Some of you may have heard the term “NaNoWriMo” bandied about, or seen posters at the library about “write-ins”, and thought maybe this was probably some sort of covert library gang that politely schedules meeting times in community room.

Fortunately, as accurate and awesome as that description may sort of be, NaNoWriMo is an international movement which is short for National Novel Writing Month. It takes place every November, and tens of thousands of writers try to complete a novel, or 50,000 words (which supposedly equates to a novel, but it’s really more of a novella).

It’s a crazy notion. Write 50,000 words in one month, and have a novel! It’s utterly mad, right?

Well, it may be mad… as in mad fun.

The Poudre River Public Libraries even make it more fun for writers who decide to torture themselves with this seemingly impossible task. With write-in, word-count competitions, and games to inspire further writing, it’s no wonder that NaNoWriMo participants in Fort Collins do so well!

Somewhere around 13-14% of NaNoWriMo novels suceed. The Fort Collins regional average? It hovers around 30% success rate, which is one of the highest in the world. That’s how great the support staff is for NanoWriMo.

At the Meet and Greet (don’t worry if you missed this! You can still join in all the Reindeer Games!) we did fun things like drawing our inner-editor, or basically that voice in our heads that stops us from completing a story because it needs to fix everything.

Here’s mine:

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What we do with this drawing is simple: get rid of it. NaNoWriMo is not a time to let our inner editors get the best of us! Either we give our inner editor to someone for safe keeping until December, or we destroy. It depends on what’s best for you. Some confessed to burying theirs, and others to burning them. I haven’t quite decided yet what I’m going to do with mine yet, but I may be climbing to the top of Horsetooth and letting loose in the wind because being dramatic is fun like that. Plus, it’s a good exercise.

As I said, the Fort Collins Municipal Liasons (NaNoWriMo support staff) are incredibly helpful. They have scheduled write-ins every day of the week, and have organized all sort of tricks to help us get the word flowing. What those tricks are, we don’t know yet, but the NanoWriMo alums have promised that it will be fun and beneficial to getting the book done on time.

One of their tricks that isn’t a secret, though, is this Yahtzee sheet which is meant to encourage our participation in all the events that will guarantee our novel getting finished.

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Now, I’ve been a NaNoWriMo-Er before, and I’m sad to say that I never get past 20,000 words. This year, however, I’m convinced I will be successful with the library’s help! I’m excited to be a first time NaNoWriMo-er at Fort Collins. Cheer for me, and I’ll let you know how it goes.

If you would also like to go, sign up at http://www.nanaowrimo.org and choose Fort Collins as your home region.

The weekly write-ins are:

Monday – Happy Lucky’s Tea House 232 Walnut Street 5-8PM
Tuesday – Panera Bread Company 2721 Council Tree Ave 5-9PM
Wednesday – Everyday Joe’s 144 S Mason St 5-9PM
Thursday – Wild Boar 1510 S College Ave 6-10PM
Friday – CSU Computer Lab 6-10PM
Saturday – College America, 4601 S Mason St 6-10PM
Sunday – Old Town Library, 201 Peterson St 1-5PM