Frequently asked questions
Have you ever dreamed of writing a novel?
November is National Novel Writing Month, a free annual event helping to motivate writers to start and complete a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. In 2009, over 160,000 people worldwide participated. Over 32,000 of them successfully crossed the finish line. Last year in the Chicago Western Suburbs region (centered in Naperville) 95 out of 179 regional participants achieved winner status, an amazing 53%!
The fun begins Saturday, October 8th, 1-3 pm at Nichols Library in downtown Naperville, which will be hosting a two hour preparatory event to give people enough time to successfully prepare for their November writing marathon. NaNoWriMo Municipal Liaisons will be on hand to answer your questions and guide the preparatory exercises. There will be a second prep event October 15th (1-3 pm) at the Nichols Library and a third prep event October 22nd (1-3 pm) at the 95th Street Library.
Bring a dish to share and come celebrate the start of NaNoWriMo at our pot-luck lunch kick-off party October 29th at the Naperville Municipal Center (11:45 am-3 pm).
Starting midnight November 1st, you can begin the actual novel writing. The Nichols and 95th Street Libraries will host write-in events 1-4 pm on Sundays in November (Nov 6 and 20 at Nichols; Nov 13 and 27 at 95th Street). All participants and their friends and family are welcome to attend the TGIO party December 3rd at the Naperville Municipal Center. Come visit http://naperwrimo.org for more detailed event information. Fulfill your dream of becoming a novelist. See http://www.nanowrimo.org and send your questions to mliaisons -AT- naperwrimo.org.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What does this cost?
A: Absolutely nothing is required. Donations to cover the nanowrimo.org website and administrative costs are accepted but are not necessary.
Q: What do the winners get?
A: A PDF file proclaiming them NaNoWriMo winners if they manage to complete at least 50,000 words in 30 days. More importantly, the happiness of completing at least 50,0000 words of a novel. In addition, CreateSpace has been giving winners a free paperback copy of their completed novel.
Q: Where can I find out more information about the local events?
A: Check out the 2011 Events page for detailed information about the local events.
Q: 50,000 words in 30 days seems foolhardy...
A: Actually, it turns out to be roughly 1,670 words per day, which turns out to be manageable. There are some exceptionally prolific writers who produce four times that amount... but many just barely get over the hump. The NaNoWriMo website and online discussion forums provide a lot of support; and we are organizing some weekly meetings locally for participants to use for writing and discussing their work.
Q: Do I have to publish my novel?
A: No. Some participants share their novels with other participants for critiquing; a few participants have had their NaNoWriMo novels published. There are no requirements here.
Q: What about my privacy?
A: While you do have to provide an e-mail address in order to register, the NaNoWriMo forums give participants fine control over what information is made available to others. E-mail address and identity information can be concealed and the NaNoWriMo team has a strong privacy policy. E-mail addresses are not shared or sold and you have to explicitly sign up to receive e-mail announcements from the NaNo team during November.
Q: How do I sign up?
A: Sign-ups can be done through the http://www.nanowrimo.org website beginning October 1st. The NaNoWriMo contest proper begins at 12:01 midnight November 1st.
Q: Who coordinates things for the Chicago Western Suburbs region?
A: We (Tim Yao, Katherine Lato and Dave Dean) are volunteer municipal liaisons for the Chicago Western Suburbs region of NaNoWriMo (Illinois::Naperville). We are enthusiastic participants of previous NaNo's who want to help others find the joy of completion that we've found. We organize the kick-off writing session, weekly writing sessions and the TGIO party at the end.
Q: Say I join the region, what do I do next?
A: If you haven't already done so, please come to our welcome thread and post a note introducing yourself to the other participants. You can say something about who you are and what you are writing. There are several other threads of interest in our regional forum. You can also place yourself on our regional map and contribute to our regional wiki site that is going to serve as an example of next year's official NaNo wiki engine. You can also go to the yahoogroups nanowrimo-west-suburbs e-mail list and subscribe to it. This list is used for communications within the group during the normal year and especially for planning in preparation for the next NaNoWriMo.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact us at mliaisons -AT- naperwrimo.org
hipster PDA
The hipster PDA is a cool, retro-low tech solution to information management. One uses a collection of blank and written 3x5 index cards bound with a binder clip or collected in a special carrier to jot down notes. Here are some pertinent links:
Which Novel Writing Books are Recommended?
What other resources are there?
Glad you asked. We have a Useful_references_for_writers page where there are a lot of links collected!
What about navigational aids for the nanowrimo site?
You might like the Reference desk forum index page (that does filtering and sorting)
