By GRAYSON THOBE

From Saturday, Nov. 4 to Sunday, Nov. 5, Aardvark Authors put on their third 24-hour writing challenge, which they hold every semester. Beginning at noon on Saturday, writers of all kinds stayed up sans power nap to get as much writing done as possible. The challenge is open to any kind of writing that people want, though it’s usually creative writing because of the club’s focus on it. 

Some people were kicking off their November novels for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), doing some work for the upcoming short story contests due in early December, writing fanfiction, or even getting some school work done. You also aren’t forced to stick around the whole time if it’s too much, or you have other obligations, but the majority did end up staying awake and writing for all 24 hours. 

To keep awake, the writers drink C4 from Pearsons, read aloud crappy fanfic they find online (My Immortal was mentioned by India David’25, if you’re familiar), and hop up and dance around from time to time to get the blood pumping. When the challenge is 75% over and the sun has yet to rise, they break out the Just Dance. 6:00 a.m. is certainly right around where I’d be ready to give up, but taking time for some physical activity, especially of the silly variety, gives everyone a second wind. Hopefully enough to get them all the way through to noon. 

Both India David’25 and Sydney Moses’25 mentioned that the most important part of the event to them was giving people the chance to have uninterrupted writing time, especially for personal projects. 

In life and in college, it’s difficult to sit down and focus on your passion when your attention is being pulled away by other obligations with tighter deadlines and more external pressure. Still, it’s important to take time for your hobbies, especially ones that are important to you, which is definitely the case with writing for the Aardvark Authors. It’s also a very social event, so even though everyone works on their own writing the whole time, I asked how people work together on something like this. It’s very common for writers to ask advice from equally passionate aspiring authors, read pieces aloud that they’re proud of, and joke around to help everyone stay energized and motivated. 

Moses mentioned that she “taught everybody the dance to Footloose and [they all] did the Cha Cha slide” around 4 a.m. After moving around and getting some sillies out, everyone got back to writing to crank out some more words for the witching hour.The writers tend to feel proud of themselves for making it through the night, or for staying for part of it and getting their word counts up. David said “it’s really easy to set this expectation that you’re gonna write a ton, and then actually not write as much as you think because it is really hard.” Even getting a thousand, or a couple hundred words, is something to be proud of, because writing is difficult. However, some people have been able to get in the ten thousand range. With their variety of word count goals and genres, writers keep coming back, and new people keep joining in to see what they will accomplish in the 24-hour writing challenge. Keep an eye out for next semester’s writing challenge if you’re hoping to get some writing done in a supportive, high-energy group.

Featured Image Credit: Sydney Moses’25