NaNoWriMo

Pipestone County Star 11-07-2013

NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month – have you ever wanted to write the next great American novel?  Now you can!  November is the month to get started and NaNoWriMo challenges you to write 50,000 words in 30 days.  It doesn’t have to be the best literature to be written in years – you can always edit later.

NaNoWriMo started in 1999 in San Francisco and had just 21 participants that year.  It has grown steadily each year since and more than 200,000 people took part in 2010, writing more than 2.8 billion words.  Any sort of novel can be written, from fan-fiction to verse novels, and in any genre – the only requirement is it be at least 50,000 words.   Instead of completing the novel, participants can write the first 50,000 words of a novel that can be finished later.

A novel is any sort of fictional work that is more than 40,000 words long.  Less than that and you’ve written a novella.  The Great Gatsby and The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy are both novels of right around 50,000 words, to give you an idea.  Those aren’t particularly long books, so that may make this entire thing seem more doable.  Of course, to even think of starting, you have to realize you need to write on average 1,667 words a day.

Starting on November 25^th, participants can start uploading their entire novels for word count and verification.  If they have succeeded, they “win” and get a printable certificate, a special desktop icon, and inclusion in the list of winners.  There’s no protection against cheating, but since the only reward is basically the knowledge that you’ve done it, not many people actually cheat on their results.

Believe it or not, there are some pretty famous books that started out this way:

Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen (Great book!)

The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern (this month’s book club selection!)

The God Patent, by Ransom Stephens

Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell

Persistence of Memory, by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

BreakupBabe, by Rebecca Agiewich

There are a few writers (or wannabes in my case) that are participating this year – we might even have a few write-ins in the library just for fun.  Come by and join us!!

If you feel the inspiration, go ahead and sign up at their website, www.nanowrimo.org.  It only takes a few minutes and if you don’t make it to 50,000 words this year, there’s always next year!

Book Club Reminder: The book club meets the fourth of the month and the next meeting will be November 21^st  (the fourth Thursday this month is Thanksgiving).  The next book is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  If you don’t have a copy, let the library know and we would be happy to order one for you.  Everyone is welcome!!

If you have questions or have a book you’d like to reserve or renew, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at (507) 825-6714.  The hours for Meinders Library are Monday through Thursday from 10 AM – 8 PM, and Friday and Saturday from 10 AM to 5 PM.  Meinders Community Library is located at 1401 7^th Street SW, on the south side of the high school.