The Office of Letters and Light Blog

Letters and Light Around the World: Tracy Dawson

It’s always fun to hear about kids and teens doing NaNoWriMo halfway around the world. Recently, we were sent an article about Tracy Dawson’s work in the small town of Parkes, Australia (population: 9,826), and we had to learn more. Here, she tells us how she got a program going in a tiny community with no previous writing support.

How did you hear about the NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program, and what made you want to get involved?

Our school had several visits from Dr. Matthew Finch during 2011. He told me about NaNoWriMo and I was very interested and knew several students who were budding writers.

Coming from a rural town without a tradition of a writing community, how did you spark interest among your students?

I mainly publicised NaNoWriMo in school—using our newsletter, signage within the library, communication with English teachers, etc. I also posted on my library blog, Nailing Jelly to a Tree.

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The Magic Assignment

The Young Writers Program exploded with activity this past November, with the highest win rate for participants in the history of our program. The success of YWP has everything to do with your participation and donations, and with the fantastic educators we get to work with. Laura Bradley, a middle school teacher in Petaluma, CA, graciously shared her experience with us.

The bell rings, my classroom door flies open, and Tony comes hurtling through. “Can we write today, Mrs. Bradley? Please, please tell me we’re gonna write today!” He glances at the white board, sees “writing” on the agenda, and throws his hands up in celebration. “Yes!”

In 20 years of teaching, I have never seen students this eager to write. Sure, I have had success in the past with writing assignments that were tailored to engage my often-reluctant eighth grade writers, and I have seen them respond with enthusiasm to many writing pieces. But I am sure that I have never had students beg for writing time day after day. Nor have I seen them write silently and focused for a solid 45 minutes, day after day. So what is this magic assignment?

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Conquering the Middles: A NaNo College Essay

Every year, we have some young Wrimos who not only write their novels in November, but are preparing to take the leap into a new phase of their lives: university! We were lucky enough to have lightonwings share her college application essay with us:

Success doesn’t come easily.  I have learned this lesson every November for the past three years.  November is National Novel Writing Month, a donation-funded literary challenge that entices thousands of people to write fifty thousand words in thirty days.  Since my freshman year, I have balanced thirty-day “noveling” with schoolwork and extracurriculars and succeeded every time, but never without an intense amount of struggle.

The big point, for me, of National Novel Writing Month is that success only comes if I drag close to two thousand words from my fingertips every day for thirty days. While the novel is new and fresh, this is a treat, but the middle of every novel is pure drudgery.  Plot holes become apparent.  Characters seem trite and irritating. Plenty of days, stuck in the middle, my inspiration was nonexistent and writing was torture.  But because I wanted a finished novel, I kept pushing, learning the huge lesson of November; if I continue to pursue, I will eventually succeed.  

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Meet Our Team: Emily Bristow, Captain of Capital Ideas

Emily has long been a key player in the OLL-iverse as both a long-time ML and a remote staff member. You may know her in the forums as lazym. And now you can get to know her even better! I am proud to present the brilliant Emily Bristow.

Emily, how long have you been participating in NaNoWriMo?

I’ve participated (and won!) every year since 2002. This is, incredibly, my 10th  NaNo. I was a Municipal Liaison (ML) for the Austin, Texas region—go Penguins!—from 2004 through 2010.

When did you come on as the Captain of Capital Ideas? And, what is that exactly?

I became the ML Captain of Capital Ideas in 2008. NaNo was growing fantastically from year to year, and to support that growth we needed to get more serious about fundraising. Chris Baty asked me to lead a group of MLs to brainstorm ideas, hence the “Captain.” I thought it would be fun to compare regional donations the same way we compare word-count totals, so with the help of the amazing, multi-talented Lousy Writer 13, we launched the Donation Derby contest in 2009.

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A 30-Day Writing Retreat

As you read this, 19 teenagers and four staff members are in a cabin in Durango, CO working on their novels. They’re part of Unschool Adventures’ November writing retreat, and they’re basically living, breathing, and eating NaNoWriMo for 30 days. We had to know more. Luckily, the participants were able to set aside their notebooks and laptops long enough to answer our questions in video form.

How about you? Have you ever attended a writing retreat—either for a few days or a whole month? Would you like to? Why or why not?

– Chris A.

NaNoWriMo Newlyweds

Sometimes we get emails that are so good we just can’t keep them to ourselves. This email from Jonny in Brighton is one of those. We post it here with his kind permission.

Dear all at the Office of Letters and Light,

In 2009, prompted by a customer at Borders in Leeds, UK, where I worked at the time, I signed up to NaNoWriMo.org for the first time. Not four days into my time looking around the forums, gathering ideas for my first novel and checking out other people’s synopses, I received some NaNoMail from a Bay Area, CA resident named Kristina Casto who was looking for overseas writing buddies and a chance to share her previous three years’ NaNo experience. We got talking on MSN messenger and shortly after on Skype, and soon realised we had much more in common than we thought. By the time NaNoWriMo 2009 was over, Kristina already had plans to visit me in the UK, and we knew we were looking at something special. (Incidentally, I still want to finish my novel from that year, which involved a religion based around the music of David Bowie. It’ll happen one of these days.)

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Write-Ins, Writing Buddies, and Moose

The single most awesome part of NaNoWriMo, to me, is the social aspect of the community. Of course, there are the forums, where I rule supreme (mwah-haha) which are absolutely invaluable for getting support, ideas, and camaraderie.

