Students celebrate National Novel Writing Month through Write Togethers
Students attend a “Write Together” meeting in Lab A of the David L. Rice Library Tuesday. The “Write Togethers” were created for students to write an entire novel by the end of November for National Novel Writing Month.
November 2, 2022
Students attended the first Write Togethers meeting of the 2022-2023 academic year in Lab A of the David L. Rice Library Tuesday.
The Write Togethers will take place weekly throughout November, National Novel Writing Month, to provide students the opportunity to write a novel. During these weekly meetings, students begin with creating a word goal for themselves to achieve by the end of the meeting. When they come back the following meeting, they will add on to what they have previously written with a new word goal.
The end goal of the Write Togethers is for students to have successfully written 50,000 words, a finished novel, by the end of the month. Anyone who completes this challenge is considered a winner.
“It’s a way to celebrate writing, celebrate writers, and challenge ourselves,” said Cecilia Pryor, senior library assistant and host of the Write Togethers. “You’re only competing against yourself.”
Pryor said the writers are an “unofficial, official group” on campus. She said the only other time campus has held this event was in 2015, and no one attended. This year, several people were in attendance.
“I’m excited that people showed up,” Pryor said. “I wasn’t sure that anyone would.”
Denise McKenzie, president of the Student Write’s Union, and members of the SWU were in attendance.
McKenzie said the meetings are about getting words on the page.
“I think a lot of people stress about having the perfectionist tendency when writing,” Mckenzie said. “So, it’s really great practice to turn that off and just produce.”
MonteLee Norton, freshman English major, said she recommends others attend a Write Togethers meeting. She said she attended the event because she has always enjoyed writing.
“I think it provided a really cool environment for writing,” Norton said.
Blake Gourley, senior psychology major, said he attended the event because he wants to become a writer.
“I got some good writing done,” Gourley said. “I’d like to finish a novella I’ve been planning. I’m hoping it’s going to be about 40,000 words, so I’m hoping I can do a good draft of it.”
The Write Togethers will be hosted every Tuesday of November in Lab A of the David L. Rice Library.
McKenzie said, “Writing is such a solitary experience that it’s really great to have people come together.”
