NaNoWriMo :: NaNoWriMo Blog

"I thought writing about horses would make the pain worse."

"After a failed attempt at NaNoWriMo in 2005, I had no idea that deciding to try again in 2006 would be the decision that changed my life.

That November, I was a nineteen-year-old senior at Florida State University. I was a full time student and a freelancer on the side. I’d wondered if I could write a novel, but I had no experience in book-length fiction. What would I write about? Then it hit me. There was only one answer—the topic I’d been avoiding for six years. Horses.

In 2000, at thirteen, I’d needed a spinal fusion for severe scoliosis. My spine had been shaped like an 'S' and it had pressed on my heart and lungs. After surgery, I had to wait at least two years before riding horses. But future riding came with a caveat: if I rode and fell the wrong way, I could snap the rod in my spine or become paralyzed. The surgery had been excruciatingly tough and I didn’t know if I could go through something like that again. I stopped riding and tried to push away my deep love of horses.

But it never went away. That passion and adoration of everything about the equestrian world gnawed at me. I freelanced for dozens of magazines and wrote about everything but horses. I thought writing about horses would make the pain worse.

Then I couldn’t fight it anymore. My NaNoNovel for 2006 had to be about horses. The idea wouldn’t go away. A small town girl leaves home to attend boarding school and try out for the advanced equestrian team. Does she have what it takes? Thirty days later, I’d answered that question and had a rough (so rough!) draft of my first young adult novel.

Now what? An agent seemed like the right answer. I drafted a query and sent it to two agents. The first was rejected the same day and the second agent requested a full. While the full was in the mail, I got an e-mail from another agent. It was January 4, 2007. She’d read my blog and requested my manuscript. Did agents really discover authors via blogs? That sounded like something out of The Writer. After checking out the agency, I sent the manuscript. Three weeks later, I signed with Alyssa Eisner Henkin and revisions began. I enrolled in what I fondly dubbed Revision Boot Camp and we changed the manuscript from young adult to middle-grade.

My NaNoNovel went on submission in mid-May 2007 and less than two weeks later, it sold as part of a four book series to Aladdin MIX, a tween line from Simon & Schuster.

Writing Take the Reins helped ease my longing to ride and it brought back my memories of being an active equestrian. Without NaNoWriMo, I might have discarded my dreams of writing a horse book. I blogged about my journey through NaNo that year and now I look back on my archived blog posts and smile. Those who doubt anything publishable can come from a month's worth of over-caffeinated writing are so wrong. So ignore the naysayers and write your damn novel!

I was privileged enough to interview Chris (you know, Baty) for an article for Listen about NaNo. The enthusiasm in his voice and the love he has for this project are infectious. Now, I’m more obsessed with NaNo than ever. : )

I’ll be writing the third book in my Canterwood Crest series this fall, but you can bet I’ll be NaNoing along with my friends and fellow writers. I can’t wait to blog and vlog about this year’s NaNo and watch everyones word meters fill up. Cheers to all of my NaNo friends and here’s to NaNoWriMo 2008!"

—Jessica Burkhart

Jessica Burkhart, 21, is an author and freelance writer. She has over 90 published magazine articles. Take the Reins, the first novel in her Canterwood Crest series, hits shelves in January 2009 from Simon & Schuster’s Aladdin MIX. Visit Jess online at http://www.jessicaburkhart.com and find her blog, vlogs and more.

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"My inexperience pierced holes into my ship like a porcupine in a plastic bag."

"In July of last year, I was what one might call a 'struggling soon-to-be-writer.' I wasn't much of a writer yet, as I hadn't ever finished anything. (The only thing I'd ever done for non-school purposes was a 3-page story about John Cage's song that was made up of only silence. I still think it's amazing that I wrote three pages about nothing.) I had never done anything large scale—like writing a novel. Oh no! That was left to the professionals.

I had a story to tell, but had not roughed the seas of attemptive noveling yet. I knew my Boat of Noveling would sink. My inexperience pieced holes into my ship like a porcupine in a plastic bag.

