The Writer 11.2019

(Ron) #1

18 | The Writer • November 2019


More than 300,000 people sign up for NaNoWriMo
for the first time.

“You could be writing the
book that changes your life.
You could have already
submitted it or self-published
it. The spark could be starting
a fire for you as well. You don’t
know, and you can’t know.
That is the thrill of being an
artist, of working for yourself,
and of telling the stories you
want to tell.”
—Brandon Sanderson,
2014 NaNoWriMo pep talk

NaNoWriMo appears as a
clue in The New York Times
crossword puzzle.

Afterworlds by
Scott Westerfeld
is published. The
novel within the
novel in After-
worlds was writ-
ten by main
character Darcy
Patel during a writing event
that challenged writers to
write a novel in 30 days. It’s
the first known published
NaNoWriMo novel by a fic-
tional character.

“When you write a novel,
you’re not just working on
the novel itself. You’re also
working on the novel-building
factory: your life. You have to
create a life that is conducive
to writing. That means sched-
uling regular time to write.
Weekly is OK, daily is better.
Writing must become a
habit. If something gets in
the way of your writing habit,
seriously consider cutting it
out of your life. You have to
write even when you don’t
feel like it simply because it’s
what the factory does.”
—Gene Luen Yang,
NaNoWriMo pep talk

Do you know which character may be
responsible for the most individual fic-
tional deaths in the history of the
world? It’s known as the “Traveling
Shovel of Death.” After Al Stegall used
a shovel to kill a
character in his
2005 NaNoWriMo
novel, he posted
about it in the
NaNoWriMo
forums, and the
shovel went viral,
traveling from
novel to novel
around the globe.
The Traveling
Shovel of Death
has brought death
to countless millions – entire universes,
even – across time and dimensions,
says Al.

“What makes a writer a writer? Writing.
A lot of people would say ‘talent’, but
talent is really just the ability to do
something well that most people have
to work hard at. If you don’t think you
have ‘talent’, just work hard instead –
the talent often comes with a cost, any-
way: a lack of good work habits. The
talented ones often never had to learn
to work hard; so many of them don’t fin-
ish their work because they never had
to – it was enough to be talented, to
offer people a glimpse of what you
could be. So don’t be that person – don’t
be the person that everyone believes
could have done something. Be the per-
son who tried.” —Alexander Chee, 2016
NaNoWriMo pep talk

2014


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