Every November, students across the nation take on a great challenge: writing a full novel in only 30 days.

In an Instagram story poll, 70% of students said they don’t plan to participate. Only 30% were planning to participate.

“It’s impossible, but I’m gonna do it,” said Kendra Pritchard (10), who is part of the 30% planning to participate. She had just recently found out what it was and she knew it was a challenge she wanted to partake in. She does, however, still have her doubts about her abilities. “I don’t think I can write a novel in a month,” Pritchard said. “I could do a short story, but those take me, like, two days.”

She didn’t know exactly what she would write about, but she had some ideas for her story type and length.

Pritchard also found somethings about NaNoWriMo discouraging. “Quite honestly… I don’t like word counts tbh. It makes me feel pressured to add filler and stuff. But, like, for a short story, 3,000 would be easy. For a novel? 15,000.”

“I’m planning to write a comedy,” said sophomore Christina Mensah, a possible NaNoWriMo participant. Mensah hasn’t participated before, but she plans to join the thousand of other students in this 30 day writing challenge. She doesn’t quite know what she wants her word count to be for this years challenge. “I don’t know,” she said. “I write a lot, so it would probably be 3,000. 2,000 or 3,000 words.”

Mensah also thought that the challenge would be good for other students to partake in. “It depends on who you are,” she said. “Because if you’re really good at writing, then why not?” Mensah plans to continue the challenge of NaNoWriMo long after she’s finished with high school, to continue to strengthen her writing.