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By Michelle, Public Relations Specialist

We’re half through National Novel Writing Month, and we’re checking in to see how you are doing? Are you on pace to reach your writing goals for the month? Haven’t started yet? No worries! We’re here to help you get motivated!

National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, is held every year during the entire month of November. Writers of all ages and styles are challenged to write 50,000 words in 30 days. The challenge was started in 1999 by the NaNoWriMo organization, a nonprofit that facilitates competitions and writing clinics and links together about 800,000 writers from around the world!

This year, we’d like to draw your attention to the onlining streaming service Kanopy — which you can access for free with your library card. Kanopy offers several informational videos on novel writing. If you haven’t set up your Kanopy account yet, it’s easy and quick. Just click here (make sure you have your library card handy) and you can set up your new account in just a few minutes.

Here are a few writings series to get you started:

The Writing Great Fiction series on Kanopy offers 24 episodes, starting with strategies for getting started, then moving on to building fictional worlds, introducing characters, writing dialogue, adding complexity to plots, revising without tears, and making a living as a fiction writer. 

Award-winning author James Scott Bell, who has taught writing at Pepperdine University and at writing clinics around the country, has a 24-episode writing series. The series starts with Tell Me A Story — offering critical success factors for fiction writers, and continues with creating conflict, writing jump-off-the-page characters, writing compelling first pages, getting published, and more!

How to Publish Your Book is a 24-episode by Jane Friedman, who has more than 20 years experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in business strategy for authors. The series covers such topics as today’s publishing landscape, defining your genre, researching the market, writing a query letter, writing a book synopsis, writing an effective proposal, pitching your book, and more!

If you are looking to connect with other writers, NCW Libraries hosts a monthly virtual Writers Group for all ages, skill levels, genres and interests. The next meeting will be Nov. 17 from 4 to 6 p.m. Find the Zoom link here.

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