Kick off and Halloween party Wednesday night for NaNoWriMo at Shoreline College

A NaNoWriMo participant checks in and picks up resources
at the NaNoWriMo 2017 Kick-Off and Halloween Party.
Photo courtesy SCC

November means one thing at Shoreline Community College’s Ray W. Howard Library: aspiring local novelists looking to campus resources for support during their NaNoWriMo adventure.

The month-long calendar of NaNoWriMo events at Shoreline begins with the annual combination Halloween-NaNoWriMo Kick-Off Party that starts at 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 31 and goes until 1am on Nov. 1.

NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month, a nationwide initiative aimed at providing structure, community, and encouragement to would-be writers as they attempt to complete a 50,000-word novel in the month of November.

Shoreline regularly hosts the Seattle-area’s official NaNoWriMo Kick-Off Party as well as weekly Wednesday Write-Ins that provide community and inspiration throughout November. This year the College has tapped into faculty talent to add an additional resource: writing workshops.

“We are extremely lucky to have many published authors as faculty here at Shoreline,” said Lauren Bryant, Reference Librarian and the organizing force behind the College’s collaboration with NaNoWriMo. 

“And we’re even more fortunate that those faculty are willing to give generously of their time to offer advice to aspiring authors in their novel-writing journeys.”

Workshops will be held during the Write-In Wednesday events (every Wednesday in November from 4:30-7:30pm) and will cover topics integral to the novel-writing process. The sessions are free and open to the public and are a great way to connect with the local writing community as well as learn from Shoreline faculty whose classes regularly fill up each quarter.

The first workshop will be led by English professor Katie Johansen and will cover outlining, mind mapping, and strategies for getting unstuck. Johansen has taught writing and English courses at six colleges and universities, has presented at many writing conferences, and been published widely.

Bryant sees the writing workshops as just one more way the College fulfills its goal of being a good neighbor to the larger City of Shoreline community by providing cultural enrichment opportunities for both students and residents.

“NaNoWriMo is a wonderful experience for both our students and our at-large community members,” said Bryant. 

“Students learn to budget their time while also balancing their assignments, work, and social lives. And our community members get to access resources and find a sense of inspiration and creativity right here in their backyard.”

The month-long calendar of NaNoWriMo events at Shoreline begins with the annual combination Halloween-NaNoWriMo Kick-Off Party that starts at 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 31 and goes until 1am on Nov. 1.

“The Kick-Off party is a great way to connect with others excited about diving into the writing process,” said Bryant. 

“We have fun, games, giveaways, and exchange writerly advice until midnight, and then as soon as November officially begins, we all get down to novel writing with an hour-long write-in. It’s fun, community, and inspiration in one spot.”

All campus NaNoWriMo events take place in the Ray W. Howard Library on the Shoreline Campus 16101 Greenwood Ave N. For more information, visit the Library’s NaNoWriMo webpage.

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