Read With Me! Some November 2019 Thoughts.

I spent November attempting to once again complete the National Novel Writing Month challenge of writing 50,000 words. This amounts to an average of 1,667 words each day. While that may not seem like much, keeping that average every single day for thirty days gets to be daunting. I've managed to do it in 2016, 2017, and now in 2019. I didn't get there in 2018 (fell short by about 10,000 words), and I didn't make the goal in 2015 or 2013, which was the year I first tried it. Since I failed so miserably that year, I didn't even attempt it in 2014, but then I reminded myself that I only really fail when I don't try.



I also roped my creative writing students into doing this challenge; however, I only asked them to attempt 15,000 words over the course of the month. Two of them achieved the goal, and I am quite pleased with that outcome. Getting teenagers to commit to something like this is pretty hard, and then to have them embrace it enough to actually do it is a huge accomplishment for them as well as for me.

The novel I have been writing isn't yet complete despite those 50,000 words added to it. I had actually started it years ago, but I got bogged down with all sorts of things while writing it, and I abandoned it for a while. I took advantage of this yearly challenge to make myself try to get somewhere with it because the story had been sitting in my head for years demanding my attention. The story, though, still needs to be completed -- as of now it has about 66,000 words in it --  and then it will need a lot of rewriting. One thing at a time, though. The gist of it is this: a middle-aged woman buys a motorcycle and inadvertently finds herself caught up in solving the mysterious death of the bike's original owner.

Now, if you happen to know me, you will see a bit of autobiographical information in that short summary. I am middle-aged. I bought a bike a few years ago. It had a previous owner. That, though, is where the autobiographical part ends and the fictionalized part begins. My protagonist is a high school principal (o.k., I teach high school). She meets and begins a relationship with another biker. (o.k., I met my guy that way). But that's it, I swear! They say -- write what you know -- and I know high schools, what it's like to be judged as a solo female rider, and the joy of meeting a kindred spirit to share those rides with.

Anyway, one day I'll actually finish this story, and it, along with the three other complete novels I've written these past few years, will be out there for anyone to read. Whether I end up sharing them the same way I did with The Clearwater House and with State of Georgia . . . and Other Writings remains to be seen. The goal is, and always has been, to be traditionally published someday, but time will tell.

As far as reading goes, I spent November mostly on Walden by Henry David Thoreau. I read this with the advanced English class I teach to high school juniors. While I've only required them to read a portion of it, I read the whole thing. I will address the mind-blowing experience it was for me in a later blog post. Let's just say that I regret not reading Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson with greater attention sooner in my life.



Each year, I attempt to read 50 books. Most years, I manage to read that many, but doing so often means I'm spending the bulk of my Christmas vacation time reading a few to complete my reading challenge. While I don't mind that, I much prefer that I happened to make that goal at the beginning of November when I finished reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. Since then, I've read three more and am in the process of reading about ten others.

This is the earliest I've completed my personal yearly reading challenge since I began doing it in 2007. At the end of 2006, I decided to begin a reading journal, and since then I've tracked my reads in that journal as well as on the Goodreads site. While some people scoff at both the need to create a reading challenge and the need to record the books a person reads, I have found that both add to my reading enjoyment.

Keeping the journal allows me to record my private thoughts about each book, and it prevents me from inadvertently re-reading a book I don't really want to re-read. The challenge is just for me. I'm very happy that I have already read 53 books in 2019 and that I will end the year having read 55 or more. When full retirement hits and I can dedicate even more of my time to reading and writing, I will up that goal to 75 most likely.

Here are five of my favorite reads from this year aside from Walden mentioned above:

 









I look forward to finishing the book I'm writing, to reading many more great books, and to sharing a few things here with any like-minded people out there.