The University Church hosts its first ever National Novel Writing Month event.

The time of year that gets me going creatively is November: for the last five years I have participated (with varying success) in the global phenomenon called National Novel Writing Month. Called NaNoWriMo for short, It’s a 30-day marathon of creative writing, and it’s completely free to sign up and participate. This year hundreds of thousands of people are taking part globally. The idea is simple: write 50,000 words by 11.59pm on 30 November. While that’s shorter than a standard commercial novel (these weigh in at 80,000-100,000), it’s just about enough to give you a decent first draft.

The joys of NaNoWriMo are manifold: the gift of a deadline; the warm feeling that so many others are taking part alongside you; the chance to meet other writers at local writing events; the excitement of updating your profile with your word count every day (while you don’t actually write your novel on NaNoWriMo.org, you can use the site to keep track of your progress).

But the best part is the excuse to spend time every day creating something, to give yourself permission to think about stories and language. Even if you don’t reach your 50,000-word target (and most people don’t), you’ll have done something tremendous by trying. Writing this fast isn’t right for me - I work best at 500 words a day, not the 1,666 required to reach 50,000 in a month - but I’ve made my peace with that. I can’t wait to see where NaNoWriMo takes me this year.

On 7 November, from 5.30-8.30pm, we’re hosting our first ever NaNoWriMo write-in in the Old Library. Tea and coffee will be provided, but there are no power points available, so if you’re writing on a laptop, please make sure it’s fully charged!

Bring any project you like: a thesis, a poetry collection, a novel, an essay. This event is for anyone, of any age, so long as they have the desire to write. Let’s seize this chance, and be creative together.