Write your

Cheryl Minns, Senior Columnist

N ational Novel Writing Month returns this November with its annual
challenge of writing 50,000 werds in 30 days. The international online
competition that began nearly 20 years ago has declared this year's
event theme as “NaNoWriMo ls...” The theme draws inspiration from
participants’ experiences and the impact the non-profit organization
has had on the writing community. One such impact was the creation of
local writing group VancoWrimo, which began in the early 2000s.

“There was a feeling of a close community,” VancoWrimo member
Dave Levine said to the Other Press in a phone interview. “People
would join it like a tide coming in during November and then a lot of
the people would wash away, but some people would stay. | was very
happy to become one of those people who stayed in 2006.”

In 2012, Levine became a NaNoWriMo Municipal Liaison for the
Vancouver region, a team leader who manages the region’s group and
events both in person and online at NaNoWriMo.com.

The Vancouver region of NaNoWriMo will have four Municipal
Liaisons this year: Douglas College graduates Dave Levine and Jenelle
Davies, long-time participant Gloria Mellesmoen, and New Zealander
Cas Wanden.

In November, Davies will be doing her third NaNoWriMo
challenge and entering her second year as a Municipal Liaison. Since
joining NaNoWriMo in 2016, Davies has worked on a single novel,
writing the first half of the book in November 2016 and the second half
in November 2017.

“This year | will be pulling it all together and hopefully at the end
of November | will have a fully functional draft that | can work on and
get edited,” Davies said to the Other Press in an online interview.

Wanden has competed in the NaNoWriMo competition since
2010. In 2013, they published their 2012 novel in paperback and ebook
on Amazon.

“Three days before | turned 20, | made sure | published my first
book while | was a teenager,” they said to the Other Press in an online
interview. “It's now out of print, but | did it and people enjoyed it and
it's something I'm really proud of.”

Wanden has participated in NaNoWriMo in various locations,
including Denmark in 2010; Wellington, New Zealand after that; and
most recently Vancouver in 2016 and 2017.

“Vancouver is by far the most active region I’ve ever been in,”
they said. “Denmark is geographically spread out, so | didn’t get to any
Write-Ins because they were all far away from me. In Wellington, there
were no Write-Ins because there wasn't really a Municipal Liaison team.
It feels a lot more like a community here in Vancouver.”

VancoWrimo strives to be an engaging community for Lower
Mainland writers with its weekly Write-lIn events, launch and wrap
parties, and online presence in the NaNoWriMo chatrooms, forums,
and social media.

“We're a really welcoming and supportive community,” Levine
said.

"We also have things we do to encourage people to come to
Write-Ins and get involved and be adventurous with their stories,”
Wanden said, referring to the incentives that Municipal Liaisons offer
participants who reach certain milestones, such as achieving specific
word counts or attending Write-Ins in various cities. “We do a lot in
terms of events, but also in terms of extra things to make the process
fun.”

NaNoWriMo participant Cheryl Fowle has done the writing
challenge since 2009 and seen firsthand how supportive and
motivational the VancoWrimo community can be.

“There was one time | was falling behind in word count, but one of
the Municipal Liaisons that year was determined to help me win for the
first time at a community event,” she said to the Other Press in an online
interview. “That night, | somehow managed to write 13,000 words and
achieved what | thought was impossible: | won early surrounded by the
community.”

Even though NaNoWriMo finishes on November 30, VancoWrimo
continues hosting weekly Write-In events throughout the year to allow
members the opportunity to continue working on the writing projects
they began during NaNoWriMo.

“It's a great community of people that meet to do editing,
or writing, or planning for next year without the pressure of being
a feedback group or a critique group,” said Davies, who attends
the weekly Write-In held year-round at Waves Coffee House in New
Westminster. “There's a variety of different people, different levels of

T~—_/

   
    
  
 
 
  
      

|

Seti = 400"

Wt
7 Se

By,
 o #

   

= g@*

 

 

   

gare &o ee Fc: => i.

D Cems heme 0 be Beles

2,8 ff 2 TAPP

6e It keeps yo

knowing eve
feels like tr
about the w
into it aft