That November Thing

Picture it: Mid-September, 2024. Your faithful ~~municipal liaisons~~ group facilitators are hard at work, planning our Best Year Yet™, but now freed from the constraints of ~~our evil overlord Kilby~~ having to work around a different organization’s ~~dysfunctions~~ programming requirements.

Jason and Mel met recently to sketch out this autumn’s shenanigans and to plan a larger year-round set of activities. In this lengthy post, we’ll summarize what we’re doing this November and next April, tease upcoming writers’ conferences and literary salons, fill you in on what blocks we still need to lever into place, and assign you some tasks to help you prepare for a season of fulfilling, no-drama writing this year.

If you’re unsure about why we’re “doing NaNo” but are now totally disaffiliated from National Novel Writing Month, check out the NaNoScandal document for a handy play-by-play recap. The West Michigan Author Alliance is the successor to the Grand Rapids region of NaNoWriMo, but now a freestanding writers’ group operating as a program of the Lakeshore Literary Foundation, a 501c3 public charity. WMAA has no relationship with NaNoWriMo.

It kinda-sorta stuck on Discord, so we’re making it official: We’ll do That November Thing this year. But we’re bringing a bold new twist!

The TNT challenge runs from Oct. 15 to Dec. 15.
The period 10/15 to 11/1 can be used either to get a head-start on writing or to engage in our various craft-focused activities to help you to grind in the month of November. Similarly, the period 12/1 to 12/15 can be used to continue your writing or to engage in various editing-focused activities to help you polish your draft in the months to come. Choose your own adventure!
We’re bringing back the Fantasy Quest program, after we make some minor but meaningful edits to the point-scoring rubric for the year. Points related to writing productivity will only be assessed in the period 11/1 to 11/30, so folks who start early or end late will not receive an advantage. More details to come.
Our theme this year is, generically, animals, which will be incorporated in various ways through seasonal branding and aspects of the Fantasy Quest program.
We are planning — but cannot yet promise — merch. Including stickers, T-shirts, hoodies, and all that jazz. Profits from sales support the WMAA program.

We’ve planned a series of activities to help our writers along their journey:

Kickoff Party. To be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, October 12, at Allendale Township Library. (Same place as last year.) Goodie bags will be available, but we will not mail them this year. This activity, by unfortunate necessity, overlaps the GRRWG writers’ conference, so if you choose to go to GRRWG, you will get points in Fantasy Quest for having attended our kickoff. (No offense to GRRWG. Seriously. But the calendar was not our friend this year.)
Fall Writers’ Conference. To be held from 9a to 4p on Saturday, October 19, at Jason’s Books & Coffee. See below for details.
Discord Craft Talks. Offered virtually. On Thursday, October 17, we’ll do “Writing for Yourself vs. Writing for an Audience.” On Thursday, October 24, we’ll do “Elements of Storytelling,” which emphasizes genre and archetype. Both run from 7p to 8:30p. On Sunday, Oct. 27, we’ll do “How to Engage in the Act of Writing,” which covers software, tools, and tips for the process of writing, It’ll start at 4p.
Day of Knockout Noveling. DOKN’s back, back again. DOKN’s back, tell a friend. And tell that friend to bring a dish to pass! Yet again, we’ll gather from 10a to 6p on November 9 at Jason’s Books & Coffee for a full day of drafting and munching. Come and go at your pleasure, and don’t forget to browse the silent auction!
Winter Writers’ Conference. Saturday, December 7, from 9a to 4p. Focus is on editing; more details, below.
Discord Editing Talks. Join us at 4p on Sunday, December 1, for a general social debrief and celebration of progress. Then stick around at 7p on Thursday the 5th for a discussion of critique groups and beta readers, and 7p on Thursday the 12th for a discussion about writing year-round.

All of our virtual activities are free. Anyone’s welcome to join the Discord server, even if they’re not from West Michigan. So if you’re seeing this as a leader of a writing group in a far-off land, don’t despair. You’re welcome to join us, even if it’s for a single event!

As soon as the write-ins are scheduled, we’ll add all activities to our Events calendar.

