Celebrating National Novel Writing Month 2023?

While some people are defrosting their winter holiday spirit, writers around the country are dusting off their keyboards and thawing their greatest ideas for NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. November is National Novel Writing Month which encourages novelists to write the first 50,000 words of their rough draft in thirty days. NaNoWriMo is all about getting that first draft out of an author’s head and onto the page, and the library has the resources to help.

When selecting the space to begin that rough draft, Pressbooks is a fantastic place to start. Pressbooks is a publishing platform; however, its programming allows each chapter to be a standalone section—great when the focus is getting words onto the page, and the order of chapters comes a bit later. Everything does not need to be dumped into one Word document or in several documents for different portions of the novel. Every new ‘section’ can be a new chapter that can be moved around after the fact. Pressbooks also has the section’s word count in the bottom left of the text editor. The total word count for the whole book is at the top of the ‘Organize’ section (which is important when counting down to 50,000 words by the end of the month).

The best part about using Pressbooks for NaNoWriMo is that this platform is free to all Williamson County Public Library cardholders. Patrons can access the platform through the library’s website under “Local Writers Resources.”

There is also a local community for comparing notes, sharing progress, and receiving critiques. For teen writers, the library has the Teen Writers Group (next meetings are November 13 and November 27 at 4 p.m.). For adult novelists, the Williamson County Writers Group meets on the first and third Saturdays of the month in the Learning Center of the library will provide critiques and community. Their next meetings will be November 4 and November 18 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Now, it’s time to dust off that keyboard, open up that draft (hopefully now in Pressbooks), and write that novel. In the words of the great Mariah Carey this time of year, “It’s time!”

Helpful links:

NaNoWriMo

WCPL Writer’s Resources

Getting Started in Pressbooks