This year, the creative writing class are participating in National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo is a annual creative writing event that challenges writers to write 50,000 words of a novel during the month of November, usually at the rigorous pace of 1,667 words per day.

“It’s much harder than I thought,” sophomore Jason Lakier said. “It’s as if I added two or three periods to my day which gave the homework to write, write, write.”

Lakier has committed to writing 50,000 words in the month of November, which is the goal NaNoWriMo encourages. Even so, some students have not been not able to reach that goal.

“I had a goal of 50,000 [words] but I had to lower it to 35,000,” senior Catherine Cusman said. “It’s kind of hard to reach because there’s a lot going on.”

While the goal is high, the students are enjoying the experience for the most part.

“It’s been a breeze,” freshman Jacob Richards said. “I have a lot [of words] already. I have a lot of fun writing about this stuff.”
The topics and genres of the stories vary greatly, from people disappearing into the mountains to extensive sci-fi universes with over 20 species. With the level of commitment showed by these students, it’s clear many of them could go on to be successful authors.