For future reading, check out these books!

• “Brace the Page: A Young Writer’s Guide to Telling a Good Story” by Rebecca Stern.
• “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft” by Stephen King
• “Crafting Novels and Short Stories” by James Scott Bell

NaNoWriMo is here again for another year of plotting, pantsing, and sprinting. Not sure what any of that means? That’s okay, we’ve got you covered.

What is NaNoWriMo?

National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, occurs every November and encourages participants to write a total of 50,000 words before the end of the month. Sounds like a lot of words? It is! 50,000 words is the average minimum for when a story is marketed as a novel rather than a novella. The average Adult Fiction novel can fall into a range of 70,000 to 90,000, though it can also be more or less depending on the genre.

Does NaNoWriMo expect you to write a complete, perfect story in one month? No! But NaNoWriMo is where perfectly messy drafts can be born, and it is open to all, from the veteran author to the first time amateur. The only real requirement is to write.

What Kind of Writer Are You?

Everyone has a different way of learning, which means everyone has a different way of writing. During NaNoWriMo, participants embrace these differences and tout their styles.

Plotters are meticulous storytellers. Before they begin, they know exactly what plot points they want to hit and where they want the story to go. Pantsers, by definition, fly by the seat of their pants. These writers dive straight into the story and go with the flow, ready to let the writing be the captain and just go along for the ride. In more recent years, a combination of these two has shown up: Plantsers. These writers generally have some sort of plan, but they’re also open to seeing where the story wants to take them.

What Are Some Ways to Boost Writing Focus?

Writing 50,000 words in a month is hard. There’s a reason there’s a whole challenge devoted to it! But through years of commiserating and community during NaNoWriMo, participants have found many ways to help keep themselves on track.

Word Sprints are a popular method within the writing community. A word sprint is setting a timer and just focusing on writing in a concentrated burst during a short period of time. Word sprints can be anywhere from just a few minutes to maybe even twenty minutes! Focusing in short spurts and just getting the words out without overthinking them takes perfectionism out of the way and helps hone concentration. 

Another similar method is word crawls. Where word sprints are short, concentrated bursts, word crawls are like marathons and obstacle courses. The internet is full of word crawls, where essentially you are doing a variety of different writing tasks to keep things short and interesting while still slowly raising your word count. These can be timed writing for five minutes, or try to write with your eyes closed, or take your time and just write 100 words. For people who love the successful feeling of crossing an item off a To-Do List, this method works great!

What Other Resources Are Available? 

Not ready to take the writing plunge? Want to do some brushing up or hone your craft? No matter your experience, Charles County Public Library has the resources to help you along your journey! Here are five to get you started:

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott

“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. [It] was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said. ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'”

With this basic instruction always in mind, Anne Lamott returns to offer us a new gift: a step-by-step guide on how to write and on how to manage the writer’s life. From “Getting Started,’ with “Short Assignments,” through “…First Drafts,” “Character,” “Plot,” “Dialogue.” all the way from “False Starts” to “How Do You Know When You’re Done?” Lamott encourages, instructs, and inspires. She discusses “Writers Block,” “Writing Groups,” and “Publication.” Bracingly honest, she is also one of the funniest people alive.

If you have ever wondered what it takes to be a writer, what it means to be a writer, what the contents of your school lunches said about what your parents were really like, this book is for you. From faith, love, and grace to pain, jealousy, and fear, Lamott insists that you keep your eyes open, and then shows you how to survive. And always, from the life of the artist she turns to the art of life.

Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction by Jeff Vandemeer

This all-new definitive guide to writing imaginative fiction takes a completely novel approach and fully exploits the visual nature of fantasy through original drawings, maps, renderings, and exercises to create a spectacularly beautiful and inspiring object. Employing an accessible, example-rich approach, Wonderbook energizes and motivates while also providing practical, nuts-and-bolts information needed to improve as a writer. Aimed at aspiring and intermediate-level writers, Wonderbook includes helpful sidebars and essays from some of the biggest names in fantasy today, such as George R. R. Martin, Lev Grossman, Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock, Catherynne M. Valente, and Karen Joy Fowler, to name a few.