However, as I said, it was July of last year, when I became a 'soon to be writer.' I dreamed up this cliched-beyond-belief story, and decided to see if I could write it. So I started typing away in the story that I am slightly embarrassed to even mention now.

Only a week after I started writing, I found out about NaNoWriMo from my sister, who knew a WriMo. I checked it out, and fell into the fascinating, soul-eating adventure that is called NaNo.

Of all the wonderful things NaNo '07 gave me—
a whopping bucket of fun, addicting forums, cool people to meet, and awesome pep-talks—my two favorite things would have to be: 1) the confidence to just get out there and type for the fun of it, and not because the story has to be readable and 2) an introduction to a character who is sure to follow me around for the rest of my life, showing up at Joe's Crab Shack for a dance, and meeting me at work. (Yes, those are some of the places I have seen him post-NaNo '07.)

The confidence to write is perhaps the most important item in my doggy-bag from NaNo, but I figure everyone will say something just as cliched as I will, so I won't attempt to talk too much about it. I will only say that NaNo gave me the confidence and ability to move from being a 'struggling soon-to-be-writer' to an actual, honest-to-goodness writer. It was an amazing transition, and my life will never be the same again. (Now people can stare at me when I say I'm a writer, like they did when I told them I was a musician.)

I will enjoy the confidence boost quite a bit, but I have to admit, hanging out with Jimmy (my MMC from NaNo '07) is more fun than sitting on a log, contemplating my confidence level. I loved spending a month with Jimmy, in the crazy pursuit of a ridiculous robber who stole burritos at gunpoint. Let me tell you, it was the most meaningful attempt at bounty hunting I've experienced yet. I plan on running off with Jimmy again sometime, to do some more criminal hunting. Unfortunately, I have to take his girlfriend with us. Bummer. If she had a little more character development, (which I'm trying to edit into my NaNo right now), then maybe I wouldn't be so annoyed at her tagging along. I have to admit though, when she's with Jimmy, they click. So I'll keep her, for Jimmy's sake.

To sum up: NaNo was tons of fun, gave me a confidence that will only be shaken (a little) by a rejection letter, and the knowledge of who to take with me when I go fishing or on some other rollicking romp through a day that needs livening up.

NaNo also taught me two things about characters: 1) I learned to let a character be who he or she wants to be, because s/he will tell you how to fit her/him into the story later. 2) I learned to listen to the characters in my head, and let them do what they want, because they know the story better than I do. Even the little blobs of half-characters sometimes know more than I do. What do you know—my Boat Of Noveling was not actually punctured by my inexperience! What I thought were holes actually turned out to be little blobby pieces of characters who wanted to go on great journeys with me. Yay! Cohorts for my future noveling adventures!"

—Laura aka Christian Writer

Laura lives in Texas, has done/won NaNo once, and likes Ring-tailed Lemurs best, by far.

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"It kept me going, and though at times my body, quite accustomed to home-cooked organic fare, rebelled at my sudden diet of Coca-Cola, coffee, and fast food, I felt better at my keyboard than I had in years."

"All I ever wanted was to get paid to write and edit. And now that I do, I realize I want even more! I need the stories in my head to take over for awhile, and drown out the real world. Not that it isn't a nice real world I live in, mind you. It's just that my fiction fantasies seem so much more interesting at times.

And so I challenged my brother, also afflicted with the writer's curse, to complete NaNoWriMo with me. Although I had already published several books as an editor, I suddenly found myself relearning everything as I delved into my science fiction universe. A trip to Central America last summer inspired me, but for months I did little except take notes. I found that on the very first day of NaNoWriMo, I wrote with a sort of ambitious fervor I've never experienced before. It kept me going, and though at times my body, quite accustomed to home-cooked organic fare, rebelled at my sudden diet of Coca Cola, coffee, and fast food, I felt better at my keyboard than I had in years.

