Last night, I attended a kick-off event for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) at The Writer's Place in Kansas City. It was a wonderful event.

I've known for a while that I need to get more involved with the writing community in Kansas City. I hang out with performers, artists, and nerds all the time. I love them, but they don't help me with my writing. Maybe it's because I don't ask. They certainly don't detract from my writing. I'm lucky to be surrounded by supportive voices in my life.

However, I need friends who are writers. I need people who, like me, have thousands of stories bursting from their minds and can't write fast enough to get them on paper. I need people to help me put words down every single day. I need people to ask those tough questions about characters, settings, and stories. I need people to push me out of my comfort zones when it comes to my writing.

Last night, I found all that and more. So I'll be hitting NaNoWriMo hard and heavy this year. Expect to see me at The Writer's Place nearly every Sunday in November. Westport Coffeehouse nearly every Thursday, for that matter.

50,000 words goes a long way toward writing a novel. I can't wait to go on this journey with my new-found writing friends.