NaNoWriMo and teens

I meant to write this last month, but I was kind of busy writing my novel....

If you are looking for more ways to reach teens in your library, look into National Novel Writing Month. A lot of teens participate in NaNoWriMo either through the Young Writers Program where they get to choose their word count goal or through the regular NaNoWriMo, where they aim to write 50,000 words just like the rest of us.

How cool is it that the Young Writers Program has a virtual library with a very real librarian?

It makes sense that teens would participate in large numbers since many of them have more flexible schedules than many adults. But teens also have unique challenges -- many of which the library can help them address.

Lack of transportation. It's hard for teens to make it to write-ins. Even teens who drive might be discouraged from driving to areas they are unfamiliar with. (Parent: You're going to drive all the way across town to meet a bunch of strangers?!) The library can help by providing a location for write-ins, either teen-specific or for all ages. Your local population of teen writers have probably already figured out ways to get themselves to the library.

Lack of money. NaNoWriMo is free, but they do ask for donations. Every one who gives gets a halo over their avatar on the forums. Teens feel guilty and left out if they can't figure out a way to donate. Perhaps the library could set up a sponsorship program: "Sponsor one of our teens while they write a novel in a month! It only costs $10 to buy a kid a halo!" All you need to donate for someone else is their NaNo username and a credit card. I made a teen in Texas pretty happy last week. And, the Office of Letters and Light, the organization behind NaNoWriMo is a real honest-to-goodness nonprofit. When you donate, even for someone else, you get a nice response suitable for showing your accountant.

Also, of course, writers read. They read in their genres and they read books about writing and they read for research. NaNoWriMo is an excellent time to promote the library's collection of books to teens -- all free!

Parents who don't get it. A lot of adults, including me, think it's very cool that a teen would choose to spend their November writing a novel. But then, a lot of adults think the whole idea is crazy for any one, especially their teenage son or daughter, to spend so much time producing quantity instead of quality. There is also a big can of worms regarding the safety and security of young people involved in meeting strangers on-line and in-person through NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo helps out a bit with A letter to parents. Any thing that the library does to promote NaNoWriMo or to support their teen patrons engaging in NaNoWriMo will help comfort parents that their teens haven't gone completely over the edge and that NaNoWriMo is legitimate, if a bit strange.

The best thing that could happen for teen writers, although they may not realize it at first, is for one or more family members to do NaNoWriMo right along with them. "NaNo with your teen" could be part of the message that the library promotes to parents.

Lack of privacy. I don't have to worry about anyone reading my mess of a manuscript. Part of the point of the quantity over quality approach is to go at this with abandon, constantly reminding oneself that no one else is ever going to read this. I don't want anyone to mistake this for my best work. Teens worry about parents mistaking their fiction for their real life and judging them because of what their characters do. If the library helps to legitimize the process (see the above about parents not getting it), then perhaps parents won't feel a real need to read their teens' output. Also, it might help to have a display for teens and their parents about the writing process with a prominent section and quotes from writers about how it's good to write first drafts that no one else reads.     #

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