For those who don’t know, it’s National Novel Writing Month, an event I have participated in at least five times previously, but it’s been quite a while since I last spent the month of November trying to write 50,000 words. But I am all about it this year.

I have about ten students who are participating in the NaNoWriMo Young Writer’s Program, including a group of 5 or 6 girls who have spent nearly ever recess with me so far this month, typing away on their Chromebooks. They aren’t trying to write 50,000 words, of course, they set their own word count goal, but they are learning about chapters and tables of contents and the difficult but necessary art of typing without editing.

As for me, I know it’s where my bliss lives. I know that. Every now and then I read these silly Cosmo-like articles that help you determine your life’s passions. The last one I read said, “What would your eight year-old self think you should be doing right now?” and “What do you do that your get so wrapped up in that you forget to eat, or sleep or pee?” Well, you need to know me for about a minute and a half to know the answer is “writing.” The best part of my day right now is the twenty minutes I get to type out part of my story while surrounded by ten year olds doing much the same thing. Truly.

So, I’m doing it. I’ve already written a really lousy children’s story years and years and a lifetime ago during NaNo, and I took two separate years to start and then finish a craptastic adult novel that will never ever be read by another human being it is so bad, but this year, I had a nugget of an idea for another children’s book and I’m trying to sort through it. My students, of course, are very eager to read it, and I am sure they will pile on the praise when they do, but it needs a LOT of work to be even categorized as “readable.”

All that said, and all excuses and self-deprecation aside, I’m having a blast. I wake up in the night with ideas about my characters. I type at the counter, during lunch and before and after school sometimes and I feel like I could type all day if only someone would pay me to. But what I love the most is when I am typing away and all of a sudden, something appears on the page – my characters say or do something that even I didn’t see coming – and I am as enthralled as any reader. I can’t explain it, but it’s magical. I have notes scratched on the back of six crossword puzzles and a file folder. I have notes in my phone and I have a husband who promises me he can completely erase his brain and re-read my story without any knowledge from the first three times he has read it.

So, I have 30,562 words so far and I am right on track to hitting 50,000 by the 30th. Report cards are due in a week and I brought home an absolute mountain of papers to grade, but the only thing I am focused on this weekend is moving my plot forward.

I don’t expect my story to ever exist outside of my classroom, but I look forward to handing it over to my students, my first line of adoring fans. Have no doubt, their criticisms will be as sharp as their praises, but it will be magical to see my kids reading my book. But, if that’s the case, then I’d better get busy!