Students take on month-long novel writing challenge

By Megan Scarborough     11/20/08 6:00pm

Katz's Deli on Montrose Boulevard buzzed with even more than the usual late-night food frenzy Oct. 31, as costumed patrons celebrated Halloween. In one corner, however, a strange hush fell at the stroke of midnight. It was a table for four crammed with nine people, all wielding laptops. As October became November, these members of Martel College sophomore Ian Jones' class, Martel 142: Write a Novel in a Month, began to type furiously.

National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo is now in its 10th year and encourages participants to write a 50,000-word novel within the month of November. Amateurs and professional writers alike from across the globe participate and upload their novels on the NaNoWriMo Web site, which has a built-in word count. Famous authors, which this year include Philip Pullman, Piers Anthony, Katherine Paterson and Janet Fitch, sponsor the event by posting pep talks on the NaNoWriMo Web site to help those struggling with word counts or writer's block.

Jones, who is participating in the contest for the fifth time and has reached the word-count goal three of the last four years, decided to share his passion with Rice students by teaching his own class. The student-taught courses, which began at Wiess College last fall, are now offered at each residential college.

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The novel is the only assignment in Jones' class. Jones estimates that 50,000 words sets an author at about 85-100 typed pages, depending on the amount of dialogue in the novel.

"I'd be willing to bet this is the longest undergraduate paper in the history of Rice," Jones said.

Sid Richardson College sophomore Heather Beaber, an English and philosophy major, said she decided to take the class because she wanted to prove to herself that she could write a full novel. Although she says it may end up being the first draft of a finished science fiction novel, she is trying to minimize expectations.

"I'm just hoping it will improve my self-esteem about my writing," Beaber said.

Jones said he tries to dissuade students from planning their novels out before they begin writing, but encourages them to jot down ideas in a notebook until then.

Sid sophomore Emily Prehn said she was not exactly sure of the direction of her novel at the beginning of the month.

"I [had] a scene or two, and four or five main characters, but I [didn't] know much else," Prehn said.

Beaber said she also had not planned out the course of her novel.

"I [had] a situation, but that's it," she said. "That's the best way to start out. Don't invest yourself too much before you get going."

For advice, Jones required students to read No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty, which is the official guide to the NaNoWriMo challenge. The book contains tips for breaking writer's block and generating new ideas. Jones also suggests using Wikipedia's random article function to generate interesting elements to include in one's story.

"Great places to write include coffee shops and hotel bars," he said. "Especially hotel bars. You see some great characters, and you can incorporate them right into your story."

The challenge is purely based upon word count, and there is no requirement for the coherence or quality of the work produced. Students in Jones' course are graded on a pass-fail basis depending on whether they reach the word count. For this reason, Jones emphasizes that the most important step to succeeding is to turn off one's inner editor during the month of November.

For some, the contest continues into the month of December, which is National Novel Editing Month.

"That one's a lot less well attended," Jones said.

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