My First Write-In

I’ve been doing the National Novel Writing Month since 2003, because I find it entertaining to struggle to write a novel in a month.  Some years I’ve succeeded. Some years, I’ve crashed and burned.  Every year, I learn something more about myself and my writing process and my imagination and my work.

Of all the years I’ve done Nanowrimo, only one of my books has been published — Kill By Numbers, which came out in September.  It doesn’t matter to me that my track record isn’t great.  What matters is that by the end of the month, I will have a whole lot more written than I did before the month began.

This year, to stir things up, I decided to volunteer for Nanowrimo — in a small way, anyway.  Every Friday this month, I’m hosting a Write-In at the Borderlands Cafe.  Anyone who wants to come is welcome to sit and write with a gang of likeminded souls from 6-8 pm.

I wasn’t sure anyone would show up, but at the height, I think there were 14 people hunched over their laptops.  Everyone I spoke to seemed to have a productive evening.  There is so much to be said for hanging out in a roomful of writers and letting the creativity flow.

As much as I love writing in public, I wasn’t sure about being responsible for hosting the write-in.  But now, at the end, it seems to have been a great experience for people.  Almost everyone got a bunch of work done.  I managed to add almost 3,000 words to my work-in-progress.  And I met a bunch of really nice, really enthusiastic people.

I’m wrung out now, so it’s time to head home before the cafe closes down around us, but I am very much looking forward to doing this again next week.