Reminder about the ML check-in survey

Thanks so much to everyone who filled this survey out already! I'll be sharing a summary of the takeaways from it in next week's email as well as answering a few questions that came up there.

A reminder on that front if you've already filled out the survey—it's anonymous! There were a few comments there that I really wished I could follow up on to clarify or answer questions posed there, but I have no way to do that. Please do feel free to ask me any questions in this thread or via email if you don't want to ask them publicly. 

If you haven't had a chance to fill out the survey yet, it should only take you a few minutes, and your input is much appreciated. 

NaNoWriMo press release for your use/information

Grant has been working with a publicist who has donated her time to help with some NaNoWriMo publicity materials, and he wanted to make sure we shared this press release with MLs in case it's useful for you and so you have easy access to the information in it. Feel free to borrow any language from it, add your own section to a copy of it, or use it in whatever way is helpful, whether for any interested press in your area or just for answering questions people in your region might have. 

Writers Digest article input

Writers Digest recently reached out to us asking if we'd be willing to put together an article for their website about NaNoWriMo. Since this year is the 25th NaNoWriMo, the Programs team thought it would be more fun if we took a more expansive and community-focused approach to this rather than just writing it ourselves. In honour of this being the 25th NaNoWriMo, we're taking suggestions for "Benefits to Writing A Novel In A Month," and we'll go through and select 25 of them for the article.

This is totally optional, of course, so please don't feel obligated to participate and only do so if it sounds fun to you rather than an additional burden on your to-do list! If you'd like to contribute your suggestions for consideration, please add them to this spreadsheet by Sunday October 15th. 

This felt like a good point in October to go through a more expansive checklist of things you want to have done by now to feel like you're ready for November!

Have you:

• Checked in with your co-ML(s) to make sure you're all on the same page and know who's in charge of what in the coming weeks?
   
• Posted any October events you're hosting on your region's events page?
   
• Approved all appropriate events that have been submitted to your region?
   
• Answered any questions in your regional chat space and posted a recent message so new arrivals in your region know where to find people?
   
• Updated any expired links on your regional landing page?
   
• Received your ML kit?
   
• Sent all necessary information to any in-person November event locations to confirm those in the coming days?
   
• Sent a recent regional message with upcoming events and encouragement for anyone interested to submit an event to the region?
   
• Submitted any virtual or hybrid events that you'd like to suggest be added to the NaNoWriMo HQ events calendar? 
   
• Reviewed any ML emails that you missed to make sure you know what's going on?
   
• Joined the NaNoWriMo 2023 challenge and started thinking about your own novel? (This is the one that always sneaks up on me!)

This is not an exhaustive list of everything you could possibly do in anticipation of November, but I am hoping it covers most of the basics and helps you feel like you've got your ducks in a row.  🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆

Frequently used ML links

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Join the ML Discord
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