By Elaine Patterson, Newbridge Headquarters.
As may or may not be commonly known, November is National November Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short), so I thought I’d write a post on all things concerning creative writing.
First of all, NaNoWriMo is a challenge to write 50,000 words of a novel in a month, starting on the 1st of November and finishing on the 30th November. Alternatively, if you want, you can undertake the challenge in a different month-it doesn’t necessarily have to be November and it doesn’t have to be the first day of a month. And you don’t have to sign up to take the challenge if you don’t want to. You can even complete the challenge without signing up for it, if you wish. Or if you still want a writing challenge, but find the idea of writing a novel in 30 days too daunting, why not attempt writing a short story, essay, film script or play instead? Another option, if you’re a fan of roleplaying games such as Dungeons and Dragons, is to plan out a story with a quest and play it with your group.
Aside from NaNoWriMo, there are several other creative writing activities that you can try.
One is joining a writing, drama or theatre group if you don’t already belong to one. A lot of writing groups have moved online and if your local branch has a group, why not check to see if that group is operating online? You can also use apps like Meetup to search for creative groups in your local area.
Or, if you have always wanted to take a course on creative writing, but didn’t want to spend months or years and hundreds or thousands of Euros on one, you can take a course on Universal Class which is available through the Kildare Library website. If you are a registered library member, you can create an account on Universal Class for free and choose from over 50 writing courses. A few of the courses available are Novel Writing 101, Creative Writing for Beginners and Romance Writing.
Lastly, if none of these options appeal to you, there are several books on writing in Borrowbox with one example being Brave the Page by National Novel Writing Month. Alternatively, you can just pick up a book by your favourite author and admire their wordsmithing and worldbuilding as you read.
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