, and thanks again for having me on the show. And, lo and behold, at the end of one of their shows the following week, they announced that I'd finished! I promise that was not an ulterior motive in contacting them, so I was pleasantly shocked when they did.

I kept working on the project, and now, a few years later, I have the incredible good fortune to be able to announce that The Latte Rebellion,a novel for young adults, will be published by Flux Books in January, 2011. And that's a second dream fulfilled...thanks to NaNoWriMo. Here's to future NaNo efforts proving just as fruitful. Cheers!

Sarah is a writer and artist in Northern California who has participated in NaNoWriMo a handful of times (though she's only won once). She is a devoted fan of the ring-tailed lemur.

Backstage at the new Office of Letters and Light

Sarah Mackey — Wed, 26 May 2010 23:56:16 +0000

Join Sarah the intern on a tour of the new OLL digs!