National Novel Writing Month & Academic Writing Month

What’s happening this week, 11/1-11/7:

• Welcome to NaNoWriMo/ AcWriMo! PEP TALK by Professor Dantiel Moniz as well as an accompanying access script here)
  • Dantiel W. Moniz, an Assistant Professor in UW-Madison’s Creative Writing Program, is the recipient of the Alice Hoffman Prize for Fiction, the Cecelia Joyce Johnson Emerging Writer Award by the Key West Literary Seminar, and a Tin House Scholarship. Her debut collection, Milk Blood Heat, is an Indie Next Pick, an Amazon “Best Book of the Month” selection, a Roxane Gay Audacious Book Club pick, and has been hailed as “must-read” by TIME, Entertainment Weekly, Buzzefeed, Elle, and O, The Oprah Magazine, among others. Her work has appeared in the Paris Review, The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Tin House, One Story, American Short Fiction, Ploughshares, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, and elsewhere. Learn more about Professor Moniz and her work here.
• We’re encouraging all of our writers to use this goal sheet to build community, establish your goals, and make a plan to achieve them! Here’s a video about how to use the worksheet and the value of setting manageable goals for your writing (as well as an accompanying access script)! Making a plan now will help you reach the 50,000 word goal by the end of the month!
• Keep track of your daily word count towards that 50,000 word goal by using our Personal Word Count Tracking Spreadsheet. Then, add up your daily totals at the end of the week, and submit them to the team total each week (the form will be available starting next week). Here’s a video about how to use the spreadsheet and fill out the form (as well as an accompanying access script). Have fun tracking your progress and watching our totals grow!
• Write-Ins
  • Monday, 11/1: Mayville Library NaNoWriMo Write-In (Virtual) at 6-8pm CT
    • Register to receive the Zoom link: https://bit.ly/MVNanoWK1
    • Mayville Public Library write-ins will include challenges, writing spurts, a prize or two, and some good old quiet community writing time. All are welcome!
  • Saturday, 11/6: A Writer’s Retreat (In-Person and virtual) at 9am-1pm CT
    • Registration instructions for people who are not UW-Madison students/ employees: After you click on “Register” you will be taken to a Log-In page. If you do not already have a Guest Net-ID, click on “Create a Guest Account” and fill in the information. Please note that you do not need to provide your birthdate–you may use any date you wish. Be sure to write down your password!
• Other Pertinent Events
  • Wednesday, 11/3: Go Big Read author event with Yaa Gyasi at 7-8:30pm CT at Memorial Union’s Shannon Hall and live-streamed at gobigread.wisc.edu.

Are you interested in introducing yourself to the group? Then, the Writer Spotlight is for you! Fill out this form to be featured in next week’s email!

Finally, to bring your participation to the next level, consider joining the larger conversation in the Mad NaNo Facebook group (for our Madison-based writers) and/or the Wisconsin – Elsewhere Regional NaNoWriMo Forum (for others joining us from farther away). Stay up to date throughout the month and join the conversations on social media via the Writing Center’s Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, the Madison Writing Assistance Facebook page, and the Mayville Public Library Facebook page.

What’s happening this week, 11/8-11/14:

