There is one tradition in the world held sacred by old folks and young folks alike. It transcends space and time. It inhabits Catholic church halls and Indian reservations simultaneously. What tradition is this, you might ask? Why, bingo of course! For the second year, my wife signed up for the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writer's Month) kick-off shindig and to what did our eyes behold as we strolled into the pub-dark illumination of the "gourmet grilled cheese" restaurant that was this years venue? Bingo cards!
The NaNoWriMo event was started somewhere else (Megan could tell you the details but I'm more a general idea kinda guy, "Columbus sailed in sometime long ago to this place here," kinda thing). Chicago, however, has the most kicking participation in the world, literally, as would-be and currently-are writers gird themselves for a month-long writing marathon intended to produce 50,000 words of a novel from each participant. Knowing this, we were not surprised by the packed house that greeted us. Had we not known the venue was over-booked and that it was a bunch of writers and would-be writers hanging out, we might have thought this was the single coolest club in all of Chicago given the crowd. Instead, we knew and were amused to find bingo cards awaiting us.
This was no ordinary bingo. No, our bingo cards boxes weren't filled with the usual I-9 and B-4 numbers, they were filled with plot points. "Main character is a ninja," one proclaimed. "Is writing book with a spouse," another noted. Our research, which consisted of us asking the dude that handed us the card, found that your goal was to mingle about and have someone else initial a box that pertained to their story. Once you got a bingo, you won! Won something along the lines of a notepad, some stickers, and a candy bar in a gift bag, but you WON, man!
The true genius of this bingo was the effect. How do you get a group of people usually known for being watchers and recorders of human nature to interact? How do you get these people to talk about their ideas without fear of giving away too much, but enough to get themselves thinking? BINGO! It was here that I realized not only should my own novel have leprechauns, witches, werewolves and vampires, but that a ninja would actually fit too! Bingo rocks!
