Pass: Novel writing month kicks off Saturday

Creative minds can participate in a global writing marathon beginning Saturday and lasting until the end of November.

National Novel Writing Month is a drawn-out project as participants write a 50,000-word novel before Dec. 1.

The project provides resources for tracking the draft’s word count and offers discussion forums on social media where writers share tips for helping others finish their work before the deadline.

National Novel Writing Month is a great time to take a creative spin on improving practical skills like time management. Even if students aren’t comfortable sharing their novels, the creative project is a challenging task.

Out of the 138 DeKalb writers registered for the event in 2013, the average number of words written per novelist was 28,343, according to National Novel Writing Month’s website, NaNoWriMo.org.

Fail: Cafes host open mic night simultaneously

There shouldn’t be multiple open mic nights on the same evenings in DeKalb.

Mondays, The House Cafe and The College Grind host their open mic nights and force musicians to choose one venue over the other.

If the cafes want to increase the number of performers then the businesses should hold their events on separate days, providing musicians more opportunities to share their music with various populations around DeKalb.

Each cafe caters to a different population: The House Cafe caters more to the people living in the city, while The College Grind caters to students. Each cafe should provide musicians the the opportunity to showcase their talents to both groups.

Instead of thinking of the businesses as competing for patrons, the cafes should advertise each other’s open mic nights and build a communiversity by supporting each other.