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Episode Description

Start with an idea and end as a novelist — NaNoWriMo has a proven track record with creating authors! What Is NaNoWriMo? National Novel Writing Month began in 1999 as a daunting but straightforward challenge: to write 50,000 words of a novel in thirty days. Now, each year on November 1, hundreds of thousands of people around the world begin to write, determined to end the month with 50,000 words of a brand-new novel. They enter the month as elementary school teachers, mechanics, or stay-at-home parents. They leave novelists. NaNoWriMo officially became a nonprofit organization in 2006, and our programs support writing fluency and education. Our website hosts more than a million writers, serving as a social network with author profiles, personal project libraries, and writing buddies. NaNoWriMo tracks words for writers, like Fitbit tracks steps, and hosts real-world writing events in cities from Mexico City, to Seoul, to Milwaukee with the help of 900+ volunteers in thousands of partnering libraries and community centers like… well, like nothing else. NaNoWriMo is internet-famous. It’s community-powered (hello, Wrimos!). It’s hosted authors drafting novels like Water for Elephants, WOOL, and Fangirl. It’s a teaching tool and curriculum taught in 5,920 classrooms, and NaNoWriMo’s programs run year-round. Whatever you thought NaNoWriMo is, it’s more than that. Drop in with us to find out how you can get writerly support, online or in your area, for your own project!
Letitia Jones believes in the magic of the written word to transport readers to a thousand worlds. During a mad trip to Dublin in 2010, she wrote her first 10,000 NaNo words on a series of bar napkins. She cut her teeth as an ML and then as a moderator. When she’s not in the forums, Letitia can be found protecting her hoard of 200 mugs and coffee cups. At the intersection of community, culture, and activism is also what Letitia is about: Driven, focused, and energetic cultural worker and engineer of black spaces using public crowdfunding, radical nerdship, pop culture, and direct action. As a community organizer and grass root activist I center the lived experiences, legacies, histories, and cultural impact of oppressed persons of the African Diaspora, especially women, femme, and other LGBTQ persons. Specialty areas include relationship-building across stakeholders, organizations and teams, presenting and interpersonal communication. Well versed in domestic and international politics, fundraising, team leadership, volunteer recruitment and training. Keen interest in eradication of intimate partner violence, lowering BAME/BIPOC mother and infant mortality rates, and decriminalization of sex work. Drop In to get to know Letitia and find out how she and her organization, NaNoWriMo can help you become the writer you’ve always wanted to be.

Letitia Jones

Letitia Jones believes in the magic of the written word to transport readers to a thousand worlds. During a mad trip to Dublin in 2010, she wrote her first 10,000 NaNo words on a series of bar napkins. She cut her teeth as an ML and then as a moderator. When she’s not in the forums, Letitia can be found protecting her hoard of 200 mugs and coffee cups. At the intersection of community, culture, and activism is also what Letitia is about: Driven, focused, and energetic cultural worker and engineer of black spaces using public crowdfunding, radical nerdship, pop culture, and direct action. As a community organizer and grass root activist I center the lived experiences, legacies, histories, and cultural impact of oppressed persons of the African Diaspora, especially women, femme, and other LGBTQ persons. Specialty areas include relationship-building across stakeholders, organizations and teams, presenting and interpersonal communication. Well versed in domestic and international politics, fundraising, team leadership, volunteer recruitment and training. Keen interest in eradication of intimate partner violence, lowering BAME/BIPOC mother and infant mortality rates, and decriminalization of sex work. Drop In to get to know Letitia and find out how she and her organization, NaNoWriMo can help you become the writer you’ve always wanted to be!