Freshman Eunice Wang is relieved that November is over.

As a student novelist, she spent the last month doing what some might call impossible — attempting to write a novel in a mere 30 days.

[National Novel Writing Month](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2014/11/18/nanowrimo-50k-words-30-days/) is an annual event which challenges participants to write 50,000 a word novel during November. Now that the month is over, Wang and other student novelists find themselves in different situations.

Wang has participated in NaNoWriMo five times. She “won,” or completed the challenge, this year with a total of about 50,100 words after the month.

“I was glad I didn’t have to worry about it anymore,” Wang said. “It wasn’t boring, but I was having trouble staying on track.”

At this point, her novel cannot be read from start to finish. Wang explained that currently it is a collection of many unconnected scenes.

Wang said that she does not typically go back and edit her old stories from NaNoWriMo. This year’s story, however, could be different.

“This one is better than my last ones, so I do want to keep working on it because I think it could be really good when I’m done with it,” said Wang. “I realized that there are a lot of plot holes that I need to work on, and more stuff that I need to add that didn’t get in the first time through.”

Freshman Emily Waters has participated in NaNoWriMo several times prior to this year and has won twice. However, this year she only wrote around 15,000 words.

Though she didn’t complete the challenge, Waters said she does plan to break 50,000 words at some point.

“I’ll probably finish during winter break, when I have no life,” Waters said. “I’ll finish eventually.”

Waters said what she wrote during the month was a “zero draft” to help her understand where she wants to take her final story. She said that she had much better control over the story she was creating this year.

“Sometimes (the story) gets away from you, but this one stayed right where I wanted it to stay,” Waters said. “I had a better grasp on the characters than I have in previous years. Every year I get a little bit better at understanding the characters I’m writing, and it helps to keep the characters on track.”

But because this draft comes so early on in the writing and editing process, its future is unclear.

“I don’t know if I’ll go back and edit it, but I’ll go back and make notes,” Waters said.

She said that she does not expect writing to ever be her primary career, but she has found a relationship between novel writing and her future plans.

“I write fantasy, and so that involves a lot of research,” Waters said. “I want to be a trial lawyer. That also involves a lot of research.”

For Wang, who plans to major in electrical engineering, writing is currently a side project. She also found a key similarity between these seemingly different fields.

“Both of them require passion, because you won’t be good at either if you go at it half-heartedly,” Wang said.

To the question of whether or not electrical engineers appear in any of her stories, Wang smiled and said, “Not yet.”