At the 2025 Spring Writers’ Conference, we’ll celebrate an awards luncheon for the Fantasy Quest participants for That November Thing, as well as for the winners of the 2023 Fantasy Quest challenge. We figure it’ll help space things out, instead of trying to cram yet another writing activity into the peak of the holiday season.

Oh! And we’ll also have hosted write-ins. See below for details.

That April Thing

Some people like to camp in the spring. And we get it: the leaves are leafing, the bugs are starting to bug, and the world seems fresh with possibility. So we’re going to put some infrastructure around That April Thing. More to come, in late winter.

Seasonal Writers’ Conferences

We’ve decided to host a series of small day-long writing conferences. They’ll run from 9a to 4p at the bookstore. No cost to attend, although donations are welcome through the Eventbrite registration form. We don’t want cost to be a barrier to participation.

We plan to host four throughout the year. In October, the emphasis is craft development. December is about editing. April is about publishing. And July is about growing as an author. Each will run for a day and feature two talks plus plenty of workshop time to work silently and to collaborate with peers at your table.

For the October event, to be held on Saturday, October 19, at the bookstore, the schedule looks like this:

9-9:30 — welcome, introductions, administration, coffee
9:30 to 10:30 — Pep/Craft Talk: Harnessing Creativity as Writer Effectively, and With Less Anxiety
10:30 to 10:45 — bathroom/snack break
10:45 to noon — Getting Ready to Novel: Guided Exercise for That November Thang
noon to 1p — L U N C H and quiet work time
1p to 2p — Small-group sharing and brainstorming
2p to 2:45p — Pep/Biz Talk: Channeling Creativity Within Industry Metadata Standards
2:45p to 3p — bathroom/snack break
3p to 3:45p — Open-floor Q&A about writing
3:45p to 4p — wrap up; debrief; exit surveys

The writers’ conferences are, for now, based on donation; no purchase is necessary, but RSVP is required. We are planning to provide snacks and lunch, so if you can afford to donate (or can afford to sponsor someone else to come!) we’d welcome the consideration. Please register through Eventbrite.

Literary Salons

Lakeshore Literary Foundation also works, separately from WMAA, with Jason’s Books & Coffee on a literary-salon program. All WMAA members are welcome to attend — no cost or obligation. We offer monthly craft talks, monthly Big Think conversations, a book club, and a game night. They’re held every Wednesday evening.

Salons started in January. In December, the 2025 schedule will be published.

Check out the bookstore’s salon schedule for more information.

Stuff Jason and Mel Need to Do

We still have a few things to finalize —

Logging tool. We want folks to track progress in a group setting. We’re looking at tools (TrackBear, Pacemaker, a private solution) and will share our decision in a week or two.
Flyer. We’re working on a flyer. Stay tuned.
Points Tweaks. We’re updating the Fantasy Quest platform with tweaks relevant to the 2024 season and our migration from NaNoWriMo to TNT.
Networking. When the flyer is done and we can get some time, we’ll visit local libraries and indie bookstores to check about their willingness to partner with WMAA vs. NaNoWriMo.
Merch. We’d like to get mugs, flyers, stickers, &c. ready for you to get — we already have a fulfillment vendor in mind, but doing the art part will take a hot second.
Calendar. Until the write-in stuff is set, in early October, we have not yet pushed the events calendar for the season. When we do, you’ll find it on our Events calendar.

We plan to release our next big update, with answers to the above bullets, during the second week of October. At the close of the season, we’ll also run an end-of-program-year survey and release those results, as well as financial statements outlining costs and donations. We intend to be transparent about WMAA’s financials, and without requiring anyone to pry it out of us.

Further out in the parking lot, we will eventually convene a steering committee to help shepherd the WMAA year-round.

Stuff You Need to Do

So what does all this information mean for you?

It’s OK to do NaNoWriMo. Although we have disaffiliated from HQ and think that the organization is on a wrong-track death spiral, we recognize that a lot of you have emotional ties to that event. We will not pressure you to “not do NaNo” and we’ve structured That November Thing to map cleanly onto NaNoWriMo.

