NaNoWriMo Inspiration @ MCLS

If you’ve recently visited our branches, the Mercer County Library System Event Calendar, or our website, you may have seen the odd-looking word, NaNoWriMo, featured on promotional materials. NaNoWriMo, formally known as National Novel Writing Month, is a nonprofit organization which promotes creative writing. More specifically, over the course of 30 days every November, people from around the world challenge themselves to write 50,000 words towards a new novel. How many people? Last year over 400,000 writers accepted the challenge, and hundreds of thousands of people are expected to take on the same 50,000-words-in-30-days challenge again this year. Mercer County Library System is in full force supporting its local writers as they work towards the National Novel Writing Month goal.

Writers naturally seek out libraries as a space to work. The doors of the nine MCLS branches are wide open during their regular operating hours, providing a change of venue, comfortable seating, necessary technological needs for power and WiFi, and ubiquitous inspiration from the novels lining the shelves and on display. Of course, writing doesn’t have to be a solitary act. Branches have scheduled NaNoWriMo gatherings (i.e., Come Write In events), which allow writers to meet, mingle, and spur each other on. Check the MCLS Event Calendar for upcoming sessions at a branch near you.

You may be surprised to learn that some of the stories that started out as NaNoWriMo challenges turned into best-selling novels. Below is a list of some of those titles, which may be the small nugget of inspiration current NaNoWriMo writers need to push through to their goal, or the taste of success to motivate future writers to take on the 50,000-words-in-30-days challenge. Take a look at the selection of novels that were first drafted through NaNoWriMo projects:

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo 

“Ever since she got pregnant freshman year, Emoni Santiago's life has been about making the tough decisions--doing what has to be done for her daughter and her abuela. The one place she can let all that go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness. Even though she dreams of working as a chef after she graduates, Emoni knows that it's not worth her time to pursue the impossible. Yet despite the rules she thinks she has to play by, once Emoni starts cooking, her only choice is to let her talent break free.” -- Provided by publisher.

Modern Girls by Jennifer S. Brown 

“In 1935, Dottie Krasinsky is the epitome of the modern girl. A bookkeeper in Midtown Manhattan, Dottie steals kisses from her steady beau, meets her girlfriends for drinks, and eyes the latest fashions. Yet at heart, she is a dutiful daughter, living with her Yiddish-speaking parents on the Lower East Side. So when, after a single careless night, she finds herself in a family way by a charismatic but unsuitable man, she is desperate: unwed, unsure, and running out of options. After the birth of five children--and twenty years as a housewife--Dottie's immigrant mother, Rose, is itching to return to the social activism she embraced as a young woman. With strikes and breadlines at home and National Socialism rising in Europe, there is much more important work to do than cooking and cleaning. So when she realizes that she, too, is pregnant, she struggles to reconcile her longings with her faith. As mother and daughter wrestle with unthinkable choices, they are forced to confront their beliefs, the changing world, and the fact that their lives will never again be the same..." -- Provided by publisher.

Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen 

A novel of star-crossed lovers, set in the circus world circa 1932. When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her. – From publisher description.

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory 

"A groomsman and his last-minute guest are about to discover if a fake date can go the distance in a fun and flirty debut novel. Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn't normally do. But there's something about Drew Nichols that's too hard to resist. On the eve of his ex's wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend. From the best man's toast to the bouquet toss, Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible. But before they know it, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she's the mayor's chief of staff. Too bad they can't stop thinking about the other. They're just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long distance dating disaster of the century--or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want." -- Provided by publisher.

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes 

"In a small town in Maine, recently widowed Eveleth "Evvie" Drake rarely leaves her house. Everyone in town, including her best friend, Andy, thinks grief keeps her locked inside, and she doesn't correct them. In New York, Dean Tenney, former major-league pitcher and Andy's childhood friend, is struggling with a case of the "yips": he can't throw straight anymore, and he can't figure out why. An invitation from Andy to stay in Maine for a few months seems like the perfect chance to hit the reset button. When Dean moves into an apartment at the back of Evvie's house, the two make a deal: Dean won't ask about Evvie's late husband, and Evvie won't ask about Dean's baseball career. Rules, though, have a funny way of being broken--and what starts as an unexpected friendship soon turns into something more. But before they can find out what might lie ahead, they'll have to wrestle a few demons: the bonds they've broken, the plans they've changed, and the secrets they've kept. They'll need a lot of help, but in life, as in baseball, there's always a chance--right up until the last out" -- Provided by publisher.

The Darwin Elevator (Dire Earth Cycle, Book #1) by Jason M. Hough 

In the mid-23rd century, Darwin, Australia, stands as the last human city on Earth. The world has succumbed to an alien plague, with most of the population transformed into mindless, savage creatures. The planet’s refugees flock to Darwin, where a space elevator—created by the architects of this apocalypse, the Builders—emits a plague-suppressing aura.

Skyler Luiken has a rare immunity to the plague. Backed by an international crew of fellow “immunes,” he leads missions into the dangerous wasteland beyond the aura’s edge to find the resources Darwin needs to stave off collapse. But when the Elevator starts to malfunction, Skyler is tapped—along with the brilliant scientist, Dr. Tania Sharma—to solve the mystery of the failing alien technology and save the ragged remnants of humanity.

Wool by Hugh Howey 

In a ruined and toxic landscape, a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. In a society full of regulations meant to protect the community, Sheriff Holston unexpectedly breaks the greatest taboo of all: he asks to go outside. An unlikely candidate is appointed to replace him: Juliette, a mechanic with no training in law, whose special knack is fixing machines. Now Juliette is about to be entrusted with fixing her silo, and she will soon learn just how badly her world is broken....

Cinder (Lunar Chronicles, Book #1) by Marissa Meyer 

As plague ravages the overcrowded Earth, observed by a ruthless lunar people, Cinder, a gifted mechanic and cyborg, becomes involved with handsome Prince Kai and must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect the world in this futuristic take on the Cinderella story.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 

The circus arrives without warning. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is a unique experience full of breathtaking spectacles. This is Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway, a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood just for this purpose by their instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is merely the stage for a battle to the end of imagination and will. In spite of themselves, Celia and Marco fall in love; and now, though the game must play out, the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell 

Feeling cast off when her best friend outgrows their shared love for a favorite celebrity, Cath, a dedicated fan-fiction writer, struggles to survive on her own in her first year of college while avoiding a surly roommate, bonding with a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words and worrying about her fragile father.

- by Anna, Hopewell Branch