Celebrating WCYR’s mini-NaNoWriMo 2020

Two months ago, the writing world embraced National Novel Writing Month in November. For the past several years, the WCYR has contributed to NaNoWriMo by holding our own mini version, in conjunction with the word-wide event.

What’s a mini-NaNo?

Basically, we do a “Camp NaNo” to support writers who would like to participate, but who would prefer to set their own goal or challenge for the month. The team at NaNoWriMo also encourages this, or they have in more recent years, often during their “camps” in April and July.

But sometimes joining a vast community like the NaNoWriMo network can be daunting and scary, or even lonely and intimidating. The special events team at the WCYR wants to make sure everyone feels included and comfortable achieving their personal best.

After our first mini-Nano many moons ago, we decided to change our Facebook group name from “Mini-NaNo” to “Word by Word,” a WCYR member online sub-group dedicated to helping and encouraging all of our writers to blossom and grow with continuing support all year round – not just in November 😉.

And so, November 2020 saw our biggest member goal-setting NaNo yet!

We had thirteen members officially register their goals with us by the end of the first week, and ten of those celebrated their achievements with final word counts at the end of the month. Throughout November, we had several more members pop-in and join the weekly fun, as we chatted about words on the page, story ideas, favourite writing beverages, and more!

We added a second Write-In session on Sunday mornings (9am-11am), to complement the one facilitated by M-C Perron on Monday evenings (7pm-9pm), to help all members – NaNo-ers or not – with a virtual support group as we wrote together in timed sprints and networked on our breaks. Both Write-In session were so successful the WCYR is continuing to run them. You can learn more by visiting The WCYR Members’ Corner Facebook group.

Our mini-NaNo group even held two draws! One draw was in celebration of those members willing to state their writing goal for the month, and the other congratulated those who logged in their accomplished word counts. The two winners (Rae and Diane), received the debut ebook novel, Feeding Frenzy, from member Maaja Wentz, plus their choice of an ebook from any of the WCYR’s published authors.

And, finally, we wrapped up by sharing quotes and snippets from our works in progress. Below are five teasers created in honour of the hard work each writer did during our mini-Nano. MJ Moores, Nanci Pattenden, Melissa Small, Val Tobin, and Paul Yanuziello, gave their permission for the memes to be built and shared publicly. I encourage you to celebrate the WCYR’s mini-Nano-Ers by taking a peek at these wonderful teasers.

Hope you can join us next November, or feel free to stop by and check out Word By Word for a little extra fun and support any ol’ time.

Written by

MJ Moores began her career as an English teacher in Ontario, Canada. Her love of storytelling and passion for writing has stayed with her since the age of nine. MJ relishes tales of adventure and journeys of self-realization. She enjoys writing in a variety of genres but speculative fiction remains her all time favourite. MJ runs the emerging writers’ website Infinite Pathways where she offers editing & publicity advice as well as platform building opportunities. Be sure to check out her sci/fi fantasy series, The Chronicles of Xannia. Connect with MJ at http://mjmoores.com or http://facebook.com/AuthorMJMoores

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