Nov. 1 marks the start of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). From outer space to the depths of the sea, from small-town America to a medieval castle, Hillsdale student’s imaginations can trek all over the world in 50,000 words or more.
“You can write about something historical, futuristic, imaginative, places you have been, places you have always wanted to go, you can imagine yourself there, meeting a character, having a conversation,” Catherine Simmerer ’12, said.
Each year, students undertake the challenge of balancing school, social lives, and writing a novel. About 20 students wrote in 2011, and even more are anticipated this upcoming year as students add novel writing to their already hectic schedules.
“In the college setting it was a difficult time commitment, but it was something I wanted to do, so it was one of my priorities,” Simmerer said. “You make time for what you love to do—people say ‘I’m going to start swimming, horseback-riding, exercising, etc.,’ but with your free time you do what you really love to do, so for me that is writing, so I made time for it.”
Each student has a different approach to writing and completing their novel, and also in storytelling and reaching their word count.
“Well, I’m definitely more of a sporadic writer generally, but I’m trying to go with the word count this time, since it is genuinely easier,” sophomore Maddie Overholtzer, a second time NaNoWriMo competitor, said. “I didn’t actually finish last year, but this year my course load is lighter, so I hope to actually finish.”
Others use a more scientific approach.
“It’s 1,667 words a day to finish, but I try to write 2,000 words a day because I know I will have busy and bad days, and it is easiest if you just get going. It helps me to set a time and commit — or writing with a friend for a set amount of time is great,” Simmerer said.
“I find it is great to start at
midnight on Nov. 1 and get a day done. It is 1,667 words a day, and approximately 2,200 words a day to finish by Thanksgiving — at least that’s how it was last year,” junior Gwen Stoldt, a fifth-year participant in NaNoWriMo and municipal liaison to the Hillsdale area, said.
As municipal liaisons, Stoldt and sophomore Maggy Smith work on spreading the word about NaNoWriMo to the Hillsdale community on and off campus, and arrange open events for writing and sharing ideas.
“We arrange write-ins, get all the local people invited, and get together. We are having the TGIO — “Thank Got it’s Over” — party, which is what everyone calls it, on Friday Nov. 30 from 10-12 [in the evening] when you have to stop writing for NaNoWriMo officially,” Stoldt said. “This year someone gave me a prompt: seven men, a woman, a traveling forrest, and a pocket watch.”
Writers can choose any topic, as long as it is fiction, and follow it to whatever end.
“It’s going to involve dragons,” Overholtzer said, “I haven’t written about dragons for a while, and it’s going to have adventures and copious amounts of shenanigans.”
Others follow characters, or just see what happens.
“This is the first year I’ve actually plotted ahead, but it’s the characters who decide—they do what they want to,” Simmerer said. “I don’t know if it’s a bad thing, but sometimes you just get characters who want to rule their own lives.”
NaNoWriMo is an organization created to organize writers to write, as there is no prize at the end or any promise that anyone will read your manuscript, Smith said. It is the accomplishment of writing and the commitment itself. You win by finishing.
“I try to reread and do a general edit by New Years and then put it in a binder my closet in a box to look at it later,” Stoldt said. “There are plenty of people who have turned their NaNoWriMo novels into published works. [NaNoWriMo is] the motivation to write it.”
“It’s not that you write poorly or without purpose or with low standards, but it’s not about the ‘Great American Novel,’ but about writing what may become the ‘Great American Novel,’ Simmerer said. “Even if you only reach 25,000, that is 25,000 you wouldn’t have written otherwise.”
