PORT McNEILL—When Terry Ruth Eissfeldt of Gate House Community Society put out the call for writers to join her at the society’s theatre in Port McNeill, she drew a small group.
But, boy, were they productive.
The cause was National Novel Writing Month — Nanowrimo to its thousands of devotees — a literary endeavor that challenges writers to produce a 50,000-word novel.
Eissfeldt, who helped form the society to promote the arts, is a veteran in her seventh year of Nanowrimo.
The novel from her first attempt, Going Home, has been published and is on sale at the theatre.
“I’m a Nano-rebel, as they call us, because I’m working on two stories that were already started,” she said. “You’re supposed to start from scratch on a new novel.”
She was joined in the theatre lobby on a recent afternoon by Karen Stewart, who is in her second Nanowrimo.
“I need the deadline,” said Stewart. “That’s the only way I can write.”
Elementary school student Courtney Hilts already finished one story and had started on her second.
The group this month has also included Emily Barrett, Hilts’s classmate, and Monica Daly.