Spokane Public Library hosts Novel Day in honor of 50,000-word challenge NaNoWriMo

It’s November. It’s dark. It’s cold. It’s cozy. It’s time to write. At least that’s the case for those taking part in the annual National Novel Writing Month, affectionately known as NaNoWriMo.

Although the NaNoWriMo nonprofit organization shut down this spring citing financial troubles and community controversy, the tradition itself carries on, and Spokane Public Library is here to support.

Liberty Park Library will host their first Novel Day on Saturday from 10:15 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. With a combination of workshops and panels, the day offers guidance and community to writers attempting the notorious 50,000-word challenge this November.

“Novel Day is for anyone who’s thought of writing a novel but hasn’t even started yet, anyone who has tried to write a novel but didn’t get very far, anyone who wrote a novel but doesn’t know what to do with it now, anyone who’s written a novel and published it and now feels stuck. It’s for anyone at any stage of their novel writing process,” said Spokane Public Library writing education specialist Sharma Shields.

Writers from the community have already flocked to register for the workshops, which are currently waitlist only. Those interested can sign up for the waitlist at spokanelibrary.org. Luckily, the event also offers two midday panels with no registration required.

The day kicks off at 10:15 a.m. with a workshop led by local author and former Spokesman-Review columnist, Shawn Vestal. He will focus on one of the most daunting aspects of a novel: just how to get started.

“Writing a novel is really hard, and you can get halfway in and feel still kind of lost,” Vestal said. “What I’ll do is ask some questions and maybe offer some strategies for dealing with things earlier in the process of writing that might help you avoid problems later in the draft, to just sort of think about things in a larger more global way at the front end of the process.”

Vestal stresses there is no one-size-fits all approach to how to begin. Some may prefer outlining, some may prefer organic discovery. But what he says is critical for all writers is to not let yourself get stuck before you start.

“My main feeling is to try to get to work, to try not to let concerns or fears or uncertainties prevent you from getting started, because if you write like me, you’re almost certainly gonna revise … it’s worse to kind of sit and wait for what feels perfect to you before you start working,” Vestal said.

Immediately following, author and University of Idaho professor Alexandra Teague will lead a workshop on freeing your characters from being tools of the plot to instead become entities that can surprise you and offer their own perspective in the story. The workshop will feature prompted writing exercises and discussion of a handful of writing samples.

At 11:30 a.m., the event opens its first panel, “Drafts, Doubts, Discoveries: Novel from Start to Finish.” The conversation with authors Sonora Jha, Chelsea Martin and Tara Karr Roberts will serve up candid thoughts on all the ups and downs that come with penning a novel.

“People can expect to hear some honest answers about what it’s like to write a novel, what you learn, what you’re constantly learning, what is unexpected and surprising – nothing prescriptive, but hopefully things that comfort writers and help them understand how complex this is and how individual it is,” said Karr Roberts.

And it’s not just about process, but also the realities of writing while carrying on a busy life.

Karr Roberts started her first novel while raising two young children, working full time, and finishing a graduate degree.

“It was literally writing in 30-minute stretches on random nights of the week whenever I could fit it in,” Karr Roberts said.

At 1:30 p.m., the day’s second panel pivots the discussion to setting, with conversation from writers Rebekah Anderson, Chris Bieker, and Carla Crujido on how to approach researching a setting and strategies to describe the time and place in which your story unfolds.

“Something that is helpful when you’re writing setting is to think about the five senses and include at least three … you can really ground your reader in the scene by providing those little details,” Anderson said.

When it comes to research, Anderson argues it’s important to strike a balance.

“Research is really important if you’re writing history, whether it’s fiction or nonfiction. I’m a fiction writer, and so sometimes I have to be careful of not to do too much research and to remember that this is an imagined world, too,” Anderson said.

The day closes on a final workshop with author Kris Dinnison, with a focus on strategies for editing a novel-length work. The workshop ends at 2:30 p.m.

Although the workshops are already full, writers and creatives are encouraged to come to the panels for a heartening dose of conversations and community.

“For me, the value is not just what you learn from each individual instructor, although these talented people will be imparting amazing advice here, but it’s also the networking and community-building that occur when you put yourself in a room with other creatives. Being with multiple writers at all stages of their careers and backgrounds helps inspire us to keep going and helps connect us with more ideas and resources,” Shields said.

Vestal said there’s value in workshops likes these.

“It’s not necessarily like a one-to-one map of ‘here’s exactly what you do.’ It’s more like, ‘We’re all in this struggle together, here’s some of the ways we engage in the struggle,’ ” Vestal said.