OMG! I’m writing a novel . . .

For the last six years or so of my life, I’ve known that I wanted to do something different career wise than teach high school students (my current J-O-B).  My big goal in life was always to be a college professor – think the wise old owl in Winnie the Pooh.

So, when I was at home while my kids were babies, I earned my Master’s degree and as soon as my daughter started first grade, I got hired as an adjunct English professor at the local college . . . only to discover it was not the dream job I had envisioned.  After four years as a “Professor,” I found myself teaching English full time at the local high school.

While there are elements to my job that I truly love, there are others I despise.  For example, my students make me laugh daily and everyday is different,  but if I never grade another ninth or tenth grade essay or have to wait until a bell rings to pee, I will be a happy woman!

I’ve spent the last several years soul searching and journaling, asking the same question, “What do I want to be when I grow up?  What do I want to do?”  One answer kept coming up (as I was writing) – I want to write.  It took me a while to acknowledge that and not argue with myself that writing is too hard, or I don’t know enough to do that, until I finally accepted it.

But then I ran into the next question, “What the hell do I write about?”

I always thought the focus of my writing would be non-fiction since I love to research and put lots of details together into a cohesive whole, and I even outlined an entire non-fiction book, but it never felt quite right. Ultimately, after more soul searching, I finally decided on fiction (that story to come later).

This blog is the first step in my journey as a writer, and I’ve decided to write it for several reasons.

First, I’d like to document my novel writing journey for my own reflection on this process as I’ve never done anything like this before.  Second, I’d like to connect with other writers or even with other people who, like me, have spent years trying to figure out what they want to do when they grow up (even though they may be like me, chronologically speaking anyway, all grown up). 

This is scary but perhaps by recording my journey with the fears, struggles, and even (hopefully) triumphs, it will encourage them to follow their hearts.  And finally, I want to take ownership of the incredibly powerful sentence, “I am a WRITER!!”  In order to do that, I need to share my writing and “be” a writer.  The easiest way to instantly share one’s writing, to “be” a writer, is to blog.

So here we go.  I am a writer.  I am writing.