Liberty High School Student Writes 50,000 Words in 30 Days

Shelby Janicki is a writer. She's known this for years, but in November, the sophomore decided to challenge her skills, writing 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days during National Novel Writing Month, also known as "NaNoWriMo."

The writing competition, founded by Chris Baty requires participants to write 50,000 words of a book in a month. To put that into perspective, famous novels that have around a 50,000 word count are The Great Gatsby, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Catcher in the Rye.

"Winning" the competition means that you completed the 50,000 word count within the month of November. Shelby, 15, surpassed the goal with 50,114 words.

"Going into it, I had thought that it would not be that difficult. Needless to say, I was wrong," said Janicki. "It did require a lot of time and effort, and it was not as easy as it sounded at all. I was definitely tired because I had to write, on average, for about two hours a day on top of my regular homework, babysitting, and clubs."

Shelby had to give up some much needed writing time for other activities, and five days before her deadline, she fell behind.

"I realized that I was about 20,000 words behind, so over Thanksgiving break, I had to write a lot," said Janicki. "But, I had a goal, and I wanted to prove anybody who was against me that I could do it. Besides, one of my biggest fears about the experience was missing the word count by only a few thousand words." 

Shelby found out about the youth writers program from a teacher at  two years ago when she was in 8th grade and used that as motivation to begin her first novel.

She set her word count at 5,000 words and finished the month at just over 7,000 - a number that was met within the first week of the adult NaNoWriMo that she completed this year.

Shelby was originally encouraged to do the youth writers program of NaNoWriMo, where you can choose your own word count this year as well, but this being Shelby's second novel, she felt that the challenge of 50,000 words right up her alley, and plans to try to get one of her novels pubished next year. 

Her second novel completed on Nov. 30 title called Thorned, is a story about a girl who decides to end her "good-girl" lifestyle and seeks the ultimate revenge on people that have caused her pain.

While the challenge wasn't exactly easy, Janicki said it was absolutely worth it.

"My family was there for me once I crossed the 50,000 word goal finish line and everyone was very proud of me, but I was also proud of myself for completing something that meant so much to me. Writing is my passion, and NaNoWriMo gave me the chance to give my writing a little push and get closer to being published," said Janicki.

Her teachers, who encouraged her throughout the program, were very excited to hear she completed the challenge. 

"I'm so proud of her accomplishments and her dedication to her writing," said "Ms. Zupan," her Honors American Survey and Literature teacher, at Liberty High School.

But this isn't the end for Janicki, in April the ambitious teen plans to enter the script writing version of NaNoWriMo, called Script Frenzy, where contestants try to write a one hundred page script in a month. Shelby also keeps her eye on her ultimate dream - making it onto the New York Times Best Sellers List one day.