Come Write In Anywhere! Hannah Ackroyd on Balancing School and Your Novel

Our Come Write In program has partnered with bookstores and libraries around the world for four years. This November, for the first time, we’re welcoming community spaces of all kinds to become novel-writing havens.  Development Intern Steven Genise sat down with fellow student Hannah Ackroyd from the University of Hull to discuss life as the treasurer of her university’s NaNoWriMo Club:

Tell me a little bit more about the University of Hull and its history with NaNoWriMo!

As far as I am aware, this is the first time that an official group has been formed at the university to take part in NaNo, but over the last few years several students have taken part as individuals.

Hull has a thriving literary community, with many local authors selling vast quantities of their books, and we are fortunate that many of them are supporting us throughout the month by running workshops for our participants. There have been two workshops so far, and at the end of the month we’re going to hold an open mic night for people to share their creative works.

Recently, Hull was chosen to be the 2017 City of Culture for the UK, so we’re hoping for many more literary events to come!

I know that the life of a student is already highly-caffeinated and rather sleepless. What advice do you have for other students that will be noveling while dealing with college?

It is vital to reach your daily word count every day, because, once you start getting behind, it is so much work to catch up. This can seem like an impossible task for busy students, but it is surprising how many words you can snatch throughout your day.

Carry a notebook everywhere, then—between classes, riding on the bus, over every coffee break (there is always time for coffee…)—you can frantically scribble odd lines and paragraphs as they come to you.
In free classes, set up a laptop and type up what you have (you’ll be surprised how much is there!) then use it as inspiration to help you meet the rest of your word count for the day.
Also, don’t try and edit things. If you spent too much time dwelling over the exact word you want to use, you will probably lose out on the time that you could have written one hundred words.

Were you always familiar with our NaNo University program? What are you adopting for your campus?

I found out about your programme from reading about it online. We have our own mini NaNo club. We’re helping each other with word counts and keeping motivated. We’re also encouraging students to try poetry writing, or song writing, or anything creative at all this November.

What kind of things do you do to plan your novel?

I’m not much of a planner when it comes to creative writing, I have found that the most rewarding way to write is to let the character surprise you. Last year I signed up with only an opening paragraph in mind, then went from there.

I don’t write chronologically; I write random scenes as they come to mind and then I slot them together and fill in the gaps at the end. I felt that this was a successful way of tackling NaNo last year as, on the days where I was really stuck for inspiration, I just wrote anything, even if I didn’t think it would fit in with my novel. I was pleasantly surprised that, every time, my character made an appearance and took over the action.

Is it true that students in England are only allowed by law to drink tea on campus under pain of expulsion?

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Students in England drink just as much coffee and Red Bull (probably together) as much as anywhere else. Coffee is the most common beverage consumed on  campus, with a conveniently located coffee shop or machine located in every building on site.

There are also several bars and shops where you can buy soft drinks and alcohol at the University, so, fortunately, we’re not just limited to tea (which is good since I don’t like tea…)