November is nearly upon us. That means fall leaves, wooly sweaters, gluttonous behavior on the fourth Thursday of the month, and, of course, National Novel Writing Month.<\/p>\n
Inaugurated in 1999 by the intrepid Chris Baty and a group of friends, National Novel Writing Month<\/a> (NaNoWriMo) has become an international movement to inspire average joes like you and me to get off our duffs and write that novel we\u2019ve always dreamed of penning. One month. One novel. It\u2019s as simple as that.<\/p>\n According to NaNoWriMo, 310,000 adults participated in the writing frenzy in 2013, and 89,500 youth participated in NaNoWriMo\u2019s Young Writers Program. Personally, I\u2019ve participated in NaNoWriMo for the past two years, and the experience has been so deeply fulfilling I decided that I, as a children\u2019s librarian, needed to get on this Young Writers thing.<\/p>\n What\u2019s really grand about NaNoWriMo is that this non-profit organization provides you everything you need to make hosting a Young Writers program easy as pie. Just take a gander at these lesson plans and activities<\/a>. If you\u2019re a teacher, everything aligns to the Common Core. If you\u2019re a public librarian, you can pick and choose a variety of activities to do with your young peeps.<\/p>\n I have some ridiculously talented people on board, too. I\u2019m working with poet Hannah Jane Chambers, YA author Bethany Hagen, and YA writer Jennifer Mendez to make the magic happen.<\/p>\n At our library, Hannah Jane, Bethany, and I had an idea of creating a series of Come Write In<\/em> events for the entire family which we hope we’ll be able to implement next year. Parents and kids could come to the library on Saturdays throughout the month of October to start planning their NaNoWriMo projects. On November 1, we could celebrate our hard work with a party \/ write-in where participants can get cracking on their novels. Jennifer Mendez will be hosting Intergenerational Come Write In events at her branch throughout the month of November replete with paper, pens, and plenty of outlets for the BYO-Laptop types.<\/p>\n What better way to get kids and teens engaged in literature than to have them write it themselves? And, hey, why not model that behavior? November is just a few days away. It\u2019s not too late to sign up and write a novel of your very own.<\/p>\n ****************************************************<\/p>\n Our guest blogger today is Megan Bannen. Megan\u00a0is an Assistant Branch Manager for Johnson County Library in Kansas (although the children\u2019s librarian in her will never die). <\/em><\/p>\n