How to get long exposure on nikon l820?

I just got the l820 and I wanted to take those pictures of writing with lights and sparklers. I know how to change the exposure but I don't know what to change it to. Also people are satin something about the shutter? Anyway, please just tell me how to do these pictures thanks!

Look in the owners manual and see if it has a bulb setting.

You will probably need to use an exposure of about 5 seconds, which will simply show up as 5" on the screen. You might want to attach the camera to a tripod or rest it on a flat surface though, as the long exposure will cause unwanted blur if you hold the camera yourself. About the shutter, this basically means how long light is being let into the camera for. For example, a shutter speed of 1/100 means that light is being let into the camera for a 100th of a second.

In the old days shutter settings went something like this, 1/500th, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60, 1/15, 1/sec and "B" ", "T".
B stood for "bulb" exposure which opened the shutter and stayed open as long as you held it open.
T stood for "time" exposure which opened the shutter, and the shutter stayed open until the shutter was pressed again which closed the shutter.

So you want to find these settings on your digital camera, and you do that by reading the instruction manual on "time" exposures. Time exposures are beyond the ability of us humans to hold the camera steady, so use a tripod. In the absence of a tripod I have taken long exposures by setting the camera on a fence post, a car hood, or anything else stable so the camera will not move while the shutter is open and firing internally.