Although quite accustomed to deadlines, this was different, and somehow I felt better seeing my word count fly past 50,000 than I did after seeing my name in print for the first time. Don't ask me to explain it. I just felt free, and my imagination soared, and the characters surprised me, and the plot kept finding new ways to entangle me. And I fell more in love than ever with my friend the written word.

I'm still finishing up the final touches on what looks to be a 150,000 word project, but I know I never would have gotten this thing off the ground without all of you at NaNoWriMo, especially my local groups, whose criticisms, ideas, and opinions gave me the courage to write surprisingly vulnerable, poetic language far removed from the succinct 800 word articles or dusty, rambling history epics that had come to dominate my literary life.

Thanks for giving me just what I needed, and inspiring me to aspire for even more than I dreamed of!"

—Elizabeth Fernandez

Elizabeth is an editor and freelance writer, delving back into fiction after a long departure for the world of non-fiction journalism and history book publishing. She spent her whole life telling stories, until making them up in her head felt like an automatic and ongoing project. During college and afterwards, Elizabeth spent all her free time getting her career in journalism and publishing off the ground, only to find herself missing her fantasies. So she decided to cut back on the freelancing and stick to highly unprofitable science fiction instead!

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"I thought I was evil, stupid, unfit. I thought everyone I knew at work thought so too."

"October 2007: I was seriously depressed. I had screwed up at work—my first professional position in a profession I thought I was born for. I had screwed up, and I still had to do my job.

What would I do if it didn't work out for me? Little by little I began to recover from my error. Still, I was plagued by doubt and despair. Then as winter began to approach, I compared my current mood with my feelings the previous year.

I had been hopeful then. I was almost finished with my graduate degree and knew that a position was opening that I was planning on applying for. At the staff Christmas party, there was nothing but joy and hope. And for me a buzzy sense of rightness and anticipation.

Well, I applied, got the promotion and screwed it right up.

I thought I was evil, stupid, unfit. I thought everyone I knew at work thought so too.

But as I began to climb out of the pit of despair, it dawned on me that I needed to do something, to act. Grad school had been full of goals. My current job could have them, but I was stuck in just hanging on. I was letting the day-to-day work rule me and grind me down.

I needed to do something desperate.

November was coming. I had always wanted to do NaNoWriMo. I felt this time, I would try to accomplish this simple goal that would affect no-one but myself. I would try to write a novel, 50,000 words—knowing they didn't have to be excellent words—in 30 days.

I did and it restored my confidence in my abilities to accomplish something, even if it was 'anything.'

I can't begin to tell you—even if I had 50 million words and unlimited time—how much better I felt for accomplishing the writing of my little novel. I'm happier at my job now, because of something I did totally unrelated to it.

I'll do it again in a heartbeat. 30 days worth of heartbeats."

—Eri Zeitz

Eri was born in Brooklyn, NY, now living in the Midwest. This was her first NaNo. It saved her life.

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"What I had not known until late October was that the small story I had been planning out with charts and maps and sketches would actually turn into a full-fledged novel that would become my every breath..."

"I have been writing since I was 6 years old, when I sat down to write my very first 'novel'. It was called Magic Valley, and chronicled the adventures of a young girl named Alicia in a magical valley. I have had the writing bug since then.

I don’t remember exactly how I found out about NaNoWriMo. It seems like many, many years ago now. Everything is a bit blurry around the edges. I do remember, though, that when I set out to write, I had a very clear idea in mind. What I had not known until late October was that the small story I had been planning out with charts and maps and sketches would actually turn into a full-fledged novel that would become my every breath, continuing to this very moment.

I can remember the screaming pain in my wrists and fingers when I would go to school the next day after an evening of writing 30,000 or more words, and then having to sit down and write more. I remember the exhilaration, and how all I could talk about for weeks was my favorite characters from my very own novel.

