[Solved] A Letter from the Editor:

I, like many others, participated each year in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge, striving to write a complete first draft and feeling exhilarated at the progress I made, whether or not I “won” each year. I was taken aback by the controversy in November 2023 and again by NaNoWriMo’s recent statement about the uses of AI, and it was through these events that I had to accept that the organization’s ideologies were different from my own (and Lit Shark’s).

Despite all of these revelations, I stand by the usefulness of NaNoWriMo’s original practice of writing a novel in a month, and I want to offer something similar, but new, at Lit Shark.

We will provide writing exercises, prompts, and tips for planning and outlining in October, do our full write in November, and we will give further exercises and resources in December for the start of revisions. We’re excited about organizing something of our own, and we’re grateful that you’re giving us a chance to put our spin on this challenge!

We hope with time that this will come to be a space where writers can come to tackle this monthly challenge, as well as use the space for other writing conversations, like sharing drafts, organizing workshop groups, and participating in Lit Shark workshops.