Come Write In: How Writing Creates Powerful Experiences

Our Come Write In program provides libraries, bookstores, and other neighborhood hubs the resources to build and support a local writing community. We dig through the stacks to bring you our favorite stories: today, Laurie Kincer at the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Ohio shares how NaNoWriMo creates an emotionally powerful experience:

NaNoWriMo 2015 is the ninth year that Cuyahoga County Public Library has partnered with our Cleveland area Municipal Liaison. We co-host Write-Ins every Saturday in November, as well as a Kick-Off event and a Thank Goodness It’s Over Party. CCPL has 27 branches throughout the county, so we typically choose a central location for the October and December events and then alternate between west and east side branches in November.

Last year we tried something that worked so well that we’ll be doing it again this year. For the Kick-Off, our ML pulled together a panel of four Wrimos, each of whom shared how they accomplished writing 50,000 words in one month. They answered questions, gave great advice and were incredibly inspiring…

This year’s Kick-Off will be creating a little bit of history, too. It will be the very first writing program in the brand new William N. Skirball Writers’ Center at the new South Euclid-Lyndhurst Branch, set to open October 18th. It’s one of only a handful of public library-based writers’ centers in the nation.

“Inspire, empower and connect with writers…”

NaNoWriMo is the perfect way to

Promote writing, creativity and self-expression, 
Inspire, empower and connect with writers, and 
Create a supportive and engaged community of writers. 

The memory that sticks with me most is from last year’s Kick-Off panel. One of the Wrimos explained that after she finished her novel, she revised it and printed the free copies that are a perk of reaching the 50,000-word mark. She donated one to her library. At the panel she talked about how, when she and her children went to the library, she showed her children her book on the shelf in the library. She was so proud. It reminded me how emotionally powerful NaNoWriMo can be.

“Write-Ins are an easy, win-win way to partner.”

If you’re a library or community center getting ready for NaNoWriMo, get in touch with your ML now. If your library is like ours, you’ll be planning for NaNoWriMo in the spring, so you need to be able to make plans with your ML at least six months before November 2016.

Write-Ins are an easy, win-win way to partner. At our Write-Ins, the ML attends and leads the event while the library supplies the meeting room, tables, chairs, extra extension cords and power strips. Both the ML and the library promote the program through our different channels.

Try a panel of Wrimos at your Kick-Off and, if possible, offer snacks so that people can hang around and talk after the panel. They’ll have a lot to talk about!

Laurie Kincer, M.A., M.L.I.S., is the Writers’ Center Coordinator for Cuyahoga County Public Library. Because writers learn from other writers, she is also involved in bringing authors to visit the Library, including, this fall, novelists Geraldine Brooks, Adriana Trigiani and Jill Bialosky. Laurie is constantly scouting for authors, writers, and new ways to engage and inspire the writing and reading community.