As Christmas break swiftly approaches, school work has a way of feeling less and less important and students begin to fantasize about the coming month-long break, sure to be filled with home-cooked meals and life without term papers. Yet one group of students chose to dedicate their time to writing their own full-length novels over the course of the month of November as part of National Novel Writing Month.
The month-long event was first held in 1999 and is currently run by the Office of Letters and Light, a non profit organization in Berkeley, Ca. According to its website, www.lettersandlight.org, the organization dedicates itself to holding web-based events that encourage creativity in children and adults. Participants in National Novel Writing Month are required to submit their completed novels of 50,000 words or more online for verification and once their novels are verified, participants are officially considered winners.
The group of students on campus who are participating in the event this year is comprised of individuals from a variety of majors. Senior mathematics major Ashley Coons, who plans to submit a futuristic dystopian novel, said that though this year marks her third attempt to complete a novel for National Novel Writing Month, she has confidence that this year she will be successful.
“There are several Harding students that meet on an almost daily basis for ‘write-ins’ at Starbucks and Midnight Oil, where we all work on our novels and get feedback from each other,” Coons said. “I tried (National Novel Writing Month) a couple times before, but honestly never made it past 5,000 words on either attempt. This year, though, I’ve really buckled down. I’m determined to be a winner this time around.”
Last year, more than 250,600 writers participated in the event, but only 36,843 submitted a completed novel. Although the event is open to all, senior theater major Marcos Bellamy, who plans to submit a “sword and sorcery fantasy” novel, said that not everyone who enters the event is cut out to finish.
“I know that this event helps writers young and old, amateur and experienced, because it has helped me,” Bellamy said. “But not everyone can write well, and National Novel Writing Month reveals these people. Simply put, there are folks who think they can and should be writers, but they just don’t have what it takes.”
Nevertheless, other students like freshman accounting major Savannah Slape said that National Novel Writing Month can be for anyone. Slape, whose novel focuses on high school seniors living in a small town that has fallen prey to monsters, said she has written extensively since she was nine years old, but that anyone with a desire to write should give novel writing a chance.
“Novel writing is for everyone,” Slape said. “You don’t need a brilliant plot or superfluous diction. All you need is a desire to entertain and get your story out there.”
