Shimer Student Writes 100 Pages in 30 Days

Many "average" students would think it crazy, much less fun, to add to the mountain of papers and reading assignments at the end of every semester. But Shimer College isn't known for attracting "average" students, and neither is the Script Frenzy Competition, an international writing event that takes place every April.

The challenge of the competition is for participants to write 100 pages of scripted material in the month of April, yes in just 30 days. Though many students make the attempt, only some, like Shimer student Sarah Hall ('12), succeed. With school work remaining her first priority for most of the month, Sara managed to finish a monumental 76 pages of her script over the last two days of the competition. “That was exciting, pushed me to the limits of my creativity, and made me very proud of myself. I'm sure it’s the reason the whole thing turned into a giant story about why the moon has phases,” she said. The script is a science fiction piece, set in a distant world where humans interact with astrological deities to learn why their moon has disappeared. “It’s about…the difficulties they face as they start to discover that all is not what it seems” Sara explained. She later plans on adapting the script into a novel, with the idea of becoming a career novelist after graduating. It appears she is already well on her way.