KU creative writing students enter writing challenge with big goals

Some students have attempted the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) which consists of writing 50,000 words during the whole month of November.

Dannie Sadiq had signed up for the challenges in previous years but never participated.

This year she said: “I kind of got that ‘it’s not going to write itself’ moment and then really started to work a little bit harder.”

The creative writing with film student was able to surpass the challenge goal and hopes to see her novel about her late great grandfather’s journey to the UK as a teenager published in a few years.

Senior lecturer in English literature and creative writing Helen Palmer said NaNoWriMo sounded like an excellent idea for students to try out.

She said: “The more exposure, feedback and practice you can get, the better – and it is great to build a community of writers too. This stands you in good stead for a career in writing.”

Joycelyn Frazier is planning on taking advantage of this.

The creative writing and English literature student is thinking of submitting her hour-long thriller to scriptwriting websites and Reddit to have it read and get feedback.

Creative writing with publishing student Ellen Dorrington completed her first NaNoWriMo as a teenager and did it for four years running.

After a year’s break, she is doing it again this year.

Dorrington finds that it is nice not to have to write something for the university to be graded.

Dorrington said: “There’s less pressure for it to be good so you can go a little wild which is always fun.

I think NaNoWriMo helps you to take yourself seriously and forces you to dedicate time to it so taking part is beneficial to my career even if the work I produce doesn’t get published but stays on the shelf.”