Teaching and Time to Write

Maureen Corrigan writes beautifully about her appreciation of literature. Books like these make one wonder why on earth is someone else writing what we ourselves could have written years ago. She explain the excitement she feels while reading the extreme-adventure stories, especially when it is a woman protagonist of the same. She defines the extreme-adventure books as "Into Thin Air," and "The Perfect Storm." I can see both of those stories populated by eager heroines, ready to embrace whatever the world throws at them. I am wanting to read more and hopefully this weekend I will make time to do so.
This weekend the students began reading "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets" by Stephen Crane. I have taught this novella before; it is an extraordinary story to introduce students not only to the Naturalist/Realism movement, but also to help them interpret the story from a nihilist/existentialist perspective. I've had little problems with the novella in the past, so this next week might prove for one with little or no inconvenience.
I signed up for the National Novel Writing Month (November) program. The goal is to write a 50,000 words or 175 page novel in 30 days. The good thing about it is that you only have to keep the story moving; editing is done after the first draft is completed. Then you can take the rest of the year fixing it up. We have to agree that the most challenging part of writing is getting that first draft out. What is difficult is to keep going; being a perfectionist, I know this will be very hard. I have plots swimming in my head since I left Washington DC, and I know with a much better discipline I would have finished at least one of them in the past. No crying over spilled milk, though, and I am taking this project seriously. I feel so much better when I fancy myself a writer! :-)