How To Write a Page Turner: Craft a Story Your Readers Can’t Put Down by Jordan Rosenfeld

Tension is the heart of conflict, the backbone of uncertainty, the hallmark of danger. It keeps readers guessing and characters on their toes. When you’ve got tension in place, stories leave readers breathless and wanting more. When it’s missing, scenes feel inconsequential, plots drag, and characters meander.

Learning the craft of writing can sometimes feel like a paint by numbers approach–connect compelling character A to plot event B. To avoid writing that’s formulaic, predictable, and slow, How to Write a Page Turner will help you sew the threads of tension tight for an unforgettable story. You’ll learn how to:

• Recognize the essential tension elements of danger, conflict, uncertainty, and withholding, and add them to your fiction
• Create levels of tension in your characters through flaws, dialogue, power struggles, and more
• Build tension at energetic markers throughout the plot
• Use intimate imagery, strong sentences, and well-chosen words to build tension in exposition

While this book walks you through the key areas that need tension building, from character to plot, it also delves deeper, analyzing exceptional examples from contemporary fiction’s most gripping page-turners. So as you dive into the inner conflicts of a character’s deepest psyche, to the mechanics of how you reveal information to the reader, you’ll also discover how to craft a story your readers can’t put down!

Reading Like a Writer: A Guide For People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose

A distinguished novelist and critic inspires readers and writers with this inside look at how the professionals read—and write.

Long before there were creative writing workshops and degrees, how did aspiring writers learn to write? By reading the work of their predecessors and contemporaries, says Francine Prose.

As she takes us on a guided tour of the tools and the tricks of the masters—Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Kafka, Austen, Dickens, Woolf, Chekhov—Prose discovers why these writers endure. She takes pleasure in the signature elements of such outstanding writers as Philip Roth, Isaac Babel, John Le Carré, James Joyce, and Katherine Mansfield. Throughout, she cautions readers to slow down and pay attention to words, the raw material out of which literature is crafted. Written with passion, humor, and wisdom, Reading Like a Writer will inspire readers to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart.

No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty

Chris Baty, founder of the wildly successful literary marathon known as National Novel Writing Month, has completely revised and expanded his definitive handbook for extreme noveling. Chris pulls from over 15 years of results-oriented writing experience to pack this compendium with new tips and tricks, ranging from week-by-week quick reference guides to encouraging advice from authors, and much more. His motivating mix of fearless optimism and practical solutions to common excuses gives both first-time novelists and results-oriented writers the kick-start they need to embark on an exhilarating creative adventure.

In celebration of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a writing contest will be held at the La Plata Library throughout the month of November!

On November 1, participants will begin working toward a goal of writing a 50,000 word novel by 11:59pm on November 30. Help us reach our cumulative goal of 100,000 words by submitting your progress on one of the slips of paper provided at the La Plata Library. Total word count from the entries will be tallied throughout the month and tracked on our progress thermometer.

Participants will be entered into a drawing to win an Amazon gift card! (winners will be contacted in mid-December) 

*For additional information about NaNoWriMo, please check out this blog post too!

Celebrate NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) with the Charles County Public Library this year by checking out some of our local authors, as part of our Local Author Virtual Showcase! All of the authors showcased in this series responded to a call for submissions we placed over this summer, to highlight their work throughout the month of November. At CCPL we value the contributions our local authors make in sharing their knowledge and passion with our community.  Make sure to check out our Local Author’s collection located at the Waldorf West Library. 

Mildred M. Stokes

I Can Hear You Better With My Glasses On! 

Amazon 

When many prefer to stay in the box neatly tucked away, Mildred chooses to think out, and out loud. I Can Hear You Better With My Glasses On! is a poetic roller coaster ride across a tapestry of jewel findings. Take in the surroundings and discover what the author found was simply too exhilarating to keep to herself. Treasures will bring laughter when it’s needed and pause when you have to.

