November consisted of constant loads of schoolwork and tests for Palos Verdes Peninsula High School Junior Haley Silvano, no different than any other time in the school year. But in her spare time, between her study sessions and debate practices, she did find small opportunities to pursue a personal goal which most people would be unable to reach in any given time: writing a full-length novel.
And she wasn’t alone.
National Novel Writing Month, or referred to as NaNoWriMo for short by participants, is an annual writing project which calls on freelance writers, predominantly high school teenagers, to type at least 50,000 words, the regular length of a modern novel. The event, which has reached a community of more than 300,000 participants and an international audience, takes place from Nov. 1 to Nov. 30.
As for Silvano, this was her second year taking part in the writing movement.
“I had been thinking of the story for quite some time,”Silvano said.
For her theme, she chose dystopia, with “touches of science fiction and fantasy, fit in with the adventure of the entire story.”
She began working right away the first day, while balancing her academics and extracurricular activities at the same time. She continuously aimed for 1,667 words per day, the suggested daily writing amount.
On certain days, she managed to churn out roughly 2,000 words.
“The days I did write, I wrote,” Silvano said. “I would just sit and write- I even went to a [group writing session] to try and just get a bit more done.”
Silvano was not the only one at her school to be taking on the task; some of her friends often discussed their progress with each other, as well as potential plot developments and character ideas.
Silvano states that having classmates also working on NaNoWriMo helped her to be efficient and resilient to her goal.
But as the month went on, Silvano found it more difficult to catch up with the rigorous goal, as schoolwork eventually bogged her down to pause writing. She ended the month with approximately 10,000 words. Yet, Silvano is not disappointed in her work.
“NaNoWriMo, for me, has always been a way to do something creative without worrying about it so much,” Silvano said. “With the whole idea of quantity over quality being so heavily implied in NaNo, it takes a lot of the pressure off and just lets you have fun.”
As for now, Silvano is looking forward to writing even more next year, hoping to surpass the mark while having fun with the experience overall.
