Is it too soon to be talking about November? I think not.

First, I would like to welcome Anastasia to WORD. We are very excited to have her and we anticipate great literary insights from her in the future. In fact, she's the person who brought this super cool web site to our attention. They call themselves NaNoWriMo. And yes, at first glance it appears that they are some kind of newly discovered dinosaur, but no! Quite the contrary! Can a dinosaur write a novel in 30 days? I'd like to see him try!

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It's brilliant! It's crazy! It's... well, I can't really say what it is exactly because I haven't tried it yet. But from my early surfing of their web site, it promises to be an awesome time.

WORD is pleased to introduce our new guest blogger, Anastasia. Check back here every Tuesday to try out one of her writing prompts.

The National Book Award nominees were announced last week! Bestselling author John Grisham made the announcements at Rowan Oak, the home of William Faulkner in Oxford, Mississippi.

One of the books in my writing prompts blog, Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles was nominated in the Young People's Literature Category.

In Each Little Bird That Sings, Comfort Snowberger's family owns a funeral home, so she has attended 247 funerals. When her Great-Uncle Edisto dies, she writes a poetic obituary for him and submits it to a local newspaper, calling it a "Life Notice." When her Great-great-aunt Florentine dies too, she writes another Life Notice for her. Comfort also compose a list of "Top Ten Tips for First-rate Funeral Behavior." Read an excerpt from the book, and then, try this writing prompt:

What would you write about someone you loved after they died?

In our September issue of Writing, we invited you to send us your writing-related questions and promised to send them to some our guest authors to answer.

Question No. 1 was for Ralph Fletcher, author of The Writer's Notebook and Marshfield Dreams. It comes from Chelsea Groyohann:

Dear Ralph,

I'm responding to your letter. For one thing I always can't think of anything to write about. It takes me a while to think of what to write about. Usually when I do finally think of something to write about I can't stop writing. I LOVE Dunkin Donuts. It's like the best place to go in the morning. My favorite drink there is iced lattes. Well, anyway I have a few questions:

   1. How was China?
   2. Was it very different from where you live now?
   3. Did you get any good ideas for something to write about?

Well, I liked your article, and I hope you do great in your future writing.

Sincerely,

Chelsea

This is what Ralph Fletcher had to say:

Dear Chelsea,

Nice to hear from you. You and I share a love of writing and iced lattes at DD. Yes, China was great. So wonderful to get into a completely different culture. And the shopping was great (lots of inexpensive cool stuff!). I didn't get any ideas to write about but I'm sure China will somehow figure in my future writing.
   Hard to come up with ideas, huh? I wish I had an easy answer. You might try making a map of a special neighborhood (where you visited, or where you grew up). 
   On the map, mark: 1) a place where something happened 2) a favorite place 3) a secret place.
   A "story map" like this will generate lots of ideas. Good luck!

Your friendly author,

Ralph Fletcher

More writing tips for young writers from Ralph Fletcher.

Question No. 2 was for Amy Krouse Rosenthal, author of Encylopedia of an Ordinary Life. It comes from Maryellen Carrigan.

Last Wednesday, October 5th, around 9:30pm, a hero of his own art drowned in the Hudson River. 22 year old Dennis Kim of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn was walking along the Christopher St. Pier in the West Village of New York City when he somehow lost his backpack over the railing.

"I can't let that stuff go," he told a friend as he began emptying his pockets and removing his shoes.