Kynan Siders is trying to write a 50,000 word novel — in one month.
November is National Novel Writing Month, in which hopeful authors across the world attempt to create a novel in the span of a month. This November marks the 18th year of National Novel Writing Month, and some Ohio University students are taking on that challenge.
Siders, a senior studying history, was introduced to National Novel Writing Month by his creative writing teacher in high school, he said.
“I did this once before, and I got to 40,000 words,” he said. “But I want to go through and edit it, take out unnecessary scenes and side plot that doesn’t make any sense and potentially submit that to a publishing company or just go straight digital.”
More than 250 novels that participated in the month-long event have been traditionally published through a publishing house, according to the National Novel Writing Month website. Some of those novels include The Ragnarok Prophesies by A.K. Morgen, Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl and Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, which was later adapted for the big screen.
In relation to a novel, Dinty W. Moore, the director of creative writing at OU, said 50,000 words is about 300 pages. Because the writing process is very time consuming, writers might not have a finished product that publishing houses are going to want to pick up right away, Moore said, but they can produce a first draft and gain a sense of if they like writing.
“If this is the way you want to tackle your first book project, at least to get it started, I’m all on board,” he said. “On the other hand, it’s sort of like if I asked you to paint a (mural) … on the side of your garage in a month, you could paint it. But if I asked you to intricately build a little painting with people and worlds and things happening, you couldn’t do that in a month.”
Siders is currently working on a post-apocalyptic, science-fiction novel about a gay man and a group of friends who are trying to prevent world crises from taking place.
“I try to stay pretty true to historical events,” he said. “Part of the basis of this one is Korea and Japan are beginning to start a war together because Korea is the dagger that is pointed at the heart of Japan, historically. So it’s a future playing out of how one person and a group of friends are going to try and stop a war from becoming a big deal.”
Siders has been tinkering around with the idea for a couple of years and has written outlines of where he wants the story to go, he said. His main focus is making relatable and believable characters, he added.
“(I’m) trying to figure out ways to make my character believable and feel human so people can connect with my character,” he said. “The character is somewhat based off myself. I kind of throw a little bit of myself into all of my main characters.”
By participating in National Novel Writing Month, Siders said it helps him to keep up with his thought process and teaches him how to produce content quickly.
“It’s a good exercise just to keep up how quick I can write things down,” he said.
Though people might not come out of the month with a finished product, Moore said taking the time to write a rough draft of a novel in a month can help authors refine their skills.
“Writing is no different than playing tennis or becoming a world-class chef — you’re pretty lousy at it when you start out, and you work at it and you get better,” Moore said. “Working on your writing five days a week or every day for a whole month, you're going to be much better at it by the end of the month, and that’s a good thing.”
Casee Ontko, a freshman studying psychology, said she was first introduced to National Novel Writing Month through YouTube. Though she has not had the opportunity to participate in the program, she is interested in doing it in the future.
“I love reading so much, and I write as a hobby,” Ontko said. “If I end up managing it really well I think I would be able to do it.”
Even if participants decide not to write another novel, they can still gain valuable skills, such as determination, that can be applied later in life, Moore said.
“Even if you fail, it’s a good thing because you tried and put everything into it for a month,” he said. “Maybe three years from now you’re going to start a new restaurant, and you’re going to have to work like a dog for a month to get it up and running. … Just the experience of applying yourself to something so hard and seeing how far you can get, I think, is valuable.”
