November means NaNoWriMo

What the heck is NaNoWriMo? A super cool event with a slightly crazy name, NaNoWriMo is the abbreviation for National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo began in San Francisco in 1999 with 21 participants and has been growing steadily ever since (around 90 000 this year). The idea is that over the course of the month of November participants aim to write - from scratch - a 50 000 word novel. Here's how they describe themselves on their website:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

So, if you've ever thought of trying to write a book - this is a great time to dive in. The NaNoWriMo organization offers advice, pep talks, a collective word count and forums to chat with other participants.

This year, Halifax Public Libraries is hoping you'll join us too with your novel writing plans. On Wednesdays in November, the Alderney Gate Branch in Dartmouth is inviting NaNoWriMo participants to come to the library, curl up in a chair or at a desk and use the library space as an inspiring location for writing. You can meet other NaNoWriMo participants or take a look at our writing resources for information. For more info on the Alderney Gate meetups, call 490-5745.

If you're more of a reader than a writer, or you're a writer looking for a little more inspiration, the library offers a lot of titles that might interest you.

Under the subject of "authorship" in the library catalogue there are more than a hundred titles offering advice and personal stories. Stephen King offers his insights on his wildly successful career in On Writing: a memoir of the craft. American author Michael Chabon - who has gained popularity and critical acclaim with his genre based fiction - recently released Maps and Legends: reading and writing along the borderlands, where he "energetically argues for a return to the thrilling, chilling origins of storytelling".

Finally, if you want to know where authors have gained their inspiration there's The book that changed my life : 71 remarkable writers celebrate the books that matter most to them.

Happy reading. And happy writing!!