With National Novel Writing Month about to start, there has never been a better time for the creation of the new Trent Writers Society, a student group dedicated to helping aspiring writers as well as those who just enjoy putting pen to paper.
The group is co-led by two students, Sarah McDonald (4th year History/Cultural Studies) and Bianca Nucaro (2nd year, Con-Ed).
Says Nucaro, “I started Trent Writers Society this year. Writers societies have never seemed to stick before, but I felt currently Trent was really missing a place for writers to make connections and become aware of all the writing opportunities available on campus.
I thought creating a space for writers of all genres would allow for good liaisons between publications across Trent and beyond, as well as a supportive community for people interested in writing.”
About the goals of the group, Nucaro adds “TWS is aimed at writers and creative thinkers at Trent University who live both on and off campus. We hope to provide a communal space for writers to support, share, create and edit each other’s works, as well as meet like-minded peers.
We hope to create a lasting society that will carry forward year after year, and publish anthologies that will showcase the works of the talented students of Trent.”
Among their other projects, they have already started a blog, trentwriters.wordpress.com, of which Nucaro explains “we hope that the circulation of our members’ works will expose people to the writing talent here at Trent, and excite people for the release of the anthology next semester.
Long term, we hope to organize more fun social events in 2015, and make sure TWS runs for a second consecutive year and continues to offer a writing community for Trent’s students.”
The most immediate plans however, are for National Novel Writing Month, in which people from around the country will try their hand at writing 50,000 words worth of material in a single month in an event that has been growing quickly both on and off the web.
“We are holding special events in November to celebrate NaNoWriMo,” says Nucaro.
“First, we are going to have an all-night write for those looking for a fun time with other writers as well as raising their word count for the contest. We also are having guest speakers come and talk about different aspects of writing and writing careers.”
While details were still being worked out, McDonald and Nucaro advised students to either follow them at their blog above or to find them on social media.