Get ready to explore–aspiring poets, writers, and everyday discerning folk–you who are simply up and ready for something refreshing. Imaginative, creatively expressed, clean spoken entertainment has unfolded. And you’re invited, guests of honor!

Romancing the Beautiful Divine, A Joy Embrace Story Devotional 

Get comfy and prepare to take a healing and inspirational journal–one that will take you over life’s hurdles and bless you jubilantly along the way! Romancing the Beautiful Divine is a passionate and thought-provoking story devotional designed to help you uncover the abundance of self-worth God has for you, and the courage you will need to run the distance with it.

If you’re hungering for insight and healing–seeking confirmation that there is a destiny calling set in place for you–this devotional will move you through the uncertainties and self-doubts that can linger and hold you captive. This collection of pivotal life moments and spiritual insights will empower and refresh you in the glory of God’s favor and loving embrace. Each chapter ends with an engaging challenge and prayerful reflection.

No stranger to writing, Stokes’ first book, “Romancing the Beautiful Divine”, is a story devotional that includes meditation challenges and a prayer blessing at the end of each chapter. Stokes is a retired educator and is currently the Director of the Health and Wellness Ministry at Calvary Gospel Church in Waldorf, MD. As Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist and health promoter, Stokes’ passion to advance nutritional health and complete wellness in communities is underway. “Writing has been a regular part of my work life journey,” she says, “and creative poetry accompanies along that continuum of health to wealth informative writing and entertainment expressions.”

Celebrate NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) with the Charles County Public Library this year by checking out some of our local authors, as part of our Local Author Virtual Showcase! All of the authors showcased in this series responded to a call for submissions we placed over this summer, to highlight their work throughout the month of November. At CCPL we value the contributions our local authors make in sharing their knowledge and passion with our community.  Make sure to check out our Local Author’s collection located at the Waldorf West Library. 

Chris Gregoire

Creek of Bones

Web site

Kev MacGuire is dying. Crabbing comforts him, and one day he catches human bones and a strange, gold medallion. When it turns out to be Incan, Kev and friends investigate how jewelry once stolen by conquistadors ended up near the Chesapeake.

If tales found on an old plantation are true, Blackbeard and his pirates looted treasure from a wrecked Spanish galleon. Along with liquid drawn from the Fountain of Youth.

Kev and friends search for the valuables yet dismiss the Fountain as fantasy. But when a centuries-old cure makes him a believer, the lighthearted quest becomes a race for survival.

Chris Gregoire lives near the Chesapeake Bay.

When not writing or having fun with family and friends, he is obsessed with catching and eating blue crabs. The proud Virginia Tech alum hung up his corporate boots a few years ago to try his hand at a novel.

Creek of Bones is the result of that effort.

Celebrate NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) with the Charles County Public Library this year by checking out some of our local authors, as part of our Local Author Virtual Showcase! All of the authors showcased in this series responded to a call for submissions we placed over this summer, to highlight their work throughout the month of November. At CCPL we value the contributions our local authors make in sharing their knowledge and passion with our community.  Make sure to check out our Local Author’s collection located at the Waldorf West Library. 

Briana A. Thomas

Black Broadway in Washington, D.C.

Arcadia Publishing

Before chain coffee shops and luxury high-rises, before even the beginning of desegregation and the 1968 riots, Washington’s Greater U Street was known as Black Broadway. From the early 1900s into the 1950s, African Americans plagued by Jim Crow laws in other parts of town were free to own businesses here and built what was often described as a “city within a city.” Local author and journalist Briana A. Thomas narrates U Street’s rich and unique history, from the early triumph of emancipation to the days of civil rights pioneer Mary Church Terrell and music giant Duke Ellington, through the recent struggles of gentrification

Briana A. Thomas has been published in Washingtonian Magazine, the historic Afro-American newspaper, and the Washington Post throughout her journalism career. Briana earned a Master of Journalism degree from the University of Maryland–College Park and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and communications from Greensboro College. She is the co-pastor of a Maryland-based multisite church Open Bible Ministries.

