Come Write In Anywhere! Rebecca, Alexandra, and Alex on Award-Winning Writing Groups

In November 2013, our Come Write In program—which provides free posters, resources, and support to libraries, colleges, bookstores, and more—helped create creative-writing beacons in 650 neighborhoods. In the CWI spirit, Rebecca, Alexandra, and Alex launched a NaNoWriMo program at the Notre Dame of Maryland University. Find out how they did it:

Getting Notre Dame of Maryland University involved in National Novel Writing Month started as a pipe dream. Organizing write-ins seemed daunting, especially for students who had barely been on campus two months. However, we thought why not give it a try anyway!

A seminar room in the English department was available to us, albeit at hours slightly too early for your typical college student. Posters went up all around campus trying to boost our attendance. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 8am was our selected time for write-ins. We had support and attendance from professors and staff who were far more accustomed to getting up at a decent hour…

Students were less inclined to attend than faculty and staff. November is typically the worst month of the fall semester. Finals this past fall began December 9, and Thanksgiving break was the only barricade between students and term paper due dates. November is consistently a terrible month to do any extracurricular activity. NaNoWriMo is no exception.

NaNoWriMo was a difficult task, one that we all were unable to complete. The three of us were able to make decent dents in our novels, and one administrator put us all to shame by competing in word-count competitions. Together, we grew as writers in both style and creativity. As a group, we met and socialized, sharing ideas, struggles, and questions.

NaNoWriMo, for us, was much more than a challenge, it was a way of interacting with our peers and teachers, our faculty and our friends. It was interesting to learn what each chose to focus a novel on, and the different degrees of work that went in. Some required research and others utilized perfectly subtle world-building.

We hope to strengthen the relationships we established next November, and to expand NaNoWriMo to make it more convenient for others to participate. NaNoWriMo takes a large investment of time—but that’s the challenge.

A boost to our efforts to expand NaNo on campus is our recent win at the Nancy Kreiter Undergraduate Research Day. We presented a panel on our experience doing NaNo and read excerpts from each of our works. It was incredibly successful and we were honored with the award of Best Panel. In the future, we are hoping to continue NaNo on campus and encourage others to join us.

Rebecca Corun is majoring in Classical Studies, and this was her second time participating in NaNoWriMo. She has never made it to 50k words in a month, but has made it to 50k words in a year. Baby steps.

Alexandra Mezza currently majors in Classical Studies with the hope to become an archeologist. This was her first NaNoWriMo, although she hopes to participate again next year.

Alex Filsinger is a double major in English and Communication Arts. She intends to eventually go on to law school. Alex will be participating in NaNo from Dublin City University in Ireland next year, but will be at Notre Dame of Maryland University in spirit.