Happy National Novel Writing Month! Or as Twitter likes to call it, #NaNoWriMo. The project began in 1991 to get aspiring novelists to write 50,000 words in 30 days, and we’re still doing it in 2019. That’s kind of amazing, because no matter what stage you’re at as a writer, 50,000 words in 30 days is a daunting task. And if you’re a novice? It’s even more difficult, because you’re still figuring out who you are as a writer and what you want to say. To help the novices among us, I asked Twitter for advice:
Some of my favorite Twitter folks responded with advice for writers at all levels. Here are the highlights:
From T Kira Madden, author of Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls:
From Brian Kahn, managing editor of Earther.com:
From Chip Blake, Editor-in-Chief of Orion Magazine:
From Mathangi Subramanian, author of A People’s History of Heaven:
From Chris Packham, writer and editor:
From Lara Zarum, culture critic and writer:
From Mickie Meinhardt, Events Director of Guernica Magazine:
From Drew Philp, author of A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City:
From Aaron Gilbreath, author of Everything We Don’t Know:
From Ayşe Papatya Bucak, author of The Trojan War Museum: And Other Stories:
From Kyle Williams, CHIRB Director of Communications:
From Michael Metivier, Senior Editor at Chelsea Green Publishing:
From Alan Levinovitz, Associate Professor of Religion at James Madison University:
From Dean Jobb, author of Empire of Deception:
From James Tate Hill, Fiction Editor at Monkey Bicycle and author of Academy Gothic:
From Sarah M. Gilman, poet and illustrator:
From Erica Wright, Poetry Editor at Guernica Magazine and author of Famous in Cedarville:
From Laurel Standley, author and scientist:
From Christine Flanagan, author of The Letters of Flannery O’Connor and Caroline Gordon:
From Bethanne Patrick, writer and Contributing Editor at Literary Hub:
From Elizabeth Rosner, author of Survivor Cafe: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory:
