Every year from the beginning to the end of November, aspiring writers around the world race to complete 50,000 words for National Novel Writing Month.
NaNoWriMo, as it's usually called, began in July 1999 according to the group's Web site, www.nanowrimo.org. Twenty-one aspiring writers gathered that summer in the San Francisco Bay area with no other plan but to write as many words as possible in one month's time. They didn't do it hoping to become famous, or even to become better writers.
"We wanted to write for the same dumb reasons 20-somethings start bands," the Web site states. "We wanted to make some noise."
After the first year the event moved to November and word spread online. In 2000 the event grew to 140 participants, most of whom lived outside the Bay Area.
Today, NaNoWriMo is an international sensation. More than 100,000 people participated in 2009, and 21,683 made it to the finish line. Participants last year wrote a total of 1.6 billion words.
Seattle has been the winner in total regional word count for five years, and more than 2,000 people are currently writing like crazy each day to defend the city's title. The Seattle Public Library has been hosting a four-part series, "Write On!" to help aspiring writers get through the month.
The last two workshops will be held this weekend Saturday and Sunday, Nov 13 and 14 at the library's Capitol Hill Branch The third workshop, "Flash Fiction: Jump In! Jump Out!" will teach participants the importance of being concise as they work to complete a story in fewer than 1,000 words. It will be held Saturday, Nov. 13, and will be hosted by poet, playwright and prose writer Ann Teplick.
The fourth and final workshop, "Journal Writing," will be held on Sunday, Nov. 14, and will encourage writers to branch out from fiction into creative personal journaling. Local nonfiction writer and teacher Wendy Call will host it.
The first workshop, held Oct. 30, got participants ready for the grueling month ahead. It was hosted by local teacher and novelist Waverly Fitzgerald.
"I like to take people through a series of exercises to help them do some developmental work," Fitzgerald said of her workshop in a phone conversation.
She's participated in NaNoWriMo four times, and completed it once. She said it's a great way for writers to get over the initial fear of writing a novel and just do it, even if they don't like what they have at the end.
"It encourages you to write badly," she said. "Which you are going to do anyway the first time you write a novel."
She encourages participants to attend workshops and writer meet-ups, such as the library events or others hosted by Richard Hugo House on Capitol Hill, where she works. Writing any part of your novel before Nov. 1 is considered cheating, but Fitzgerald encourages people to work out details of character and plot before they start the contest.
Fitzgerald has been writing professionally for 30 years, and is working on publishing a mystery novel she collaborated on with a friend. Because of this she's sitting out NaNoWriMo this year. She said that the best way to succeed as a writer is to find ways to make the experience fun.
In addition to writing, Fitzgerald teaches regular classes at Richard Hugo House and is a personal writing coach. Her website can be found at www.waverlyfitzgerald.com.
Award-winning author Anne Leigh Parrish hosted the second workshop on short-story writing on Nov. 6. She described her class as a lecture followed by a hands-on workshop teaching participants how to notice and correct common storytelling mistakes.
"I pass around a short story I wrote that is full of all kinds of problems," she said in a telephone interview. "Then I ask them what needs to be improved."
Although she has never participated in NaNoWriMo, she said it's valuable to writers because it creates an "artificial framework," forcing them to work under constraints.
Parrish has been writing and living in Seattle since 1982. Her short stories are widely published both in print and online. She also teaches creative writing classes through the Richard Hugo House. Her website can be found at www.anneleighparrish.com.
In addition to writing help, Parrish aims to dispel fears and get people to submit stories regardless of being rejected.
"Don't worry in the beginning about being published," she said. "If you are writing and you are sending your work out you will get rejected systematically."
She said the trick is to get over this fear of rejection and write anyway.
"Just keep working; keep working; keep working," she said.
All workshops in the "Write On!" series are open to the public. To register for this weekend's workshops, contact the Capitol Hill Branch Library at 206-684-4715.[[In-content Ad]]