Celebrate NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) with the Charles County Public Library this year by checking out some of our local authors, as part of our Local Author Virtual Showcase! All of the authors showcased in this series responded to a call for submissions we placed over this summer, to highlight their work throughout the month of November. At CCPL we value the contributions our local authors make in sharing their knowledge and passion with our community.  Make sure to check out our Local Author’s collection located at the Waldorf West Library. 

CiCelia Jackson

Expression’s Embrace Volume 1: From Roses to Sparrows

Amazon

(from the author: “From Roses to Sparrows is a book of poetry for teens, and both young and older adults, to be absorbed in the communication between older women, Roses, and young ladies, Sparrows. The expressions embrace the moments in life many women have journeyed, while also encouraging the understanding of one another to incite love and support. “We, each of us, are somebody’s Rose and/or Sparrow…”)

Dedicated to the Queens & Princesses, the integral communication between us as women and young ladies… I wrote this collection of poetry to give our blooming youth of little women something to ponder upon during their life’s journeys, as well as to speak to mature women to embrace the treasured privilege we have in teaching them. Whether you will need to laugh, to cry, to smile or to vent, I hope that there is something each of you can draw upon, relate to, become comforted by, or to even be inspired. I was asked, “Why did you choose the title: From Roses to Sparrows?” Well…roses have always been my favorite blossom, but the title didn’t really come into fruition until one of my “little sisters” started to call me Rose. She said it matched my mothering, nurturing and sweet side. This same “little sister” I had earlier nicknamed Sparrow. So this book, these expressions, stems from a friendship between a Rose and a Sparrow. I have many “little sisters” that I pray for on a daily basis to embrace the window of maturity and become beautiful women, spiritual women, and respected women. I know life lands us in many puddles and takes us through different courses, but I don’t want you to ever give up on yourselves, but especially and more importantly…on life. We, each of us, are all someone’s Rose and/or Sparrow and, at times, I feel we need to be reminded of such.

Currently a resident in Maryland, but I was born and raised on the south side of Chicago, IL in 1980 (which, by the way, is also the hometown of one of my favorite poets, Gwendolyn Brooks). Also among my favorite poets and writers are none other than Maya Angelou, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Dudley Randall, William Shakespeare, and Walter Dean Myers. I have been awarded for my poetry throughout my school years, including the esteemed Dudley Randall Poetry Award, presented by The Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing in 1997. “Hate” was the award winning literary work and was signed by Gwendolyn herself. WHAT AN HONOR! This poem will be featured in my 3rd poetry book volume: Love to Love what Love can Be. Once an aspiring author, I am now living my passion, proud of my first published and released book, From Roses to Sparrows. Life may be like a box of chocolates, but at least you can enjoy some of the flavors!

Celebrate NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) with the Charles County Public Library this year by checking out some of our local authors, as part of our Local Author Virtual Showcase! All of the authors showcased in this series responded to a call for submissions we placed over this summer, to highlight their work throughout the month of November. At CCPL we value the contributions our local authors make in sharing their knowledge and passion with our community.  Make sure to check out our Local Author’s collection located at the Waldorf West Library. 

Kristian Faith Daniels

Kid in Q.. What a Pandemic

Xlibris – Amazon

What a surprise for us all! Everyone’s daily routine of childcare and other normalcy has been disrupted by COVID-19. Kamili finds inventive ways to cope.

Kristian is a dedicated daughter, sister and friend. She is currently a Director at a Preschool Center servicing children from ages 1 to 5. Since high school she has gained her educational background in Child Development and Early Education. She has received her Bachelor of Science at Bowie State University in Child and Adolescent Studies. This new endeavor was an organic process. During the beginning of the pandemic, it allowed Kristian to think of new ways to express her passion for children and how to impact them physically while intellectually. Covid-19 has graced her in a disruptive way to write her first children’s book. It is her exertion to show children how to cope and thrive in the new environment Covid-19 has created for us all.