My novel, called The Legend of Yoninad: A Fight for Freedom, has been on my mind ever since that November of 2006. Its story and characters seem to have changed a million times, but it still holds this classic mysticism in my heart. It is my brainchild, my baby. A huge breakthrough for me happened during that fateful NaNoWriMo. I had passed the 50,000 word mark, but I was still speeding on. Then, WriMoRadio told me something fascinating: if you sent in your last sentence, it may or may not be read on the radio by one of the staff. My excitement was not very large at the time, for I very rarely win anything. In all of my years of school and bingo, I have won two games – that’s pretty sad. Anyways, I sent in my latest sentence, just for fun, and forgot about it.

I let my excitement smolder in my gut for a few days, terrified of the outcome of me sending in my last sentence. And then, I heard it. I was listening intently, on the verge of tears because I was convinced I had not been picked – and, come on, I was pretty new to this whole writing thing; this was my baby I had tried pitching to a bunch of random people in a place I have never been! But there it was. My sentence.

I believe it was something along these lines:

'"I warned you," Agro growled, his red eyes flashing from the candles as he looked into the face of his long lost sister.'

Something like that.

I screamed, very loudly.

Since then, TLOY has grown in size and following. In February of this year an agent in Vancouver expressed interest in representing the story when the piece was polished and ready for publishing.

I am currently plagued by the re-write virus—it’s pretty wretched, but what can you do? It needs to be done, and currently my baby is too precious to share with anyone else to edit. However, I know that it will be done eventually; I have a rigorous writing schedule in place.

Writing means the world to me, it has kept me sane, alive (literally—it’s what eased my depression that caused me to be suicidal), and happy. And I have all of this, this beautiful 'child', this novel, this hope, available to me because of you, NaNoWriMo, and because of all of its members. I am not very active in the community of NaNo, but I know I will be in the future.

It’s pretty terrifying to sit down and try to write a book. But I am proof that it works—even for a small-town Canadian girl.

Is it just me, or does NaNo need a battle cry?

P.S. I support drinking orange juice instead of coffee to get through NaNo—it works!"

—J.M.M. Lewis

J.M.M. is a young writer living in Canada. Her favorite past-times include singing, writing, reading, drawing, and web-surfing. She has been fascinated with NaNoWriMo since 2006, the year in which she won the fantastic event. 2007 was a failure on her part, but strictly because she couldn't get over 2006's story. She plans to NaNo again in the future, and in the mean time she is attending school! Well... currently enjoying summer break, actually.

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"But I got inspired by the whole experience, joined http://www.elance.com., got tired of my sucky job and started ghostwriting other people's books."

"After living in my van for 18 months with a dog and my cat (I'm 52 —it wasn't an interim college thing) trying to write my life's story, I gave up and got a job and an apartment and entered my first NaNoWriMo last year. I didn't finish.

But I got inspired by the whole experience, joined http://www.elance.com, got tired of my sucky job and started ghostwriting other people's books. I finished 12 ebooks for a total of 50,000 words, and then another—my first freelance book of 20,000 words on business(boring)—in a month! Yeah!

I now have five more books in the pipes (contracts), a really, really good agent, and am ghosting books for two celebrities. Cool. Now that I know I can actually start and finish A BOOK, I know I'll finish my own book this fall!

Oh, and I started a blog about the demon spawn at my old work place (http://www.danvilleva.blogspot.com), got fired, and celebrated 'cause I'm making more money than I did as an undervalued, unappreciated, much bullied whistle-blowing news hack. Life is good. When one door slams someone opens a window. Stand still and wait for the breeze."

—Becky Blanton

Becky lives in the south, speaks fluent redneck, and loves anything fried. Last year was her first NaNoWriMo—which her employer sabotaged with overtime once he found out she was doing it—but what the heck? He's a demon spawn anyway and she knew it. Just helped her decide to vacate the cubicles of hell faster.

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"Madness is kinda like labor pains. You remember that it happened but you don’t really remember what it really felt like."

"First off let me make it perfectly clear, I am NOT a writer. I never wanted to be. I am a professional costumer. I’d rather sew than sleep. Other than email, an occasional blog post, and letters to my aunt, I never thought about writing. I went to school when they taught phonics instead of spelling, and slept through English classes in high school. The written word was not my friend.

