WHY THE BLOG HAS BEEN SILENT FOR AWHILE AND WILL BE UP AND RUNNING SOON WITH A REVIEW OF THINK PRIME; FINALLY I’M WRITING THAT LONG DREAMED OF NOVEL AND A BOOK ABOUT THE SECRETS OF WRITING – FIGHTING BACK MY OWN FEARS

By Diana L. Chapman

I admit it.

I’ve taken time off -- a lot of time off the underdogforkidsblog. I kept up with writing this way and wanted to let people know what’s going on out there about kids.

But then an acquaintance of mine mentioned in October: “Did you know that November is novel writing month?”

No. I had no clue. What’s that about? I asked.

It turns out there’s a non-profit out there with a weird name, NANO, that encourages people like me to finally write that long lost novel that many of us writers dream about, but never do. The plan: write a 50,000 word novella in the month of November.

Since I was a kid and reading was my life and then a tea leaf reading fortune teller told me I would be a writer, I knew that it was true. But fear is a big factor in career making-decisions and I was petrified that I couldn’t do it. So I became a journalist to make sure I could write – but get a paycheck to boot.

Many writers struggle and never make it. Going in I knew that, and becoming a newspaper reporter, made much more sense financially. You knew you’d get paid!

As the months slipped by, then years, I finally realized in my lifetime I was never going to write that novel. In fact, I had given up. I had an underlying fear that I couldn’t do it anyway so it was easier just to delay the process rather than work toward finding out if I had the “right stuff.”

In my computer are the beginning births of many books, that have sat long and tiredly and have fermented away, forever it seems. But then two years ago, I knew I had an idea that was a winner. I started writing it, but never finished.

One day, my son was perusing the computer and found the book: “The Eight Levels of Life” and he marched out and said: “Mom this is the best thing you have ever written in your life.”

I knew it was true. But it still sat there. And sat there. And sat there. My fears mounted up.

I was afraid it wouldn’t get published. I was afraid I couldn’t write a novel. If you don’t do it, then you don’t have to find out – do you! It didn’t even seem to matter that I had gathered so many more secrets about writing – that I had learned to come to love the art that once tortured me – over all these years.

It didn’t matter that I had volunteered to teach scores of students how to open up their souls to writing. It didn’t matter that I knew shortcuts, ways to become passionate about your work and paths to nurse your brain – your own computer – to work for you.

So when this came up, I gasped because it seemed this novel writing thing had been meant for me. It gave me a deadline – the end of November, because after all, newspaper journalists work better with deadlines.

I started in November and by the end, I had filed 50,000 plus words and had the first workings of a book.

Is it perfect? Not even close. I’m giving myself January to rewrite the “Eight Levels of Life,” but then what popped out next was another book, “The Seven Golden Secrets to Writing that Your Teacher Never Taught You.”

I’ve been bouncing between those two books ever since, because I discovered something. It’s kind of cool to live in a fantasy world where all the problems are not your problems – but other characters – and finally you are sharing your secrets that could help others stem their writing woes and help them excel into waves of good words.

So if you have the itch to write, but you or your child need the push, check out this site: www.nanowrimo.org. Please pass this on. It also has a young writer’s program.

So there you have it. Now, you can go write that novel too!