Life & Culture

Writers pen novels in November

Lila Dzikowicz, Staff Writer and Staff Photographer

November 12, 2025

High school senior and dual credit student Ryan Sliwa has been writing since he was in third grade, but he said “I’ve never really written organized fiction until I was a freshman in high school, and then I wrote a novel.”

In November – Novel Writing Month – when the days are short and the nights are cold, it’s the perfect time to stay indoors and work on a novel.

Ryan Silwa, a high school senior and dual credit student at ECC is currently writing a mystery/romance novel that takes place in 19th century England.

Sliwa described his novel as the story of the current heir of an old noble family who enlists the help of a Cambridge student to help him break the curse that his family has been living with.

“Its mostly about family, and the main theme is the sins of the father, that whole concept. Should the descendants be punished for what their ancestors did,” he said.

ECC English professor Christina Marocco just published her second novel in August of 2025: The Way Beauty Comes Apart. It is set in Victorian Wales, and is told from 14 different first person points of view. Each chapter is a semi-independent short story, but the stories and perspectives all come together to create the novel.

FILE PHOTO: Associate Professor of English Christina Marrocco reads her work to the audience on Oct. 20 in the Alumni Room, as a part of the Writers Center Reading Series. The event featured all ECC English faculty. (Lance Lagoni)

“I think, as with life,” Marocco said, “there is not necessarily an absolute truth. There’s a way people see things.”

Marocco spent ten years writing her book, sparked by a trip to Wales in 2011.

Novel Writing Month was originated by a non-profit called NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), which challenged writers to draft a 50,000 word novel in exactly 30 days. Its website tracked your word count and provided motivation and support to help participants complete their goal.

NaNoWriMo closed its website in April of 2025 after a controversy surrounding AI and misconduct on their forums, but the tradition of writing a novel in November has outlived it.

While Sliwa started his novel before November 1 and is not planning to finish it this month, he still works hard to make daily progress on his novel despite many distractions.

“You have to be able to set out a time for yourself; this is my sacred time when I’m going to write, and I’m not going to do anything else, I’m not going to think about anything else,” he said.

Marocco believes that word count goals can be motivating, but making writing part of your everyday life just for the joy is the ultimate goal.

“I think one of the most important things is to understand themselves as a writer. They don’t have to have a piece published. They don’t have to have an incredible journal,” Marocco said. “They don’t have to have written 10,000 things. If they can tell themselves ‘I’m going to be a writer for the rest of my life. This is a part of who I am, and I’m going to write. Then they get to be in charge of what they’re going to do on any given day as far as their art goes, and they take responsibility for it…I think those kinds of challenges are good, but don’t let them rule you. You use them in the way that becomes helpful to your own sensibilities.”

Donate to Observer

$525

$5000

Contributed

Our Goal

Your contribution will allow us to send students to the National College Media Conference in San Francisco in March 2026. This will grant them an opportunity to learn about about journalism and receive recognition for their work.

About the Contributors

Lila Dzikowicz, staff writer and photographer.

Dzikowicz is a freshman at ECC interested in studying music. This is her first year on the Observer staff. She joined the Observer because she likes to write and hopes to gain more experience. She is interested in covering politics and human-interest stories at ECC and in the wider community. She hopes her experience on the Observer will give her the chance to meet more people in the college and surrounding towns who she otherwise would never have had the opportunity to have a conversion with. Her motto is “If you hold your hand closed, nothing good can come in” (Bridget Mason). Contact information: [email protected]

Lance Lagoni, Staff Photographer

Continuing education student in Art (photography) B. A. , M. B. A. Michigan State University Accounting, business law, economics, finance & marketing majors. Retired after 45 year career in Business. Active in the Chicago Area Camera Club Association, Chicago Art Deco Society, The Nikon and Leica Historical Societies, National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, I started in photography in high school and worked for my local newspaper as a photographer. At Michigan State University, I was a staff photographer for the Michigan State News, fifteen time winner of college journalism’s highest award, The Pacemaker. I worked for both UPI and AP as well as a contributor to major midwest newspapers. I set photography aside in 1973 to work my business career full time. After retiring in 2015, I came to ECC to study the new (to me) digital photography. The Observer allows me to share my work experience as a news photographer and to provide a personal discipline to focus my photo skills.