NaNoWriMo 2020! (And some bees.)

Manchester Writing Bee in white on pink backdrop with handwritten type saying NaNoWriMo 2020 in dark blue over it.

End of October you say? I’m still finding my feet with my energy levels this year, bit of a rollercoaster isn’t it?

So lesson for myself — I’m definitely not going to get weekly blogging going! But this is me trying for monthly! Or just when I have something worth saying maybe?

So what have I been up to in October — a proper staycation (not a holiday in the same country, which is just a holiday!) lots and lots of emails, celebrating the husband’s birthday, and catching up with a lot of colleagues and past clients.

And I’m preparing for NaNoWriMo 2020 which I briefly mentioned back in September. Which is National Novel Writing Month. (Except it’s international so it’s very confusing!)

Along with signing up to try to write 50,000 words in the month of November (yup fifty thousand) I’m a Municipal Liaison for the UK Manchester region. Which means I help organise and host all the meet ups across November in Manchester. This year because of the pandemic, Nano is going digital only — so we’re hosting our meet ups over on Discord.

Also as a personal project I produce the graphics for our region’s group, the MCR Wrimos. A wrimo is for better or worse, the accepted global shorthand for a writer who takes part in NaNoWriMo! Though if you stop to think about it… it’s Writing Month.

I’ve been doing this for a few years now. The theme set by Nano HQ this year is “Finding Your Story“. I represented this in our new look with a mish mash of brash playful typography suggesting different genres, and a slightly mutant bee (our good old Manchester writing bee with a sharp pencil rear) splintered between organic and digital representation.

Dark blue text saying Find Your Story on a pink background. Nanowrimo 2020 is in white beneath it in a handwriting typeface. A small icon of a bee with a pencil rear is sitting to one side of the text. — I liked the impact of “Find your story” over finding.

Dark blue text saying Manchester Wrimos large over a white writing bee on a bright light green backdrop. Smaller blue text says NaNoWriMo 2020 beneath that.

Some examples of the graphics created for Instagram for MCR Wrimos for various events showing the colour and use of the bee.

Also hey if you want to write a novel sign up! We’re all enduring something of a dystopian nightmare this year, so a touch of escapism feels quite welcome. We’re also a super varied group all writing very different types of things. (You don’t need to write dystopian fiction!)

Over and out until next time!