But where NaNoWriMo really shines are in-person meetups. All around the world, people meet other Wrimos, and just plain have fun.

Here in Macon, Georgia, where I live, we get together at least weekly. We have a ton of spirit, and even have a mascot. A moose. The Macon Mooselings chose their mascot because (of course) there are no moose in Georgia. Why else?

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Meet Our Team: Rob Diaz, Ticket Master

Meet Rob Diaz, a volunteer extraordinaire lending his time and talents all the way from New Jersey! No doubt you’ve met Rob in the forums as Lousy Writer 13. Now learn more about the man behind the username…

Rob, how long have you been participating in NaNoWriMo? Do you participate in Script Frenzy, too?

This will be my sixth NaNoWriMo—2006 was my first year. My wife and children participate as well. I’ve tried for the past few years to get my kids’ teachers to bring the YWP into the classroom and for the first time I think one of them is (my son’s fourth grade teacher). We look forward to November every year! On a personal note, my favorite number is 13 and with this year being the 13th NaNoWriMo, I expect big, fantastic things!

I have intended to participate in Script Frenzy each year as well, but I seem to end up traveling for work or with other deadlines during April so it hasn’t worked out. I am very comfortable with scriptwriting and have had several scripts produced, so it is truly about the time factor. I have an idea for a musical that I want to write for Script Frenzy one of these years, so hopefully I’ll get that done some time. My daughter is the only one in my family who has won Script Frenzy so far (a fact of which she reminds us every year in and around April).

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An Early Start: A Q&A with Eva Ridenhour

At eight years old, Eva Ridenhour already defies expectations about what it means to be a writer. Eva writes, illustrates, and publishes her own stories, and has already toured the country selling her own work alongside her father, novelist Jamieson Ridenhour. She’s also uploaded a series of short writing lectures about her process, which you can find on her site. Eva was inspired by NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program, and has written her own work in November two years in a row. Via email, OLL got a chance to speak to Eva regarding her work and experience with NaNoWriMo.

Where do you get ideas for your stories?

I get my story ideas by looking around and exaggerating simple things. For instance, if I’m playing with stuffed animals, I make up a whole new story idea. My favorite stuffed animal is named Kinzy (he’s a koala); he has a big imagination. I like to make up stories about the Koala Wars with all sorts of funny things that have to do with Kinzy. It’s very fun to give him a personality. He loves to eat, and has a best friend named Mark. He’s not very smart, but thinks he’s the most Awesome Thing Ever.

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Meet Our Team: Heather Dudley, Forums Moderator

NaNoWriMo has a whole team of folks that make the November magic happen from afar. You’ve seen them in the forums, and heard their names mentioned in NaNoVideos and emails, but we thought it was time to put a face—and a story—to their names.

Up first: Heather Dudley (also known as Dragonchilde), NaNoWriMo’s Forums Moderator.

Heather, how long have you been moderating NaNoWriMo’s forums?

I started volunteering with Cybele the same here I first became an ML—2003. Wow. That’s um… a lot of years. I volunteered mostly in the “Mechanics, Logistics, and Other Technical Stuff” forums for five years, and have been staff moderator for three. When I try to add up how many hours I’ve spent on the NaNoWriMo website, my ears start smoking and Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” starts playing in the background.

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“I Sold My NaNoWriMo Novel!” A Q&A with Anna Sheehan

Writer Anna Sheehan sold her 2008 NaNoWriMo novel, A Long Long Sleep, to Candlewick Press in the US. Since then, the young-adult novel has been snapped up by publishers in Russia, Brazil, France, Germany, and the UK (where it was bought in a three-book deal). The book came out in the States this August. We spoke with Anna through the interwebs to get the scoop on her internationally adored book.

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“I sold my NaNoWriMo novel!” A Q&A with Rachael Herron

In March of last year, Chris Baty interviewed NaNoWrimo participant and published author Rachael Herron about her NaNo-novel, How to Knit a Love Song, published by HarperCollins. This March, a follow-up to that novel, How to Knit a Heart Back Home, hit the bookshelves. We were lucky enough to snag a moment of Rachael’s time for a check-in about her latest novel and insights on writing—and revising—her NaNoWriMo manuscripts.

Rachael, can you tell us a little bit about How to Knit a Heart Back Home?

Lucy never forgot the kiss or the bad boy she shared it with. Now, 17 years later, he’s back—and, dammit, he’s still sexy as hell. As owner of The Book Spire in the sleepy town of Cypress Hollow, Lucy Harrison isn’t used to too much excitement. But in one night all that changes when Owen Bancroft walks back into her life and sparks—quite literally—fly. The question is, does he even remember their one perfect kiss? And does she really want him to? Then, when a secret stash of books and lost patterns by world-famous knitting guru Eliza Carpenter are discovered in the Bancroft family home, the pair are thrown together once more. There’s no denying the electricity between them—but this time will black sheep Owen prove to be heart-stealer or heart-breaker?

When you wrote How to Knit a Love Song, did you already know you’d be following it up with this story?

Nope! I had no idea. I wrote the first book as my first NaNo attempt in 2006, and in my mind it was a one-off. (And a miracle—it was the first time I’d ever finished a full novel.) When it sold as part of a three-book deal, I was thrilled to go back into Cypress Hollow and dig up more characters for me to play with, but it definitely wasn’t planned that way.

How was the writing and revision process different this time around?

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