November is drawing to a close, which means shorter days and Christmas lights – and a triumphant end to National Novel Writing Month!

NaNoWriMo for short, this event invites anyone anywhere to write a 50,000-word novel in one month. That’s an average of 1,667 words per day throughout November – certainly a huge commitment, and even more certainly a huge achievement. It was undertaken by 384,126 people last year, and with at least 400, 000 participants expected this year, the number of people gaining this remarkable accomplishment will only grow.

More than ten students at Rosebery School, a local school in Epsom, have taken on this awe-inspiring challenge, meeting once a week to provide mutual support and encouragement as well as discussing their plans and ideas. As well as this support on a local level, the NaNoWriMo website provides infinite motivation through ‘pep talks’ from authors, previously including John Green and Veronica Roth.

As a result, the participants certainly aren’t lacking inspiration this year: 27,927,798 words of NaNoWriMo novels were written in London alone by day 20.

For many, the pressing deadline itself is the perfect motivation to finally complete a novel. Shannon L. Monroe, just one of the previously successful participants quoted on NaNoWriMo’s website, declares that ‘before I discovered NaNoWriMo, I was creatively drifting, feeling like I would never finish a novel, pretending to be a “writer”. But, when I joined in 2007, I finally typed the words “The End”. Instantaneously, NaNoWriMo and its epic community became a part of me. My gratitude knows no bounds.’ 

While the novels produced by this event are staggering personal achievements, they can be published traditionally as well; this has been the case for hundreds of NaNoWriMo novels including Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

This is why November does not have to be bleak and cold. It can be a beacon of gruelling, thrilling creativity – could you take on the challenge?

Samantha Perren, Rosebery School