Have you heard about National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo? It’s a challenge that takes place each year in the month of November, where people work toward writing a book. This fall, we’re hosting a pre-planning writing series for young writers in grades 4 and up who may be interested in writing during NaNoWriMo. Each Thursday at 4:00 p.m., we’ll meet to discuss various elements that make up a novel, and work through the exercises in NaNoWriMo’s Young Novelist Workbook. By the end of the series, participants will have ideas for characters, setting, and plot ready to go, so they are ready to begin writing on November 1st. Below, you’ll find a summary of the topics covered during each week of the series. To register, check out our event calendar.

September 16: Intro to NaNoWriMo
We’ll start with the basics of NaNoWriMo, contain our Inner Editors, and discuss what we like best about the books we read. Come prepared with a favorite book in mind!

September 23: Sparking Ideas
Brainstorm a list of places and things that inspire you! Explore a few idea seeds with some writing.

September 30: Characters
We’ll talk about how to create well-rounded characters of all types: supporting characters, protagonists, and antagonists.

October 7: Building Conflict
Now that we have a few characters to work with, we’ll come up with some internal and external conflicts for our characters.

October 14: The Plot Rollercoaster
This week we’ll outline our plot, from set-up to resolution.

October 21: Setting
We have the “who,” the “what,” and the “how” for our stories… now let’s figure out the “where” and the “when.”

October 28: NaNoWriMo Survival
For our last week, we’ll set goals for our own personal NaNoWriMo adventures in November, and talk about some strategies for success.