No writer’s block here! For the month of November, 18 SFUAD students are combating writers’ infamous procrastination by signing on to participate in National Novel Writing Month. More commonly referred to as NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month began in 1999, and has since grown into a nonprofit organization with a global following. Aspiring novelists can sign up on the NaNoWriMo website, track their daily progress and average word counts, and connect with other writers for motivation and communal support. The goal? A 50,000 word novel by 11:59 pm on Nov. 30. “My daily average is about 1,600 words a day,” says freshman creative writing major Charlotte Renken, one of the admins on the SFUAD NaNoWriMo Facebook page. This is her third year participating in the event. “It’s going great so far,” she enthuses, dishing the dirt on her project this year, which involves a vegan surviving the zombie apocalypse, and is her first foray into humor writing. Nicholas Thomas, a fellow scrivener, sees NaNoWriMo as a stepping stone toward working on his larger project, a multi-book exploration of the world of Eldali. “This is just a springboard, I’m gonna keep working on it, but it (NaNoWriMo) is a great way to get shit done!” says Thomas, who, a huge fan of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, has been developing the fantasy world saga and its inhabitants for several years. Opinions on NaNoWriMo’s effectiveness and usefulness are divided, with many proponents saying it’s an effective tool for pumping out a first draft, no matter how bad, while others believe it puts undue stress on writers and therefore undermines the writing process and the work being produced. “NaNoWriMo epitomizes the desires and the impatience of instant culture,” says James Reich, a faculty member in the Creative...