Why NaNoWriMo is Important for Memoirists
Presentation by Grant Faulkner, Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month
September 15, 2016
4 PM PDT 5 PM MDT 6 PM CDT 7 PM EDT
Grant Faulkner, Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month, November 1-30, known as NaNoWriMo will join us to talk about how you can join this worldwide writing frenzy and get a first draft done in a month.
It’s a great way to kick off the “school” year to hear from the person who heads up this international effort to celebrate writing. NaNoWriMo has created a phenomena that adds hundreds, even thousands, new writers each year to the annual National Novel Writing Month celebration. Here’s how it works: you sign up on the website and commit to writing 50,000 words during the month of November. Not only does it light a fire under you to get a LOT of writing done, you’re joining thousands people all over the world who are doing the same thing: committing to writing through writer’s block, procrastination, and confusion to get words on the page.
And great news: you do not have to be a novelist to join NaNoWriMo. Grant and I are going to talk about how it all works and what the benefits are to you as memoirists. Many memoirists join to blow past all the issues that slow them down. When it comes down to it, if you have a word count to fulfill and accountability, you will write more.
We will talk about:
- What is NaNoWriMo and how did it get started.
- How you can join and how it works.
- What memoirists can gain from joining NaNoWriMo and how it can help you write your memoir.
- What is the expected outcome at the end; What does “winning” mean?
- What happens after it’s over—on your own again.
Writers say that NaNoWriMo was one of the most satisfying writing experiences they have had.
Bio
Grant Faulkner likes big stories and small stories. He is the Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), the co-founder of 100 Word Story, and a founding member of San Francisco’s Flash Fiction Collective. His essays on creative writing have appeared in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Writer’s Digest, and The Writer, and his stories have appeared in dozens of literary journals. He recently published a collection of 100-word stories, Fissures, and is currently writing a book of essays on creativity that will be published by Chronicle Books in the fall of 2017.
Learn more about Grant on his website.
You can follow Grant on Twitter here.
I’d really like to join the conversation but must work that day so I’ll look forward to hearing the recording. Thanks so much for these inspiring discussions.