• Keep Going, Writers! Pep Talk by Madison-based author Christina Clancy
  • Christina Clancy is the author of two novels, Shoulder Season and The Second Home. Clancy earned her PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and taught English for almost a decade at Beloit College. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband John and two kids, Olivia and Tim. Learn more about Christina Clancy and her writing here.
• Write-Ins**
  • Monday, 11/8: Mayville Library NaNoWriMo Write-In (Virtual) at 6-8pm CT
    • Register to receive the Zoom link: https://bit.ly/MVNanoWK2
    • Mayville Public Library write-ins will include challenges, writing spurts, a prize or two, and some good old quiet community writing time. All are welcome!
  • Wednesday, 11/10: Mayville Library Write-In (In-Person) at 6-7:45pm CT
    • Mayville Public Library will hold some in-person write-ins. Each write-in will include challenges, writing spurts, a prize or two, and some good old quiet community writing time. All are welcome! Due to Covid, we request that those who are not fully vaccinated wear masks to the in-person events. If you are experiencing any Covid symptoms or have been exposed to Covid within fourteen days of the event, please join online on Mondays rather than in-person. To register for one of the limited in-person spots, please call the Mayville Public Library at 920-387-7910. The Mayville Public Library is located in Dodge County at 111 N Main St, Mayville, WI 53050. Call or visit our website at www.mayville.lib.wi.us for more information.
  • Wednesday, 11/10: Madison Writing Assistance Write-In (In-Person) at 4-5:30pm CT at Pinney Library (516 Cottage Grove Rd, Madison, WI 53716) 
    • Madison Writing Assistance (MWA) is hosting its first ever write-in! During this write-in, MWA Writing Coach Paul will lead writers through a series of pomodoros, a technique that breaks work, in this case writing, into concentrated intervals with short breaks. Paul will be available after the write-in for short consultations about your writing project, too! To help keep everyone safe, spots for this in-person event are very limited. Please register in advance to secure your spot using this form.
  • Saturday, 11/13: Mayville Library Write-In (In-Person) at 9:30-11:30am CT
    • Due to Covid, we request that those who are not fully vaccinated wear masks to the in-person events. If you are experiencing any Covid symptoms or have been exposed to Covid within fourteen days of the event, please join online on Mondays rather than in-person. To register for one of the limited in-person spots, please call the Mayville Public Library at 920-387-7910. The Mayville Public Library is located in Dodge County at 111 N Main St, Mayville, WI 53050. Call or visit our website at www.mayville.lib.wi.us for more information.
• Register now for our culminating event, a fiction writing workshop with Claire Luchette, UW-Madison’s 2021-2022 James C. McCreight Fiction Fellow!
  • Shine the rust from age-old clichés, rewire your characters till they roar to life, and put a new coat of paint on a classic. In this workshop, we will learn to make the familiar strange and the strange familiar, create flashes of understanding for our readers, and find the revving heart of our work. Join us next week on Wednesday, November 17th, at 5:00pm CT via Zoom.
• Are you interested in introducing yourself to the group? Then, the Writer Spotlight is for you! Fill out this form to be featured in next week’s email!

What’s happening this week, 11/15-11/21:

• You’re Doin’ It, Writers! Pep Talk by Tim Yao, Municipal Liaison of NaperWriMo 
  • Tim Yao is a Municipal Liaison for the Naperville, IL, region of National Novel Writing Month. He is a writer of fantasy and science fiction stories. Yao is a co-founder and leader of the Writing Journey, the year-round writing group associated with his NaNoWriMo region. Learn more about Tim Yao here.
• Write-Ins**
  • Monday, 11/15: Mayville Library NaNoWriMo Write-In (Virtual) at 6-8pm CT
    • Register for the Zoom Link: https://bit.ly/MVNanoWK3
    • Mayville Public Library write-ins will include challenges, writing spurts, a prize or two, and some good old quiet community writing time. All are welcome!
  • Tuesday, 11/16: A Writer’s Retreat (Virtual) at 5-9pm CT
    • Registration instructions for people who are not UW-Madison employees: After you click on “Register” you will be taken to a Log-In page. If you do not already have a Guest Net-ID, click on “Create a Guest Account” and fill in the information. Please note that you do not need to provide your birthdate–you may use any date you wish. Be sure to write down your password!
  • Saturday, 11/20: Mayville Library In-Person Write-In (In-Person) at 9:30-11:30am
    • Due to Covid, we request that those who are not fully vaccinated wear masks to the in-person events. If you are experiencing any Covid symptoms or have been exposed to Covid within fourteen days of the event, please join online on Mondays rather than in-person. To register for one of the limited in-person spots, please call the Mayville Public Library at 920-387-7910. The Mayville Public Library is located in Dodge County at 111 N Main St, Mayville, WI 53050. Call or visit our website at www.mayville.lib.wi.us for more information.
• Workshops
  • Tuesday, 11/16: Starting and Sustaining a Writing Group Workshop (Virtual) at 12:30-2:00pm CT
    • Registration instructions for people who are not UW-Madison employees: After you click on “Register” you will be taken to a Log-In page. If you do not already have a Guest Net-ID, click on “Create a Guest Account” and fill in the information. Please note that you do not need to provide your birthdate–you may use any date you wish. Be sure to write down your password!
  • Wednesday, 11/17: Fiction WritingWorkshop with Claire Luchette, UW-Madison’s 2021-2022 James C. McCreight Fiction Fellow (Virtual) at 5-6:30pm CT
    • Registration for this event will close at noon on Wednesday, 11/17, so be sure to fill out this form now to receive the link!

