The NaNoWriMo Middle School Writing Club just wrapped up another successful November! We met every Monday after school in November (and two in December) for an hour to write, write, write! Our program is organized by the Young Writer's Program (https://ywp.nanowrimo.org/). Mrs. Simonich, Mrs. Rogers, and Mrs. Mills wrote alongside 12-14 middle school students, sharing strategies, plots, and paragraphs of our best writing! Mrs. Simonich and I were inspired by the joy and productivity that NaNoWriMo brings us each year. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, an event that happens across the nation each year in November (following Ink-tober!). NaNo is a chance to push yourself to get your story on the page, bring that first draft to life, and celebrate successes with other writers. It's a chance to build a network of support and connect with other writers. We find not only inspiration from each other's stories, but also an accountability partner who will ask you "How's your novel coming along?" Those few words are the gentle prod and motivation that many of us need to persevere to writing until that very last page. The YWP website for young writers is organized so that writers can start the process of developing their novel, as well as cheer them on as they meet word goals that they set for themselves. Finally, it allows them to print a copy of their novel as a finished product. Students get a sense of community, success, and validation for all of their hard work. Creativity thrives in this environment, imaginations run wild! Several students are thousands of words into their novel and still writing strong! In fact, the students who wrote their novels on the NaNoWriMo website have written 24,456 words! Some students chose to write off the site (in Google doc or Microsoft Word) and have thousands of words and hours of writing logged as well! Either way, it was a success. Mrs. Simonich and I are planning to host more afterschool writing club times in the spring. We hope to see you there!