NaperWriMo Info

About us

Welcome to the Illinois::Naperville region of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), an annual event designed to encourage writers to complete their own 50,000+ word novel in just 30 days. We serve the western suburbs of Chicago and are centered around Naperville. All of our local events are open to the public and free of charge. For more information, read the wiki article about who we are or see our frequently-asked questions (faq).

Events

See the calendar of events or the detailed event list
For information about our 2010 regional events, see the detailed list of events. For information about what NaNoWriMo is, see National Novel Writing Month or the Frequently Asked Questions (faq). Need more help?

NaperWriMo News

Stories from: our NaperWriMo blog

  • Stuff to Listen to in prep for November - 14 August 2010
    Read books, articles about writing and listen to podcasts: The Secrets from stormwolf SFF Odyssey Writing Excuses Writers on Writing (Barbara DeMarco Barrett)
  • A metaphor for preparing for writing your novel - 9 August 2010

    Today as I was driving home from work (which, oddly enough, is one of the times when I get creative thoughts), I was thinking about the upcoming Jabber meeting for the Journey and the topic of how best to prepare your novel. My own 2010 NaNo novel planning has proceeded fairly well: I have a basic plot (an orphaned teenage girl with artistic talent travels through a painting into a world where paintings have magical power), a set of characters (the girl and her boyfriend (in our world); a king and queen in the other world who lost their own daughter (she was actually murdered); the queen's brother, an artist who brings the girl to his world; and the son of the queen's brother, who has (hidden) political aspirations) and a setting (the world where artists have power over whatever they can paint). What I didn't have yet was that living feeling that novels get when they begin to write themselves in your head. Then, while I was sitting at a traffic light, it hit me.

  • Editing workshop at DucKon 19 - 21 June 2010
    I experienced my first ever SF convention and writers workshop at the recent DucKon 19 in Naperville (18-20 June 2010). It was a blast! Lot’s of fun and very interesting. Met some nice (and talented) people. I would recommend it to anyone in the general vicinity, though next year the writer’s track may move to ... read more
  • May 22nd outing (the Journey) - 3 May 2010
    Just a reminder that members of the Journey that we have an outing scheduled for the early afternoon of May 22 at beautiful Herrick lake. You can RSVP on the Current events page (Password protected).
  • NaperWriMo website updated! - 30 April 2010
    It was a lot of work, but I’ve finally brought some unity and thematic balance to the NaperWriMo websites. It’s not perfect, but I’ve collected the miscellaneous pages under the naperwrimo.org home while moving the blog down to naperwrimo.org/wp and keeping the wiki at naperwrimo.org/wiki. There are only a handful of available skins/themes that are ... read more
  • 2010 NaNoWriMo event dates – an update - 20 April 2010
    We have some confirmation from the Naperville Public Library that our requested dates will be ok for the fall of this year (2010); here is our current event schedule: 1-3 pm, Oct 2: prep session (Nichols Library) 1-3 pm, Oct 9: prep session (Crystal Blount hosting at the Aurora Public Library) 1-3 pm, Oct 16: ... read more
  • Update on the Journey - 26 January 2010
    We have twenty three members (there are more than that on the e-mail list but these are the folks who have added themselves to the members list on the wiki). There are three major projects for the Journey: Anthology 1: an anthology of short stories based on a common first line (16 participants) Anthology 2: ... read more
  • And Belgium and Holland pay off their bet…! - 3 January 2010
    Today I received this wonderful e-mail from Arike, one of the MLs for Belgium and Holland: Dear Tim, other MLs and participants of Naperville, First off, a very happy new year to you! We hope you’ve a had some good holidays, family time and rest, and we wish you the very best for 2010. Once ... read more
  • TGIO 2009 - 6 December 2009
    We had nearly 50 people attending this year’s fun TGIO (Thank-Goodness-It’s-Over!) party at the Naperville Municipal Center lunch room. Things mostly went very smoothly, though I forgot to give out a prize for best colored-in Dragon Map (doh! I even brought one…). David got us going with a NaNo-bingo (with custom squares and different sheets) ... read more
  • A funny cartoon from HannahK - 3 December 2009
    HannahK, a talented and winning wrimo from Holland, has been writing brilliant little cartoons all month long. Today she posted this gem: ———- Nu ook Dutch NaNo Team 2009 merchandise!! Very funny (even if we don’t wear nappy’s in Naperville)! –NMK