To Do List: Groceries, Post Office, Write a Novel in July

Today I got an email from Linda Sue Parks that mentioned, among other things, that when I go to the SCBWI National Conference in LA in August, I . . .

" . . . MUST BRING A MANUSCRIPT. The requirement was a completed draft of a novel that you want to revise."

Oops.

Guess I forgot to read the fine print when I rushed to sign up for the award-winning novelist's Master's Class. I actually don't have a completed draft of a novel. I do have brilliant bits and pieces of three or four novels-to-be. Um, but, see--I can't seem to complete even one actual novel. Instead, I write long, plot-challenged picture books and short, heart-wrenching poems.

(My best friend in graduate school called me the most constipated writer she'd ever met. No, I won't tell you what my worst enemies called me. I've blocked that information; not even therapy can get to it.)

Fortunately, I signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) last November. Of course, since I teach and have kids and, well, celebrate Thanksgiving, I didn't even have time to read the Encouraging Emails sent out during the actual NaNoWriMo, much less come up with 50,000 words of sloppy copy.

So, I'm declaring July to be LyNoWriMo: Lynnea's Novel Writing Month. This afternoon, I printed out all the Encouraging Emails I archived last fall.

The first one said, "Tell everyone you know you're writing a novel in November. Seriously. The looming specter of personal humiliation is a very reliable muse."

So, here goes: Everyone I know--listen up, please. I'm writing a novel--not in November, but in July.

I've even started a blog about it.