The Next Great Novel

This has been a very busy semester. I’m only taking one class this term, but it is a very brain-intensive class (Lutheran Confessional Writings). Lot’s of memorizing and processing concepts that I’m not very familiar with. I’ve also got three very busy children, a husband and two part-time jobs (which both seem to be extra busy this fall, as well).

Needless to say, when I have free time, I’m usually asleep. While sleep is a necessary part of one’s healthy lifestyle, it’s not really personally fulfilling. I still find a little time to read non-school books (a habit I will never give up), knit and keep up-to-date on pop culture, but it’s like I’m in a rut. So what does one do when she is in a rut? Why try something she’s always wanted to do but never has: write the next great fiction novel.

I just found out yesterday that November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). It’s a challenge to write 50,000 words by Nov. 30. If you finish and post the novel online in time, you win a certificate and a Web banner. No publishing rights, no money… a Web banner. And I want that banner!

It starts next Monday and I have exactly no plot, no characters and no ideas. I most certainly don’t have time to write the 1,700 words a day needed to reach the goal. This is out of my comfort zone even though writing is not new to me (my first job out of college was as a newspaper reporter/editor in North Dakota and I used to love writing short stories as a teenager).

Do I have time in my life for this right now? Absolutely not. But I have spent so much of my time of late with my nose in thick academic books that I need to do something out of the ordinary to make me stop, look up and see God’s amazing creation at work around me (and maybe write about it in the process).