Happy November! To those who don't know, November is National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo, for short). I have attempted to participate a few different Novembers, but have never come close to the goal of 50,000 words in only one month. Still, it's always fun to have an excuse to write!
Of course, it doesn't have to be November to get some creative or literary friends together for a reading/writing party. There are so many options of things you can do to celebrate the written word. It can be more like a book club, where every guest brings a favorite poem or passage from a novel to share. Or you could have a night full of entertaining writing exercises to help your guests' metaphorical ink flow easier. You could pass along a notebook and have each person continue a story started by the person sitting next to them, either restricting each person to one paragraph, one sentence, one word, or just a set length of time. Or you could read a writing prompt and have everyone write their own passage about it for ten minutes before sharing them all aloud.
If your writing party is a second gathering (or if all of your guests have been working on writings of their own in their free time, or are participating in something like NaNoWriMo), you can have editing circles where everyone brings something they've already written to share with the group and get editing input.
To some of you, I'm sure these suggestions just sound like a class - and it's true that I've done very similar things in English or Creative Writing classes before. But I've personally always enjoyed writing, even outside of school, and some of you skeptics may be surprised at how fun creative writing can be when you're not forced to do so or graded on your efforts. :)
Here's a sample invitation I threw together for just such a party, in honor of NaNoWriMo.
I love the unique color combination of lavender and brown (not to be confused, of course, with Lavender Brown, a character in my favorite book series of all time, Harry Potter).
And to those wondering - no, I won't be attempting NaNoWriMo this year. :) I've been working on a novel independently of the month of November for a few years now, and I'll just be continuing to work on editing that manuscript, rather than penning 50,000 more words, since my novel's rough draft is pretty close to being done. I just don't have time to write so much in only thirty days. It's taken me a few years to write only about double that amount for the novel I've been working on. But I absolutely love the idea of NaNoWriMo, and maybe one day I'll actually succeed at it! ;)
Shameless plug time: Love my invitation design? Check out Invites by Andrea's website for more samples or send me an email and let me know!
Of course, it doesn't have to be November to get some creative or literary friends together for a reading/writing party. There are so many options of things you can do to celebrate the written word. It can be more like a book club, where every guest brings a favorite poem or passage from a novel to share. Or you could have a night full of entertaining writing exercises to help your guests' metaphorical ink flow easier. You could pass along a notebook and have each person continue a story started by the person sitting next to them, either restricting each person to one paragraph, one sentence, one word, or just a set length of time. Or you could read a writing prompt and have everyone write their own passage about it for ten minutes before sharing them all aloud.
If your writing party is a second gathering (or if all of your guests have been working on writings of their own in their free time, or are participating in something like NaNoWriMo), you can have editing circles where everyone brings something they've already written to share with the group and get editing input.
To some of you, I'm sure these suggestions just sound like a class - and it's true that I've done very similar things in English or Creative Writing classes before. But I've personally always enjoyed writing, even outside of school, and some of you skeptics may be surprised at how fun creative writing can be when you're not forced to do so or graded on your efforts. :)
Here's a sample invitation I threw together for just such a party, in honor of NaNoWriMo.
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| "Paperback Writer" - Sample Invitation |
I love the unique color combination of lavender and brown (not to be confused, of course, with Lavender Brown, a character in my favorite book series of all time, Harry Potter).
And to those wondering - no, I won't be attempting NaNoWriMo this year. :) I've been working on a novel independently of the month of November for a few years now, and I'll just be continuing to work on editing that manuscript, rather than penning 50,000 more words, since my novel's rough draft is pretty close to being done. I just don't have time to write so much in only thirty days. It's taken me a few years to write only about double that amount for the novel I've been working on. But I absolutely love the idea of NaNoWriMo, and maybe one day I'll actually succeed at it! ;)
Shameless plug time: Love my invitation design? Check out Invites by Andrea's website for more samples or send me an email and let me know!
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