Then in October 2002 my daughter, who is interested in writing, challenged me to sign up for NaNoWriMo. Now, I am one of those folks who can’t resist a challenge—the stranger the better. So in the spirit of family competitiveness, I signed up. I then went through the November from hell. I managed to beat her to the finish line, but only just. I swore to that I would NEVER do such a crazy thing again.

Madness is kinda like labor pains. You remember that it happened but you don’t really remember what it really felt like. Come October 2003, I got an email from Chris inviting me to come try it again. I spent a month writing the most mind numbingly boring piece of drivel, which should have just gone to data heaven and stayed there. I mean seriously, 1000 words on how to make a ham sandwich? This one could put drug companies out of business as a cure for insomnia. Once again, I swore I wouldn’t do it again. After all, giving up a month of sewing, for me, was just daft.

My husband took to teasing me about it, but I was steadfast in my refusal to sign up again. Then in October 2004, I was parked waiting for someone, just sitting in my car looking out the window at an oddly shaped leaf. My eyes kinda unfocused and it looked like the leaf had become a statue in the middle of the open field below. I found myself wondering why that statue would be there and what it would mean and before you know it, I had signed up to write a novel again.

In 2005 I was working on costumes for two different local theatre productions, had a cast on one arm and, you guessed it, was also writing a novel in November. I would walk into rehearsals and announce my word count while fitting people. But another thing happened along the way: I found myself telling folks what I was doing and why I was wearing strange shirts (I’ve gotten myself a t- shirt every year). I was actually trying to talk other people into doing this. What is interesting to me is that my characters started doing things I didn’t expect from them and I had to keep typing just to find out what was going to happen.

The year of 2006 was a hard one for me. I spent over seven months in various hospitals. I started my novel that year, with a plan to have a bunch of old ladies fire bomb hospitals. However, I ended up having surgery part way into the month and didn’t manage to hit 50K. It is pretty hard to type when taking strong pain killers, though I learned a lot of interesting stuff about Thermite and other crazy things. My husband is an engineer and often answers pretty odd questions from me.

Last year (2007) my region of Scotland had only one ML, so I decided to volunteer to be the second ML for the region. I had no clue what I was doing. But I found myself writing pep talks, emailing folks every day and generally trying to get everyone involved. The local theatre was being remodeled so I had an unusually quiet month. I decided to set myself the truly insane challenge of writing 5000 words a day for the entire month. There were a lot of funny moments. A friend had sent me a pack of snack size Butterfingers from the States. I would put one on the table beside my laptop, type like mad and pet it every time I’d check my word count. When I hit my goal for the day, I would eat it. My husband was very amused to watch this. He really doesn’t quite get the chocolate incentive program.

One day I was intensely typing a conversation between two minions, who where just about to tell me why my super villain wanted to blow up the planet, when out of no where my husband yells “FISH.” My train of thought went right out the window and I threatened to feed him peanut butter and jelly with root beer the rest of the month. I never did find out the villain’s motivation. However, I actually went over my goal and ended up with 151,905 words (not including pep-talks, email and such). I also did a road trip after NaNo to meet many of the folks I’d been interacting with along the way.

What NaNo has done for me is to show me the amazing power of seriously challenging yourself to do something you ordinarily wouldn’t even think of trying.

I still don’t want to be a writer, but it is fun to say that I’ve written 5 ½ novels. I have no audience, including me. I don’t even go back and spell check. But that is okay, because other folks have other dreams.

Knowing within myself that I can do something I would have considered impossible makes me look at life in an all new way. It makes me know that telling folks they really can do something and giving encouragement, matters. It is great when they succeed, you can stand up and cheer with them. I look at the world differently and find myself asking questions about how and why things are the way they are. I’ve always liked story telling. I just never expected to do it on a computer.

A dream is a powerful thing. Never be afraid to try for the impossible."

—Anastasia

Anastasia lives on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. She's done NaNoWriMo 6 times and won 5. Her home is on the sea and she loves to kayak. Anastasia lives with a very patient husband and 2 very spoiled cats.

