NaNo What?....

I'm going to do it.

Growing up, I wanted to be a writer. I wrote poems and stories. I loved term papers. I loved essay tests. I loved to put a pen to paper and let the words begin to flow.

In college, I started out as a Journalism major. I wanted to write feature stories and music reviews. I saw myself as the next indispensable staff member of Rolling Stone. The girl who got to tour with the Stones and live to tell about it.

Then, I listened to conventional wisdom.

Getting a writing job would be next to impossible is what conventional wisdom told me.

So, I lost my courage and decided on a nice and safe English degree instead. Writing? I liked doing it, but what was the point? I was getting married and I needed a job.

And really, I do understand that apart from teaching high school, an English degree does not guarantee an entry level position with a Fortune 500 company. I graduated in the early 80's when greed was good, and business majors ruled the planet. I've paid my dues.

I did get married, found a corporate job, had kids, went back to school to become a teacher (HA, I say, laughing at myself. Should have known all along.) Apart from monthly school newsletters and parent handbooks, writing went on the back burner for a long, long time.

Then, I started hanging around the Compuserve writer's forum.

I began by just lurking. Then I gathered up my last reserve of courage and actually posted a few things.

I was shocked that people didn't tell me to surrender my password and leave the forum. Other writers, farther along in their journeys than I, actually encouraged me.

I cannot express how affirming this was. I became hooked. Besides, I have learned to love writer's lingo. I get all tingly when someone talks about word count, or chunk writing, or author intrusion.

In short, I felt like I had come home.

I've been dabbling for a while. Have a couple of things half-finished. The little voice - you remember conventional wisdom - still whispers to me "What the hell are you doing wasting all of this time in front of a computer?"

I am trying to ignore it.

Then I found out about NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. The idea is that you write a novel in a month. The month of November, to be exact. So I registered to do it.

I'm certainly not going to talk about the book I have planned, or even share any of it. I just want to write furiously for a short period of time and see what happens. I love the process, and I hope I'll find a few things salvageable about the product. If not, so what?

Wish me luck.