The Whistle Stop Café was the place to be on the night of Thursday November 21 and into the early hours of Friday November 22, as the Writer’s Society hosted an All-Night Write where writers and friends got together to play board games, write, socialize, enjoy free coffee, and of course, poutine was available for purchase. The main purpose of the night was to help with the National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo. The goal is to write a 50,000 word creative piece, like a novel, in one month, starting November 1, from start to finish.

National Novel Writing Month is also a chance to meet other writers. Talia Vanderhyden is one of the co-presidents of the Writer’s Society. She is in her fourth year of a Bachelor of Arts and Science, majoring in Psychology and minoring in English. Talia said that life in general is an inspiration for stories, poetry and songs. Relationships and the human condition are of interest to Talia, which is part of the reason why she is working on a story about twins with magical powers, though not telepathy.

An anonymous writer was working on a novel in its infancy and building a skeleton for it. A second anonymous writer is a student at Brock and was a Child and Youth undergrad at Trent University, spending the night working on a paper.

Mackenzie Deremer, a first-year student in Arts and Science majoring in English and Forensics, is working on a fantasy novel. Normally Mackenzie writes crime and horror stories, but decided to change things up for the challenge. Mackenzie’s favorite course is Creative Writing, as it presents the opportunity to talk with other writers.

Aakriti Pandey is a fourth-year student in Psychology and English Literature, writing a historical fiction/fantasy time-warp novel where fairies live in a world that moves at a different pace than that of the human realm. The idea came from a dream where two dates, 1710 and 1970, showed up in the dream. Aakriti is also one of the Writers Society co-Presidents, who usually focuses on the horror genre.

Kira Sareant is studying history, and writing about a world at war.

I took part in some of the fun games, one of which was Werewolf, where players guessed who the werewolf was in a fantasy role-playing game. This helped writers take breaks from writing, and allowed everyone to socialize.

The All-Night Write should be back on January 23, 2020 in the same place and time. If you have a night or part of a night, why not stop by and write?