With November comes the annual National Novel Writing challenge (or, NaNoWriMo for short.) The goal for writers is to write 50 thousand words, which is the minimum word count for a book to be considered a novel. In a span of just 30 days, that amounts to writing around 1,667 words a day. This is the challenge which some in Dakota’s own creative writing class are pursuing.
The challenge began in 1999, and has only gained popularity in the years since. Sign ups, writing resources, and word count trackers can be found on the official website: https://nanowrimo.org/, but anyone is still free to participate as they wish.
The creative writing class, taught by Mrs. Sobota, contains some brilliant aspiring writers. The challenge isn’t an easy one, but the prize of finishing is to see one’s own novel full completed. To make that a reality is the dream of every writer. As the 50 thousand word goal may be difficult for high school students (what with deal with other school work) and, in Mrs. Sobota’s class, the goal has been reduced to 25 thousand words.
Aliza Black, 12th grade, is writing on a fantasy/scifi novel inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia. She came up with the idea in middle school, and now is seeking to bring it to reality.
Her book is about a senior trip to France where a group of students go on a cave trip and find themselves taken to another land. Though inspired by a children’s classic, the book is oriented more towards an older audience. Though all the details are not fleshed out, she already knows the novel will contain a tragedy; the chosen one dies, and others must take over the duties left unfinished.
Once the novel is finished, Aliza hopes to be able to publish it one day.
Aliyah Elkins’s (11th grade) story is filled with action and scary/psychological elements. Inspired by Marvel and DC, he story takes a twist on the classic superhero narrative. Dealing with the topic of idolization and dehumanization, it’s about how superheroes are treated more like symbols rather than humans. Two races are also present in the story, both geniuses and powerful, yet opposites of each other. One is driven to create while the other uses their power for destruction and genocide.
Aliyah hopes to get higher than 25 thousand words written for her story.
Jackson Carter’s (10th grade) story is a backrooms fanfiction. The backrooms are a creepypasta concept centered around typically busy places becoming completely deserted in unnerving ways; the backrooms are a setting severed from reality. Such is the place where his main character is trying to escape. The story is written in journal format with entries rather than chapters.
Jackson is aiming for the full 50 thousand words by the end of the challenge.
De-Nia Flack (12th) is writing a story about young man born into a royal family. An accident in the past shattered that family, and now he is trying to reclaim what has been lost.
De-Nia writes for fun, and though the challenge is difficult, is still excited about it.
Cal Gai (12th) deals with more present issues in her realistic fiction story. It’s about a teenage boy paranoid about school shootings. Everyone around him dismisses his worries, and that narrative faces the issue of normalizing traumatizing events. With that come other heavy topics, like dealing with mental health, being an lgbtq+ teen, and poor family relations.
Cal doesn’t expect to finish, since other activities take up lots of time and its best not to get over worked and rush the writing process. Either way, Cal hopes to get to at least half the 25 thousand word goal.
Brady Mach’s (12th) story is a combination military fiction/scifi/historical genres. It jumps from each one, starting off as a military story, turns into a mystery, and ends with space odyssey-type elements.
Brady can tell the NaNoWriMo challenge won’t be easy, but concludes that just comes with the trade. Writing takes a lot of thinking and planning, but enjoys nonetheless. Plus, he believes it’s a good use of the imagination.
Abby Miranda’s (10th) story is one of twins separated by the universe with their memories wiped and an empty feeling that they are missing someone. Each encounter an astrologist who tells them they must go on a quest to find a cure to the memory wipe, which has effected more than just them affected. Their memories begin to return as their mission progresses. The title of her novel is title is Who You Forgot. Flower symbolism plays a major role, and the quest the twins go on is to find certain flowers. The topic of mental health is a central theme. One character deal with depression and suicide, the other helps them out of it when they do finally meet. This book meant to be a sort of beacon of hope to those dealing with similar problems.
Abby doesn’t know if she’ll publish, but at least hopes to make a difference for her beta readers.
She says the story idea started as a sort of joke, but next thing she knew, there were a couple thousand words written and she really wanted to stick with it. This is not the first time Abby has attempted writing this novel; this time she hopes to finish. Overall, she loves writing and is exited about the challenge.
Nick Paul, 11th grade, is writing about a group of friends and their paranormal explorations.
Nick finds this challenge to be a good way to make time to write and get it done
Ella Casaceli, 11th grade, is writing the story of two main characters; one doesn’t have a family, and the other ran away from him. It’s a fantasy with certain characters having magic powers. That said, she is still fleshing out all the details of her story.
Ella attempted writing this story many times. The first time the draft was lost. The second time she got around to 9 thousand words.
Challenge good to just start and push through and start creating. She knows she can finish so long as she just commits to it. Perhaps one day she’ll be able to publish her novel.
Good luck to all participating!