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"Who knew my editor would be this thoughtful, highly verbal but not precociously literate eight-year-old?"

"Last October I received a reminder email from Chris, reminding me that I’d wanted to participate in NaNoWriMo in November, telling me that it was time to get ready. I did, and in November I joined the fray, so to speak. I told everyone I was going to do it, to create some pressure, and I dug around in my journals to find the story, and on November 1, I took off. Unfortunately I had to travel for about a week that month and didn’t have time to write my 1667 words a day. In the end I wrote only 25,000 words. After November ended, I didn’t look at it again for about five months. I felt stuck, no idea where I should go next with it. In April my 8-year-old granddaughter asked me to read my novel to her. Sure that she’d be bored with it, I read a couple of pages aloud and stopped. She looked at me expectantly and asked, 'So... is the story going to start now?'

Assuring her that it started in the very next paragraph, I gulped and wondered if it really did, or if I had spent way too much text on the background information. She asked me to read more, so I did, stopping after every few pages, asking if she’d heard enough yet. She insisted I keep reading. When I tired of the read-aloud, she asked if she could read it on her own for a while, until I was rested and could continue reading. Keep in mind that this is not a children’s book, or even a young adult novel, although it contains nothing objectionable to either age group, so far.

When I finally finished reading it to her, she stopped and thought for a while. Then she asked me what was going to happen next. I admitted that I had no idea, and she said she knew what the protagonist needed to do next. 'Here, let me write it down for you, so you don’t forget.'

On a napkin she wrote that the protagonist needs to go to town on an errand and meet with someone. Her advice made good sense. It will allow me to include a new setting and some new characters to a story that threatens to become permanently stalled.

Throughout my story one of the characters has a blog which is receiving some angry comments, the writer of which has not been revealed yet. After telling me what the protagonist should do next, she asked me, 'Who is writing those blog comments? It seems like it is this girl character, Tracy, but I think it should really be her boyfriend Jordan, instead. It fits his personality better and would be better for the story. Surprising, and it would make sense.' She wrote that down for me also, and told me to go write for a while, to see if I could find the thread again.

The kicker about all this for me is that she is absolutely right. Her ideas are excellent, and I intend to follow them. Now we talk about writing quite a bit, and she often urges me to go work on the novel so she can read some more of it. She is hungry to continue with the story. Who knew my editor would be this thoughtful, highly verbal but not precociously literate eight year old? We seem to have discovered an emerging talent!"

—Lynn Jacobs

Lynn lives in Northern California, and 2007 was her first time doing NaNoWriMo. She hopes to reach 50K in 2008! Lynn is a teacher, writer, mom and grandmother. She loves all those roles!

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"By December 1, they had 1.5 finished NaNos (hers was 50K, his almost 25) and a serious romance."

"It was a dark and stormy night—no really... it was! November 1, 2004 was cold and rainy in Seattle. But the inclement weather was not enough to hinder the novelist wannabees of western Washington from congregating at the Lion's Den in Bothell. Amanda was one of the first people to arrive. Bringing with her a palm pilot with IR keyboard which contained the more than 3000 words she had written just after midnight, she felt prepared but looked awful. (Did you miss how she'd stayed up until she'd written 3000 words after midnight?) Andrew was the last person to show. He had come straight from work and wanted less to type at his novel than to take pictures and chat with the other Wrimos. His laptop computer got much less mileage that night than his DSLR. In fact, he wrote only four words but took more than a hundred pictures.

She thought he was cute—if a little annoying (she hates cameras). He thought she was cute—although he had mistaken the redhead's golden highlights for real blond hair. By that Thanksgiving they were hosting dinner together. By December 1, they had 1.5 finished NaNos (hers was 50K, his almost 25) and a serious romance. In 2005, Amanda became Jr. ML for the Seattle region, and finished another 50K. Andrew was right there and brought in 30K. Andrew proposed on the ice at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, NY on December 23, 2005. On February 14, 2006 the two bought a lovely craftsman cottage north of Seattle and began to plan their wedding.

