Super Cool Books: 100 WRITERS _____ Kicking off NaNoWriMo 2016 in Singapore really early + your free 100 WRITERS story writing workbook, scroll down to the end

NOTE: This post is part of my 100 WRITERS project, which is a support group for fiction writers currently hosted by StoryCode Singapore. Find out more here.

This photo above: I was at the NaNoWriMo SG Kick Off Party last Saturday. Eager and early.

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It happens every November. How it works is there's an official website in the US which provides tools and community support to help you finish writing a novel between November 1 and November 30. Ideally you end up with a rough manuscript that's over 50,000 words. Just have fun and it doesn't matter if you don't finish. There are now NaNoWriMo chapters all over the world, and you get to organise your own local meetups and group writing sessions at cafes and schools and any other suitable spots.

This NaNoWriMo SG Kick Off Party is usually scheduled for the last weekend of October, but since that will be a public holiday this year, the event happened a week before. Early birds indeed! Credit for putting this together goes to a small team led by the dynamic duo sarahcoldheart and Joelyn Alexandra, AKA the official Municipal Liaisons, AKA local volunteer reps. I featured an interview with these two here last year.

One highlight on Saturday: Singapore author Clarissa N. Goenawan talked about how her NaNoWriMo project from a few years back actually ended up winning the 2015 Bath Novel Award and earning her a proper literary agent who then got her book published by Soho Press in the US. Wow. What a fantastic NaNoWriMo success story to inspire all of us. Clarissa also wore some cute red Halloween horns because the dress code was Out Of This World, which is the official NaNoWriMo theme for this year. I wanted to take a photo with her but she had to leave before I could.

This is Raven Silvers, she used to be the Municipal Liaison and still helps out with events. Thanks to NaNoWriMo SG for this photo and the next one.

What else we did at the party: there was an introduction to the whole NaNoWriMo thing which has helpful because quite a number of people were new to this, there were some quick tips on how to write and keep writing and just keep writing until you reach the end of the month, and also there were quiz questions with prizes. The prizes included some interesting goodies and also two copies of my new book IMAGINE ALL THIS: HOW TO WRITE YOUR OWN STORIES. Congrats again to lucky winners Shannon and Lakshmy!

And there was cake too. A yummy star cake. Which is an important tradition at local NaNoWriMo parties.

Missed the event? Never mind. You can still sign up for a free NaNoWriMo account here, and then get active on the SG forum discussions here, and at the end of November you can turn up for the official TGIO Party (Date: Saturday, Dec 3, 2016).

Free download (PDF) here

Here's my post about last year's NaNoWriMo closing party. Time flies. If you're going to take up the challenge this year, you can download my free story writing workbook to help you shape up your ideas, plan your story, and fill it with exciting scenes and captivating characters. It's called the 100 WRITERS STORY WORKBOOK and the free download (PDF) is here.

Happy writing, everyone! :)

— D