What is NaNoWriMo?

National Novel Writing Month began in 1999. The goal is to write 50,000 words of a novel in thirty days. NaNoWriMo became a nonprofit organization in 2006. We would like to share a list of Clark Library resources for writers looking to take on this challenge. 

Books

Wonderbook : an illustrated guide to creating imaginative fiction By Jeff VanderMeer

This all-new definitive guide to writing imaginative fiction takes a completely novel approach and fully exploits the visual nature of fantasy through original drawings, maps, renderings, and exercises to create a spectacularly beautiful and inspiring object. Employing an accessible, example-rich approach, Wonderbook energizes and motivates while also providing practical, nuts-and-bolts information needed to improve as a writer. Aimed at aspiring and intermediate-level writer’s, Wonderbook includes helpful sidebars and essays from some of the biggest names in fantasy today, such as George R.R. Martin, Lev Grossman, Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock, Catherynne M  Valente, and Karen Joy Fowler, to name a few.

The true secret of writing : connecting life with language By Natalie Goldberg

The author draws on her teaching background to share new writing guidelines and outline the steps for a personal or group writing retreat, providing coverage of such topics as working in silence and writing without criticism.

Writing the blockbuster novel By Albert Zuckerman

A veteran literary agent describes the essential elements of a blockbuster novel and shares trade secrets that can help authors aim for the best-seller list.

The art of writing fiction By Ray Benedict West

The Complete guide to writing non-fiction By the American Society of Journalists and Authors

The writer’s idea book By Jack Heffron

Written to help anybody blast writer’s block and get writing, Heffron’s book offers tips on how to come up with ideas, how to filter out the best of them and how to transform those from ideas to the piece desired. The techniques are designed to help with any type of narrative, from a short story or a memoir to a narrative poem, and of any length from a paragraph to a novel.

Revision : a creative approach to writing and rewriting fiction By David Michael Kaplan

With rousing enthusiasm, David Michael Kaplan introduces you to his unique brand of revision: a process of discovery in which your story’s words, structure, even its very meaning may change as it grows stronger. He takes you through every stage of the writing process, providing strategies and criteria to help pinpoint the problems in your work and fix them. In addition to illustrating his points with examples from contemporary writers, Kaplan traces the evolution of three of his own stories from journal entries to first (and subsequent) drafts to finished pieces. He shows the changes he made – from single words to entire characters and story lines – and explains why he made them.

Steering the craft : a twenty-first century guide to sailing the sea of story By Ursula K. Le Guin

Completely revised and rewritten to address the challenges and opportunities of the modern era, this handbook is a short, deceptively simple guide to the craft of writing. Le Guin lays out ten chapters that address the most fundamental components of narrative, from the sound of language to sentence construction to point of view. Each chapter combines illustrative examples from the global canon with Le Guin’s own witty commentary and an exercise that the writer can do solo or in a group. She also offers a comprehensive guide to working in writing groups, both actual and online.

The 38 most common fiction writing mistakes (and how to avoid them)  By Jack Bickham

This book diagnoses and treats the most frequent writing errors. It contains 38 problems writers often create, hundreds of tips, tricks and techniques to fix errors, with secrets to writing better.

Ebooks

Researching creative writing By Jen Webb

In this learned but practical book, Jen Webb shows how research practices can invigorate writing; creative practices can invigorate research; and – if properly organized and managed – creative writing can operate as a mode of knowledge generation, a way of exploring problems and answering questions that matter in our current context’. Researching creative writing enables writer-researchers to craft a toolkit that will help them produce better creative work and more rigorous research work.

On creative writing By Graeme Harper

What is Creative Writing? Millions of people do it, but how do we do it, really? What evidence of its human undertaking does Creative Writing produce? How do we explore Creative Writing, as both an art form and a mode of communication? How do we come to understand Creative Writing, creatively and critically? Posing questions about the nature of Creative Writing, On Creative Writing asks us to consider what Creative Writing actually is, and in doing so encourages us to reflect on how our knowledge of Creative Writing can be increased. Emphasizing Creative Writing as an act and actions, On Creative Writing considers what lies at the core of the activity called Creative Writing.

Writing fantastic fiction By Jennifer Joline Anderson

In this book, which takes students through the steps of writing a story from beginning to end, they will learn how to gather inspiration and develop a story’s characters; visualize and organize the story’s plot with a writing map; write a rough draft; and revise their work. They will also be inspired by unique writing exercises and storytelling insights from popular authors.

DVD

Writing women’s lives

Success Story

Entering a writing challenge is a rewarding experience in it’s own right. Here in the library we have a novel in our Leisure Reading section that started out as a NaNoWriMo project. We hope you find it inspirational to your writing.

Water for elephants : a novel By Sara Gruen

As a young man during the Great Depression, Jacob Jankowski is tossed by fate onto a rickety train that is home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. For Jacob, the circus is both his salvation and a living hell. Put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie, he meets Marlena, a beautiful equestrian star married to a charismatic, but twisted, animal trainer. And he meets Rosie, a seemingly untrainable elephant who is the great gray hope for the third-rate traveling show. The bond that grows among this unlikely trio is ultimately their only hope for survival.