You’ve been writing for 2 weeks! Show your UW Writing Pride and show off your progress by donning one or more of these badges/ images on your social media, email, and contact profiles! These are also available on the Writing Center’s NaNoWriMo/ AcWriMo website.

What’s happening this week, 11/22-11/28:

• Finish Strong, Writers! Pep Talk by Claire Luchette, 2021-2022 James C. McCreight Fiction Fellow at UW-Madison
  • Claire Luchette is the author of the novel Agatha of Little Neon and a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree. Claire’s work has appeared in VQR, Ploughshares, The New York Times, Granta, Kenyon Review, Glimmer Train, Iowa Review, and Indiana Review, and their story “New Bees” won a 2020 Pushcart Prize. Currently they live in Wisconsin, where they’re the 2021-2022 James C. McCreight Fellow in Fiction at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. Learn more about Claire here.
• Monday, 11/22: Mayville Library NaNoWriMo Write-In Virtual at 6-8pm
  • Register for the Zoom link: https://bit.ly/MVNanoWK4
  • Mayville Public Library write-ins* will include challenges, writing spurts, a prize or two, and some good old quiet community writing time. All are welcome!
• Thanks to everyone who was able to make it to our culminating event, the Fiction Workshop with Creative Writing Fellow (and author of this week’s pep talk!) Claire Luchette last Wednesday!
• Writing as you prepare for and celebrate holidays can be difficult. Find more opportunities to protect your writing time, write in community with others, and talk about writing by making an appointment this week with Madison Writing Assistance, the Writing Center, and/or visiting the Mad NaNo Facebook group(for our Madison-based writers) and/or the Wisconsin – Elsewhere Regional NaNoWriMo Forum (for others joining us from farther away) to learn about other ways to engage.

You’ve been writing for 3 weeks! Show your UW Writing Pride and show off your progress by donning one or more of these *NEW* badges/ images on your social media, email, and contact profiles! These are also available on the Writing Center’s NaNoWriMo/ AcWriMo website.

What’s happening this week, 11/29-11/30:

• Don’t Stop Now, Writers! Pep Talk by Amy Quan Barry, Lorraine Hansberry Professor of English at UW-Madison
  • Amy Quan Barry is the Lorraine Hansberry Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where, in addition to receiving the Vilas, Romnes, Kellett, and WARF research awards, she has also directed both the MFA Program in Creative Writing and the Wisconsin Institute of Creative Writing. Barry is the author of six books of fiction and poetry, including the recent novel We Ride Upon Sticks, which O: Oprah Magazine describes as, “Spellbinding, wickedly fun.” The New York Times described her previous work, She Weeps Each Time You’re Born, as “deeply affecting.” Her third novel, When I’m Gone, Look for Me in the East, follows a group of Buddhist monks as they search for a reincarnation in the vast Mongolian landscape; When I’m Gone will be published in spring 2022 by Knopf-Pantheon. Learn more about Professor Barry here.
• Please take our experience survey to let us know what you liked best about our NaNoWriMo/ AcWriMo celebration and how we can improve it next year!
  • The survey will remain open for your responses until Friday, December 3rd, at 11:59pm CST.
• You completed NaNoWriMo and/or AcWriMo!
  • Show your UW Writing Pride and your accomplishment by donning one or more of these *NEW* badges/ imageson your social media, email, and contact profiles! These and all the month’s materials are available on the Writing Center’s NaNoWriMo & AcWriMo webpage.