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Novelists explore their stories at the library

While many in town turn their thoughts toward holiday shopping, others turn their fingers toward typing a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. Why? Because November was National Novel Writing Month, or “NaNoWriMo,” the world’s largest writing challenge and nonprofit literary crusade, during which participants pledged to write 50,000 words in a month. There were no judges, no prizes, and entries are deleted from the server before anyone even reads them.

So what’s the point? “The 50,000-word challenge has a wonderful way of opening up your imagination and unleashing creativity,” boasts NaNo-WriMo Founder and Executive Director Chris Baty, on the NaNoWriMo web site.

“When you write for quantity instead of quality, you end up getting both. Also, it’s a great excuse for not doing any dishes for a month,” Baty said.

This year marks the third year the Merrimack Public Library has registered as an official “Come Write In” location. In addition to scheduling “write-ins” that provide authors with distraction-free writing space, the library’s other events included a kick-off and a panel featuring a range of self-published NH authors. The Library welcomed Merrimack resident, Gina Rosati, to speak about her debut young adult novel, “Auracle” (Roaring Brook Press, August 2012). The event will conclude Dec. 7 with a “TGIO Party and Read-In,” inviting all participants to read an excerpt of their work, regardless of whether or not they have reached their word count goal.

Alyssa Jobin, 12, is participating in the Young Writer’s Program, a version of the event geared toward kids and teens. YWP authors, while welcomed to aim for the 50,000-word goal, are not bound by it, and therefore, can set their own goal. Alyssa has already written 700 of her 5,000-word goal.

“I need to work on (my novel) more,” Jobin admitted rather sheepishly, cradling an armload of textbooks when she most recently visited the library. “I spend too much time doing homework.” A seventh-grader at Merrimack’s Academy for Science and Design, Alyssa’s novel doesn’t yet have a title, but is “about kids who are mythical creatures whose parents have died and meet in an orphanage. There are people trying to capture them.”

Alyssa should receive healthy support from home, since her brother Alex, 8, and mother, Jennifer, are also writing during November. Alex, a fourth-grader at Mastricola Elementary School, has already written more than 1,000 words toward his 5,000-word goal. His novel, “Quest for the Monsters,” is written for kids his age.

“It’s about a kid named Tyler who finds out that there’s these people that got turned into monsters and he has to go out there and turn them back into people.”

Jennifer confesses that, as a graphic artist, she can “do things visually much easier” than writing. Initially stalled working out her characters and plot, she thinks she’s finally figured it out.

“My story is a time travel book based on a family heirloom,” Jennifer said. “A young girl finds an enchanted locket when she and her mother move into her great-great-grandparents’ former home.”

Jennifer, who said her novel will be targeted to 8- to 12-year-olds, wants to incorporate census information and history software in her research that will add depth to her character’s discovery of her ancestor’s secrets. An added bonus is that she can access these databases using her Merrimack library card.

“Sharing the family’s computer is the biggest challenge right now,” Jennifer said. “A lot of Alyssa’s homework is done online so that means Alex has to wait to work on his novel.”

Although NaNoWriMo emphasizes creativity and adventure over creating a literary masterpiece, more than 90 novels begun during NaNoWriMo have since been published, including several novels aimed at teen audiences, such as Amelia Atwater-Rhodes’ “Persistence of Memory” (Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2008), who wrote her first novel at 13, and Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen’s “The Compound” (Feiwel and Friends, 2008), which was nominated for New Hampshire’s Isinglass Teen Read Award in 2009-2010.

For more information on National Novel Writing Month, visit www.nanowrimo.org. Learn more about its parent organization, The Office of Letters and Light at www.lettersandlight.org For information about events at the Merrimack Public Library, visit www.merrimack.lib.nh.us.