Canalave Library NaNo Spree

NaNoWriMo. To seasoned writers, this might send shivers of excitement down your spine … or settle a lump of dread in your stomach. For the rest of us, NaNoWriMo is a month-long event taking place through November in which you pledge yourself to write a minimum of 50,000 words, or the length of a novel. (Its sister event, Camp NaNoWriMo, is more or less the same but in April and July.)

Here at Canalave Library, we’re putting our own twist on the proceedings. Welcome to the Canalave NaNo Spree, a month-long event for all creators!

Taking place in April, July, and November, creators of all stripes challenge themselves to create as much as they can. What that means is up to you. Writers, is 50k a little too intimidating? No worries! Pledge yourselves to write 10k, 30k, whatever you’d like. Maybe pledge yourselves to finish X number of chapters or those short stories you’ve been meaning to write. Maybe even make a pledge to edit. Are you an artist? Pledge yourself to create X number of pieces or comic pages. Programmers? Create that bot from scratch or finish that program you’ve been sitting on. The sky is virtually the limit … with certain caveats.

In order to participate, the rules are simple. Your goal should be something challenging of a creative nature. This means if you can finish it in a week … don’t do that. Don’t set your word count to something easy, like thirty words. Just make sure it’s something you’ll be working on. Likewise, please don’t pledge yourselves to do something academic or work-related. NaNo is just for fun, and your professors/bosses/potential bosses will thank you for not attempting to NaNo your academic papers or resumes.

Once you’ve settled on a goal, post it in #nano-spree (or here, if you'd prefer). We won’t exactly be keeping track (although you will have to prove you’ve met your goal for something we’ll get into later), but it’s always good to share your goals with the public so we can help each other with gentle pushes now and then.

Then, once the first of the month hits, start.

This channel will then be used for all sorts of things. If you want to give participants encouragement, even if you’re not actually participating yourself, you are absolutely free and encouraged to do so. Participating and want to talk about your progress? You absolutely can, as often as you’d like! (In fact, doing so once a day will encourage you to set aside a little bit of time to create.) Want to offer tips? Throw out prompts for each other to help jog the creativity engine? Schedule block wars? You can do all of that here! (Or, well, you can schedule the block war here and then actually use #block-wars, but you get the idea.)

Weekly check-ins run by mods will also be a thing. During these check-ins, all you have to do is share how much you’ve done in the week, an excerpt (if you’d like), and your thoughts on your/other people’s progress.

At the end of the month, if you’ve achieved your goal, you absolutely should grab that glory. Post screenshots of your word counts, photos of your finished pieces, or even straight-up link to your programs. Whatever you’d like! And if you haven’t finished, don’t worry. You can still hang out and talk about what you have achieved and how you felt, maybe even trade encouragement with your fellow creators for next time around.

Buuuuut it’s in your best interest to choose a goal you can achieve in a month and then finish it because for every person who does and can confirm their win, you will receive a fully customizable role. This role will include a custom color and a custom title (sfw titles only!), which you can wear until the end of the next NaNo Spree.

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Tl;dr, the event in list format:

1. Choose a goal. Whatever goal you’d like so long as it’s an actual challenge for you and is creative, not academic or work-related.

2. Spend all of April, July, or November creating. You can also use #nano-spree to encourage each other, post about your progress, stage block wars, etc. Weekly check-ins will also be provided, where you can talk about your overall progress in the week. You can also use this channel to encourage participants, even if you’re not participating yourself.

3. At the end of the month, talk about your progress. If you’ve completed your goal, post evidence, and you’ll be rewarded with a custom title that you can wear until the end of the next NaNo Spree.

4. Most of all, good luck!