November marks the 24th year of the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a challenge in which participants aim to create a brand new original work that spans over 50,000 words. Authors of many genres and ages take part in this challenge as a way to expand their writing prowess.
Aside from November, NaNoWriMo also offers another program: Camp NaNoWriMo. This camp does not require a 50,000 word count, as participants are able to choose their own count for what they would like to write. This event takes place every April and July, which is highly recommended if one is up for to challenge.
This year, Bellarmine Prep has formed a student-led club to participate in this challenge. Bellarmine’s NaNoWriMo club is currently run by Piper Lindstrom (B’26) and supervised by English teacher Brandy Lindstrom (B’96). An interview with Bellarmine’s NaNoWriMo club leader shows insights into what the challenge means for its participants.
In Piper’s personal words, “[NaNoWriMo] is a fun way to express yourself. It’s like a personal challenge for writing to really see your full creative potential.”
Many people have expressed similar insights into the challenge, with many authors both new to the craft of writing as well as experienced authors taking the dive to stretch their writing muscles.
This year, 2023, marks Piper’s first year participating, a noble step into a world of high word counts. Asking her how NaNoWriMo is treating her, Piper notes that it is a fun challenge thus far.
Writing 50,000 words in a month requires a large amount of discipline, time, and motivation to get through the challenge, with daily word counts that span into the thousands (the daily average needed to “win” at NaNoWriMo is 1,667 words). Lindstrom graciously offered some insights into how to balance work-school life and writing.
“I would say using weekends is a part of [NaNoWriMo],” Piper advises. “Split writing, write a little bit less during weekdays and more on the weekends and days where you have less homework.”
Piper believes that NaNoWriMo is a way to find your full creative potential. “I don’t think there are any [limitations]. The program itself has a really wide stature of what you can do. You can write [anything].”
She continues, “My advice would be to just go for it and not really care about where you’re going. All that matters is that you have [a story] and you’re going in a direction.”
While this year’s November has come and gone, NaNoWriMo is yearly. If the challenges interests people, it is highly recommended to join in next year or with NaNoWriMo’s next challenge coming up in April.
