her living room in Astoria. She added extra sessions in November specifically with wrimos in mind. “The hardest thing about writing is to put your butt in the seat and DO IT. Come fight the battle together,” wrote Fitzsimmons, who teaches monthly creative writing classes at the Astoria Bookshop. The YouDoYou sessions have a suggested donation of $10, and you can sign up at kjfitzsimmons.signupsheet.com. A lot of wrimos find the community aspect of NaNoWriMo to be the best part of it, since writing is normally a solitary activity. “I would actually like to get involved more in the western Queens writing community, because I didn’t realize until I started doing NaNoWriMo, maybe in the last year, that there were meetups and things happening in Astoria, so I’d definitely like to get involved more in that,” said lifelong Astoria resident Michelle Ruggieri, who will be participating in NaNoWriMo for the third year in 2016. Since western Queens is home to so many creative types, it’s no wonder you’ll find wrimos here. “The artistic community is fantastic,” said lifelong Astoria resident Devin Mandelbaum. “I have been going to Socrates Sculpture Park for my entire life, and I really like the atmosphere of the neighborhood.” One western Queens participant said she would recommend November novel-writing to others as a way to stretch their creative muscles: “I think it’s a great experience and something that people should try whether or not they consider themselves to be writers,” Jakubowski said. “It’s a good challenge to set for yourself.” Meet some western Queens wrimos Editor’s notes: If a year is boldface, the writer “won” NaNoWriMo that year; that is, he or she reached the 50,000-word goal. If someone is a “plotter,” that means, as you might imagine, that the writer plans out how the story will unfold. A “pantser,” on the other hand, just gets started and continues writing “by the seat of his/her pants,” without plotting out the story. Raven Jakubowski Neighborhood: Astoria Years Done/Won: ‘11, ‘12, ‘13, ‘15 Genre: Sci-fi Career: Tailor for television at Kaufman Astoria Studios Favorite local writing spot: My kitchen table Literary inspiration: Older science-fiction like Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke; magical realism like Haruki Murakami Plotter/Pantser: Plotter, but this year her work will be “a little more freeform than usual” — “I’m going to jump off of a short story I started a while ago and see where it goes,” she said. “For this year’s novel, even though it’s science-fiction, I’m trying to sort of be inspired by Natsuo Kirino. She writes very feminist narratives, so I would like to sort of put a more fantastic spin on that.” Ken Crossland Neighborhood: Astoria Years Done/Won: ‘15 Genre: Contemporary fiction Career: Book designer at Penguin Random House Favorite local writing spot: My apartment Literary inspiration: “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” by Betty Smith; currently reading a lot of nonfiction, such as “Alexander Hamilton” Plotter/Pantser: Plotter “What’s cool about NaNoWriMo is that it forces you to write the book. It gets you out of your head a little bit.” 16 I BOROMAG.COM I NOVEMBER 2016 arts + Entertainment
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