In 2006, Amanda was the Senior ML and the couple helped put on the first ever pay-per-word sponsorship NaNoWriMo fundraiser. Amanda ended November with another 50K win and her fiance crossed the finish line alongside her with his 1st 50K.

Andrew and Amanda were married March 11, 2007 at Old Christ Church in Pensacola, FL. In the wedding party were three NaNo bridesmaids, including world champion fundraiser Jamie, and AbigailJoy who dared Andrew into NaNo in the first place. Maid of Honor Tara was the person who introduced Amanda to the concept of NaNoWriMo.

The Cherrys have been an inspiration in their region for word count, fundraising, and now romance. Fellow Wrimos Chris and Sora who met at a write-in in 2005 will be married next June in Seattle. Go Ducks!"

—Andrew and Amanda Cherry

Andrew and Amanda hail originally from Long Island, NY and Pensacola, FL respectively. Each came to Seattle, WA after college; Andrew for a job and Amanda to be with a sick friend. On a dare and a lark (again respectively) they joined the ranks of rookie NaNo writers in 2004. They were married March 11, 2007 and still reside in the metro Seattle, WA area. He is a a software developer for Microsoft and she is an actress. Both have been Wrimos faithfully since 2004; he with a pair of wins and she with a perfect record. Amanda, two-time word count champion and 2007 fundraising champion in the Seattle, WA region, will be a 4th year ML in 2008.

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"And in February 2008, we called Kelli again to ask if any of the students might be interested in having us publish their novels."

"On her way to work last November, Open Books Marketing and PR Director Becca Keaty heard a story on NPR about a group of juniors at George Henry Corliss High School who were participating in NaNoWriMo using donated AlphaSmarts. That day, she called teacher Kelli Rushek (who by then had also been featured in the Chicago Tribune along with a few of the students). A week later, 20 of them boarded the El and made the long trek to the Open Books offices for a write-in session.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/openbooks/sets/72157603154213918/

As the month progressed, we kept in touch with Kelli and the kids. At midnight on November 30, we toasted them (along with everyone else in the room, and in words we might not quite recall now...remember that by then some of us, including Stacy, were going on our 37th hour of writing). And in February 2008, we called Kelli again to ask if any of the students might be interested in having us publish their novels.

http://open-books-press.org

From the incredible Open Books volunteer corps, we found at least one editor for each novelist. Illustrators volunteered to do the covers; the amazing Eric Erickson, a local photographer, saw the announcement and did two photo shoots to produce professional author pictures of each writer. We went to Corliss every week to meet with the students, share their editors' comments, and provide encouragement and help. And on May 30, six months to the day after NaNoWriMo 2007 came to its triumphant close, we celebrated the Corliss novelists with a grand gala book event at 57th Street Books, where they read from their published novels to a standing-room-only crowd and signed copies for all their admirers.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/openbooks/sets/72157603963699939/

Did the experience have an unforgettable impact on the Corliss novelists? Do they think that, if they can write a published novel, they can do almost anything (including be the first black female President of the United States)?
Absolutely.

http://blip.tv/file/928171

Some of the Corliss novelists are writing sequels to their first books. Some joined us (and 120,000 other people) at the Printers Row Book Fair to read from their novels at a special session. All are enjoying a well-deserved summer break.

And where will they—and we—be five month from now?
Right back where we started, writing furiously for NaNoWriMo 2008.

—Open Books

Open Books is a nonprofit bookstore, literacy community center, and volunteer corps dedicated to raising awareness about illiteracy, improving reading skills, and spreading the love of books in Chicago and beyond. Their Executive Director Stacy Ratner (Pico on the NaNoWriMo forums) is a six-time NaNoer, so in 2007 they hosted weekly write-ins plus a grand 36-hour final write-a-thon for Chicago Wrimos. For more information than most people would ever want plus a slew of lovely photos, pay them a call at: http://www.open-books.org

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