Spring Update

We’re nearly through March, and the year is going strong for KanMoWriCo. We’ve selected a new co-organizer, led another round of workshops, and we’re about to launch our next event! 

Welcome Ali!

In our last newsletter, we bid good-bye to Natalie as a co-organizer and opened applications for the role. We are pleased to announce that we have selected a new co-organizer, Ali Petterson! 

Ali has lived in Kansas City for the last 30 years, and it is–by far–one of her favorite places on Earth. She lives with her two devoted dogs, two clingy cats, and her adoring husband (who is the light of her life, just don’t tell the fur-children).

After spending the better part of a decade living as a devout lurker within the KanMoWriCo sphere, Ali opted to make that status ‘part time’ once she found out about the groups discord. There, she has become a dedicated agent of chaos (in a fun way) and support. She’s been writing stories of the fantasy and sci-fi variety since she learned how to hold a pencil and write a sentence. As an adult, she now enjoys the occasional combination of romance with the aforementioned genres. Outside of writing, she enjoys reading, ADHD-fueled crafting binges, and gaming.

She brings experience with working with nonprofits and organizing groups, a passion for our community, and an exciting vision for KanMoWriCo’s future. We’re so excited to bring her on board. 

We want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to all eight people who showed interest in the role. We had an unexpectedly competitive search for the next co-organizer, and we’re grateful for the energy and skills that everyone brings to the group. 

Spring Sprint

Clean out the cobwebs before you dive into your next big project, and write short(er) stories with us!

We get it. You’re busy. You’ve blocked off November as “your writing month.” You set the out of office message, trained your kids to make their own dinner, and you do lots of extensive preparations to make November a month you can write a novel in.

But what if you didn’t do any of that?

Short stories, flash fiction, and novellas are a great way to flex your writing muscles without all the pressure of a finished novel weighing down upon you.

That’s where the Spring Sprint comes in!

We’re dedicating a whole month towards the act of telling a story with brevity! We’ll introduce a number of events and you can choose your own to make the challenge yours. Maybe you’re a true sprinter, and you want to run the 100 meter dash– flash fiction in 500 words or less. Maybe you’re a genre writer who’s ready to make that long jump from fantasy to realism. Not ready to give up the long distance events? Run the mile with a novella– no more than 25,000 words. The full list of events is on the website!

We’re hosting more write-ins in April, both in person and virtually if you can’t get out of the house. We’re also experimenting with new types of write-ins. It’s a new season for creativity, let’s ring it in with style.

Here’s our event schedule for the month!

Sundays 1-4 p.m. @ Rochester Brewing & Roasting Company (Crossroads)

Tuesdays 6-9 p.m. @ Front Range (Waldo/Brookside)

Wednesdays 6-9 p.m. @ KanMoWriCo Discord #write-ins channel

Fridays 11 a.m. -1 p.m. @ Johnson County Central Resource Library

Saturdays 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. @ MCPL Riverside

Inspiration Strikes

The Spring Sprint is all about brevity, so we’re highlighting this great essay by George Saunders! This essay is about the pursuit of specificity, which is obviously something we’ll all have to grapple with while writing short fiction.

“You revise your reader up, in your imagination, with every pass. You keep saying to yourself: “No, she’s smarter than that. Don’t dishonour her with that lazy prose or that easy notion.”

And in revising your reader up, you revise yourself up too.”

This is the core of our hurdles event! Take something you’ve written and revise it to be more specific. Then revise it again.

Events 

Just a reminder that our Sunday write-ins are moving monthly this year. For the rest of March, we’ll be at the Waldo Library in Room A, and then it’s back to Rochester in April! You can find all of our events on our Google Calendar, Discord, or website.

As always, if you like what KanMoWriCo is doing, tell a friend! Share one of our links, forward this email, send a carrier pigeon, or just bring a friend to our next write-in. 

Happy Writing,

Joanie, Bee, and Ali