A Month of Writing: SocNoc

by Carrie Bailey

My personal quest for a "Nanowrimo: Part Two" brought me to New Zealand.  Kiwi Writers celebrate their winter with SocNoc, a 50,000 word writing challenge much as those in the Northern Hemisphere band together for Nanowrimo.  And guess what?  It's not so exclusive that they wouldn't let me, an Oregonian, sign up!

On one condition: I needed to know where New Zealand was located.  Fortunately, Oregon has sheep.  Naturally, that increased the likelihood of me meeting kiwis.  Connect the dots between those two seemingly unrelated facts by reading the wikipedia article on New Zealand and Oregon.

I already knew where New Zealand was and that's an unfair advantage as a product of the American educational system.  No, I mean it.  Say what you will, but I graduated high school and attended college with a girl who didn't know that our state capital was north.  So my for my tribute to the NZ month of writing, I decided to take it one step further and make sure everybody else knows where they're writing, too:


View SocNoc in a larger map
New Zealand is next to Australia.

That's right.  Even if you were passing love notes in 8th grade geography and never once asked yourself, "What country brought us the majestic scenery in the Lord of the Rings films?" you now know.   For a balanced opinion on the country read "Why New Zealand is a Lifestyle Superpower" from the BBC this May.     

SoCNoC offered two important options in their challenge that met my needs this year.  As I still struggle to form literature from the literary scramble that was my Nanowrimo novel of the past November, I've found an ally in the 25,000 word challenge where revising counts in HaFNoC at:

And it wouldn't be fair for me to bask in the SoCNoC motivational process without sharing at least one NZ writer's blog Writer's Block NZ, where the bloggist shares a very introspective journal style approach to chronicling the writing process.

So, here's to SoCNoC!  Thanks for allowing my summer to feel just like my winter!