For a group of area teens, November was all about writing.
They participated in National Novel Writing Month.
On four Friday evenings last month, the teens gathered at the Waupaca Area Public Library.
Teen Librarian Rebecca Wisniewski had dinner ready for them and provided them with encouragement from the NaNoWriMo non-profit group and then gave them access to the computers to write.
“They have a lot inside of them,” she said. “I wish I had had that opportunity, for someone to encourage me to write, because I like to write.”
Wisniewski likes to journal and holds a degree in secondary education.
As an educator, her philosophy was not to transfer her knowledge to her students but to make it conducive for discovery.
She sees that as also being her role at the library.
Initially, Wisniewski invited the small group of students interesed in the newly formed Writer’s, Ink program to meet with her on Friday, Nov. 1 and kick off the monthly writing challenge.
For the young writers, the goal was to write a 30,000-word novel in a month.
“In my head, I thought we would do it the first Friday in November and get them going,” she said. “But, they enjoyed it so much.”
During that first evening, students asked, “When are we meeting again?”
Wisniewski had not expected that question, and so, she decided the group would meet on three other Fridays.
Their final meeting was Friday, Nov. 30.
Each week, the NaNoWriMo group offered a pep talk to its participants.
One guest speaker was Marissa Meyer, the young adult author of Cinder and one of the authors who participated in this year’s Waupaca Book Festival.
Cinder was a NaNoWriMo novel.
Wiwniewski said Meyer was their connection to this year’s writing challenge.
During National Novel Writing Month, the teens were also able to network online with other young writers.
“I think another goal in the future will be extending it to adults to make it multi-generational,” Wisniewski said. “I will just encourage them (the teens) to keep writing.”