The first day of my “How to Write and Publish a Novel” class came and went (March 9) and it was awesome.  I’d love to use another word but I feel like I’d be talking it down.  The class is being taught by Brian Keene, a local York PA author who’s written over thirty-two pieces of work ranging from novels to graphic novels.  He’s in the horror genre and he’s gotten some very good reviews.

The best part of this course besides being taught by a very well published author is that Brian Keene wasn’t always a writer.  He dropped out of 11^th grade English and didn’t really start writing until he was in his thirties.  He quit his job, tried writing for a living, went back to his job, then tried this process again a few years later and was successful at it.  Brian wasn’t someone who woke up every day since they were born and said “I have to write.”  He’s someone who stumbled upon it.  This gives me a lot of hope that I too can be successful since I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was in elementary school.

One of the nice things about Brian Keene is that he’s  got a very honest, straight forward personality.  He’s not full of himself and talking about how he drinks from a cup of awesome every morning:  he struggled to do what he did and he’s not shy about it.  He’s not limiting this course to just one or two parts of publishing, he’s going to cover a ton of topics (which I’ll talk about as we get to those classes). Brian seems very optimistic about our group.  He says there isn’t anyone in there that he can’t help and I really hope he’s right.

The first class was a short one- Brian went over his background, what we should be expecting to cover in the class, and then went around the room and having each class member talk about themselves and what they expected to get from the course / why they signed up. I’m hoping to get the push I need to finish my National Novel Writing Month novel as well as finding out about the publishing process.  I want to know I’m fixable, that I’m not some day dreaming hack with no real future in writing.

However, if I get nothing from this course other then to be entertained by a guy with an awesome personality, I’d be okay with that.  If I walk away and I don’t have my questions answered like how to push past the writing block or how to get a better than average query letter together I’d be okay with that too.  There are other avenues I can take to get that stuff figured out.

Thankfully though, I’ve already gotten something out of the course:  networking.  I gave a few people my blog address who asked me about it and was able to put myself out there.  Sure, it was only to a room of 17 other people and an author who will never remember who I am but still- every little bit helps.

Until next class on March 16, 2010, I’ve got a bit on my plate.  Our assignments are to catalogue how much we read a day and how much we write each day.  We should try to do both every day.

So, in light of that, I got to get back to the grind.  Hopefully next week I should be back on schedule with this blog.