Adventure: Novel

I haven’t been this enthusiastic about a writing project for a long time.

I’m writing a novel, a mystery novel.

***

I’ve been writing for most of my life. I wrote stories when I was a child and continued to write fiction in college and graduate school.

I took a creative writing class while in graduate school, and I kept turning in short stories. The instructor kept telling me that she couldn’t hear my voice in the writing.

At the time, I didn’t know what she was talking about. I just gave up. I wrote some poems and turned those in. My instructor said, “I’m finally hearing your voice.”

So I just kept on writing poetry. I never tried writing fiction again.

***

Through the years, I developed a love for writing nonfiction: essays, opinion pieces, biography and memoir.

Sometimes I thought about writing fiction, but I didn’t read a lot of fiction. And I believe that we should write what we enjoy reading. The only fiction I enjoyed was the mystery/thriller.

I thought I couldn’t write one of those. It would be too hard. I would have to do too much research. I didn’t have a voice. No, I couldn’t write one of those.

Sometimes I played around with some ideas in my head—I never wrote any of it down. And I quickly pushed the thoughts aside.

No, I couldn’t write a mystery/thriller.

***

The thing is, I haven’t written steadily for a long time. I’ve worked on blog posts, of course, and for the newspaper. But I haven’t touched my memoir in a while. I felt stuck. I wanted to write more, but nothing appealed to me.

I told myself I needed to develop more discipline. I needed to push myself and eventually I’d like what I was doing.

***

Look at those last words I wrote, about developing discipline and pushing myself. Do they depress anyone else? They sure depress me.

I let the joy of writing get away from me.

***

Recently, I was lying in bed, unable to sleep. I started thinking about a character who wanted to solve a mystery. I started adding details. I started writing in my head.

I got excited. I wanted to write.

And I did. And I had a ball.

***

I don’t know what I’m doing. I have a lot to learn about putting together a mystery novel. I have a lot of research to do. But the learning and the research are not going to get in the way of the writing. I’ll be writing away amid the learning.

***

My word for this year is adventure. I started an editing business in January. My latest adventure is starting a novel. And I’m having so much fun!

Chase Bird said if I write a novel, the main character has to have a cat. Preferably a gray Tabby.

P.S. When I told Larry I was writing a novel, he said, “I’ve been telling you for 15 years that you needed to write one.”

If you decided to write a book, what kind of book would it be? Or if you’re already writing one, what kind is it?