By A.J. Harris
BLOOMINGTON – For prospective authors and creative writers, November has become known as National Novel Writing Month, and the Bloomington Public Library celebrated with its annual Local Authors Fair.
The event allowed bibliophiles and writers the chance to speak with those from the community who have published their work, support local writing by purchasing a book or two, and maybe get some advice on how to undertake the daunting and intimidating task of finally sitting down and churning out that novel.
Author Alexander Germanis says that the most important thing to get started, apart from having an idea, is just getting it out of your head and putting it on paper.
“Or on the computer screen, as the case may be,” he adds.
Germanis goes on to say that maybe the scariest thing for a perspective novelist is simply the act of starting, and he espouses what he calls “brain time,” which means formulating the idea by giving yourself the time to really think.
“After that, it’s all about the first line. Write it down and go from there.”
National Novel Writing Month officially began in 1999, and since 2006 over 600 novels have been published with the non-profit organization, with both traditional and small-press publishing houses.
For those wanting to write the next Great American Novel, scare one’s friends and neighbors with a good horror story, impart one’s knowledge of local community myths and legends, or to do something as simple as getting one’s idea out of one’s head and out into the world, visit the National Novel Writing Month’s official website at nanowrimo.org for tools and help to achieve those goals.
A.J. Harris can be reached at [email protected]
