Writer’s Block: When your imaginary characters stop talking to you.

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which challenges participants to write a 50,000-word novel from November 1 until the deadline at 11:59 p.m. November 30. Even though it is international website, it has state hubs, including a Maine hub, with approximately 6,000 writers all over the state who check in, do virtual “Write-ins” as well as live meet ups.

This month, nearly 800 Maine novelists are competing in the challenge. We spoke with Roger Redin, one of the Maine “Municipal Liaison” from Bath who hosts live and virtual meetups. Redin, 30, who has participated in NaNoWriMo for six years, is also working on a futuristic novel on top of his full-time job and ML duties.

How do you find the time to write yourself?

I use my lunch break at work from 1-2 p.m. every weekday to host a Virtual Write In. I hop onto a chat room with a bunch of other writers from Maine and we use that time to write. We all check in first and then do what we call “word sprints” where you just write for a certain number of minutes and then at the end of that time, we check in again and talk a little bit about what we wrote. The whole point of NaNoWriMo is to get the words down.

How do the face-to-face-meetups work?

The Write Ins we hold are after hours are usually in public places like libraries, where people can feel comfortable to join. For example, we just had a room reserved in the Bath library the other night where 20 people showed up. We first got to know each other a bit, then everyone got down to it and wrote their own stories. 

If someone has a question, say, they need to know what a Victorian era man’s suit would consist of, do they use this community to ask that question?

Sometimes, somebody in our group will be able to provide an answer, but more likely we’ll point them to a section on the NaNoWriMo website dedicated to online forums, for just this kind of thing.

Do you find that NaNoWriMo writers, particularly your Maine community are pretty supportive?

I got into NaNoWriMo initially because my girlfriend at the time was doing the challenge. At first, I was a little skeptical, but I don’t think i would have gotten into it if it were not for some of the people I met at the first Write In we went to. One person in particular kept us motivated to keep writing, checking in with us even after the challenge was over. I was such a great introduction to NaNoWriMo and drew us back in the next year.

Of all six years you’ve been participating in the challenge, how many years have you written 50,000 words and what has become of your previous novels?

This year is my sixth year, but so far I’ve completed it three times. I’ve gone back and worked on a couple of them, but this year I needed a chance to clear my head from the previous stories and work on something entirely new. Some people will work on one novel and go back to it each November.

My understanding of NaNoWriMo is it focuses on the very beginning stages of writing a novel, before your inner editor can come out.

Correct, the original intention of NaNoWriMo was to get the word on paper or on a screen so that you can have that first draft. But, as they have evolved, they use January-February every year to motivate people to get ready to take the next step if your novel is completed. They get published authors to come into the virtual community and write words of encouragement or tips to more than 300,000 people participating all over the world.

 It’s free to join NaNoWriMo and Redin is working on doing a live meetup in the Camden-Rockland area if anyone in the Midcoast is interested. Simply sign up for NaNoWriMo, choose Maine as your hub and message him if you’re interested. We will update this story if a live meetup is announced.

Related stories:

Last year’s featured NaNoWriMo writer: where is she now?

The five habits of highly motivated writers

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com