Announcing the November Program

We are officially launching the November Program! This is our month-long, 50,000 word marathon in November. If you’re looking for a replacement for NaNoWriMo, this is it! And, of course, participants in NaNoWriMo are welcome in the November Program– we all have the same goal!

Our theme this year will be Entering the Forest. Your novel is a growing forest, waiting for you to walk its paths. Join us on the journey from seed to sequoia as we explore the growing lands of our creativity.

If you’re new and haven’t done a long-term writing challenge with us before, the rules are simple: Start writing a novel as early as midnight on November 1st. Stop writing as late as midnight on November 30th. You did it! The one hard and fast rule is that you don’t count any words you wrote outside of November towards your win. Everything else is changeable. If you want to write a memoir, a script, a collection of short stories, fanfiction or your doctoral thesis, we don’t care, as long as you’re writing! For more information, check out the November Program on our website. 

We will have all of our traditional programming that we held during NaNoWriMo, starting with a Launch Party in October, and ending with a Wrap Party in December. In between we will hold daily write-ins, both in-person and virtual, as well as longer marathons and, of course, the Traveling Marathon of Doom!

Join us for our Launch Party to learn more about the program, meet other participants, and work on some brainstorming exercises! 

Saturday, 10/26

1:00p-3:30p

Waldo Library Room B

201 E 75th St, Kansas City, MO 64114

Help Us Launch

As we gear up for November, we are actively seeking funds. Thanks to generous support, we have reached over two-thirds of our $300 goal and are just $95 away! So far, we’ve used this money for marketing: stickers, signs, and business cards. We’re looking to use the bulk of the donations to rent library space for a weekly write-in at the Colbern Road Library and reserving space for our final leg of TMOD. Everything helps, and if everyone gave $2 we would meet our goal! Donations are accepted at our ko-fi.

Of course, if you can’t donate, writing with us is always the best way to support us. You can also help us by following on Instagram and Facebook, sharing our posts on your pages, and forwarding this newsletter to other writers you think might be interested! 

Whatever you do, thanks for being here with us!

Inspiration Strikes!

All of our stories begin as seeds, just tiny ideas growing in the soil of our minds. Right now, that idea might be a single character, event, or even just a feeling. All stories need a character, at least, and all characters need one thing: motivation. To get started on your story for November, think about that seed in your mind and come up with one character for it, and then write about what that character wants most of all, and what they’re willing to do to get it.

A Quick Review

Our workshop this summer was a big success! We want to give a shout out to our organizer Natalie for doing most of the groundwork to get it going and for leading great discussions, as well as a big thank you to everyone who attended. Together ten authors discussed their pieces and provided each other with valuable feedback. But don’t just take our word for it, check out these quotes from our post-workshop survey: 

“The conversation was freaking brilliant every time. It was so exciting to listen and just take it all in.”

“Going through the comments people left on my story was maybe my most favorite part, so definitely continuing to share those! I had so much fun and I would love to do this again.”

“[The organizers] made something really wonderful happen for this group. It was so well organized and supportive. It made a really great experience to step into this area with everyone.”

This workshop would not have been possible without its participants’ willingness to open themselves up to critique and to share their time with everyone else, so thanks again to everyone who came. Since this first workshop round went so well, we will definitely be planning more in the future, so keep an eye out for those signups!