Since 2018, Educators in VR’s director, Lorelle VanFossen, has produced and hosted the Creative Writing Meetup in VR, including the annual National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) writing competition, and this year is no exception. The writing competition invites you to put writing first in your life as a priority during November – just 30 days – to finally get that story, book, or memoir out of your head.

The Creative Writing Meetup meets in ENGAGE XR every Tuesday to explore writing techniques. Free and open to the public, group has been exploring techniques for character development and scene and world building.

As part of the Educators in VR Cyberbullying Month, the Tuesday workshops are exploring the books by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi, The Emotional Wound Thesaurus on September 26 and The Conflict Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Obstacles, Adversaries, and Inner Struggles on October 24. We are also exploring writing sociopath characters October 3. These 20-30 minute interactive workshops are a great way to expand your writing and dive deeper into fascinating characters.

NaNoWriMo 2023

2023 is the 6th year that the Creative Writing Meetup team is hosting NaNoWriMo. We are meeting every day in VR, in ENGAGE XR, to check-in, support each other, and write together to prompts.

For our Creative Writing Meetup group, we offer two ways to participate in NaNoWriMo. Officially, we encourage writers to register for this year’s NaNoWriMo event and submit their word count progress daily through November. There are discounts for writing tools and services for participants, and extra bonuses for those who win by achieving the 50,000 word goal.

If you are a writer who writes with long-hand or doesn’t want the pressure of tracking word counts, we offer the challenge of committing to putting writing first by making an appointment with yourself to write a minimum of one hour a day.

However you wish to participate, you are invited to hang out with us every Tuesday to learn more about writing techniques and share your writing skills, or join us every day in November to just write for 30-60 minutes.

To help prepare for the month long writing challenge of NaNoWriMo that starts in November, the Creative Writing Meetup team is hosting three workshops in October.

September 19 – NaNoWriMo Prep and Introduction: An introduction with some tips for those new to the 30-day, self-discipline, writing challenge.

October 17 – NaNoWriMo Prep (Technology and Tools): Exploring Scrivener, word trackers, and a variety of tools and technology to not only help you prepare but survive the 30-day writing challenge.

October 31 – NaNoWriMo Final Prep/Review: Our Creative Writing Team will share the tips & techniques to winning NaNoWriMo and get you through the next month of writing 50,000 words, just 1,667 words a day, to make your goal.

November Daily NaNoWriMo Meetups

Every day, at different times to accommodate time zones, the Creative Writing NaNoWriMo events welcome those participating to check-in, ask questions, and support each other through the month.

We will also write to prompts. A prompt is a word, phrase, or image designed to inspire you to write about whatever comes into your mind. Prompts are a great way to take the story you are working on and explore it from a new perspective or get to know your characters better by taking them on an adventure to see how they may react in different situations. Prompts are also a great way to take a mental break to loosen up the imagination and stretch your brain a little.

These NaNoWriMo meetups are not just about writing to prompts. People often write better when they are with others. This allows writers to come together in a virtual public safe space to write together from wherever they are and feel the comfort of others. We recommend you attend the event in 2D/Desktop for eyes and hands free writing. We do not share our writing (though you may if you wish in our Creative Writing Discord or our monthly Reading Events) during the NaNoWriMo events. So you may write anything.

Here are the NaNoWriMo events in ENGAGE XR. Click the links to find the times in your time zone.

• November 1
• November 2
• November 3
• November 4
• November 5
• November 6
• November 7
• November 8
• November 9
• November 10
• November 11
• November 12
• November 13
• November 14
• November 15
• November 16
• November 17
• November 18
• November 19
• November 20
• November 21
• November 22
• November 23
• November 24
• November 25
• November 26
• November 27
• November 28
• November 29
• November 30

October and November are going to be exciting months for creative writing events in VR. November 7 is special guest, Yunji of the Yunjiverse, acclaimed metaverse artist and performer sharing her tips on songwriting and breaking through your writing blocks. November 21 explores how to break writer’s block and reconnect with your imagination.

In December, the Creative Writing Meetup group fills the holidays with an original storytelling event with an open reading to share stories of the holidays from our unique global perspective. All are welcome to join us and share their original written stories December 12, 2023, in ENGAGE XR.

Come join us in ENGAGE XR and join our Creative Writing Meetup in VR Discord to expand your writing network.