By Kelly Benning and  Kate Nations ‘15

Seventeen high school students participated in the first ever NaNoWriMo held at Chaminade! NaNoWriMo, short for National Novel Writing Month, is a world-wide phenomenon where writers challenge themselves to write a novel in 30 days. The focus is on quantity, not quality! Goals ranged from 30,000 to 50,000 words and we had three students who reached or exceeded their goals, Lis Carlton ’14, Eleanor Frost ’15, and Kate Nations ’15.

Nations wrote the following about her NaNoWriMo experience, “People do not understand NaNoWriMo. Because why would you write a lame novel in a month when you write a brilliant piece of literature in a year? NaNoWriMo is not about brilliant pieces of literature. It is about the things you wouldn’t dare to write if you were thinking clearly. It is about cluster-fusters and quirky first lines. It is about scented candles and witty mugs. It is about “The police station smelled like sweat and kettle corn” and “the fat jiggled as he spoke.” It is about having inside jokes with your librarian. It is about sticker charts. It is about word sprints and comfy chairs. But more importantly, it is about having one imperfect but finished novel, instead of a dozen immaculate beginnings.”

The program was sponsored by librarian Kelly Benning.