Complete the annual survey. We’ll send a link soon; it’ll run the last week of September and the first week of October.
Sign up for our newsletters, Discord, and social-media sites. We primarily use this website for our news and information, and we’ll post links to posts to our Discord server and to our X feed and Facebook page. We encourage you to at least either sign up for the blog or the Discord server to keep abreast of the latest news and information. We also use Discord for real-time chatting and for online events, so if you’re interested but are unfamiliar with Discord or chatting platforms, we’re happy to work with you one-on-one for training and orientation.
Plan for another silent auction at our Day of Knockout Noveling. Optional! But if you wish to participate, bring a new or handmade item (no used materials, please) to DOKN with you. No need to clear it or sign up in advance. Services are OK, too! We cannot allow for minimum bids on auction items. All proceeds support WMAA, and both cash and cards are welcome for payment at the end of the auction.
Consider donating to the WMAA through the Lakeshore Literary Foundation. In the donation form, use the drop-down (which defaults to General Fund) to select the West Michigan Author Alliance. LLF is a 501c3 public charity recognized by the Internal Revenue Service. All donations earmarked for WMAA transfer into WMAA’s bank account. We also accept cash or check donations at the office.
Read the Code of Conduct. Our Code of Conduct sets the ground rules for participating effectively in our group.

So You Want to Host an Activity?

If you’d like to host an event, please send an email to hello@wmauthors.net to let us know the details. Importantly:

We need to know your plans by Oct. 6. Tell us the days, times, venue, and special instructions.
Hosts must triple-check locations and times with your venue because we will permanently delete events that are disrupted because of inadequate planning and the host will not be allowed to host again for at least three years. Hosts must have a backup plan in case they cannot host as scheduled. Hosts who have had a recent history, in the NaNoWriMo times, of repeatedly canceling or moving events after they’ve been scheduled will likely not be approved as a host for 2024.
We prefer hosting at venues where there’s no cost to attend, including an implicit expectation to purchase food or beverage. If no alternative is available, then the event description should outline what’s expected so people can plan financially for purchases, parking, and related costs. Venues should conform to the standards set in our Code of Conduct.
We will perform (at our expense) criminal background checks on event hosts, which will require hosts to share their full legal name and date of birth with us. These checks only apply to people who will host in-person activities; they do not apply to people who host activities solely on the WMAA Discord. These checks are processed through the I-Chat system of the Michigan State Police. The results of these checks will not be archived; only the receipt for the purchase transaction, which does not contain conviction information, will be kept on file.
All hosts must attend a mandatory training session on safety and risk management during the first week of October, and sign an agreement stipulating that they’ll follow our policies about hosting.

The presence of a criminal record is not disqualifying in many cases — we will find ways, where possible, of giving hosts a chance while also offering targeted additional support to reduce the relative risk (or appearance of risk) for a given activity. For example, a 10-year-old conviction for drunk driving or a 5-year-old conviction for retail fraud will probably not be a barrier to hosting. However, a conviction of a crime of assault (physical or sexual) or fraud against a minor or a vulnerable adult will likely prove disqualifying. In all cases, however, we will evaluate the nature of the conviction history against the proposed activity and our leaders’ ability to support it, to arrive at an informed case-by-case decision.

Together, Let’s Immanentize the Literary Eschaton!

Yeah, OK. We’ve said a lot here. Our 2024 TNT season will be interesting: it’ll be our first year conducting this challenge 100-percent separated from HQ. We’re doing our best to provide a safe and enjoyable program for everyone, but mistakes are probable and we ask for the grace to adapt and refine.

The big thing? We want all of this to be fun and safe. We want our writers to find joy in their love of the written word. We hope that by “revising and extending” what you’ve been accustomed to, that you’ll enjoy a good mix of new challenges and familiar processes. Writing is hard, but we’ve been so inspired by so many of you who have written beautiful things, sometimes while mired in adversity or the curse of “interesting times.”

We’re sashaying into an election season that promises to be a Dumpster Fire™ — not to mention, the prediction from NOAA that West Michigan is due for a very wet winter with seasonally normal (i.e., cold) temperatures. We want WMAA to be a little island of literary sanity in a world filled with tempests. Because here, we have teapots. Sip the tea, put the tempest in that pot, and focus on creating, supported by a community that welcomes and respects you.

More to come. Thank you for sticking with us.