Novel Blog - Writing The Great American Novel

I've spent my life "planning" to write a book. Recently I started referring to this process as writing a "novel". Somehow as an adult, "novel" just sounds better than "book", but I'm not sure there's a difference.

Isn't it amusing that when we're young we look at things in their most simple form and as adults we gravitate toward making things as "complicated" as possible. I think it's human nature to assume that the more complicated it is, the more worthwhile it must be. Kids don't think in those terms and we adults shouldn't either.

The first story I remember committing to paper I wrote at 7-years old. It was as story about how Johnny Cash would pick me up at my house in his touring bus and I'd move to Nashville and work in his band.

I'm sure riding the school bus to school each day traveling up and down rural country roads near my hometown helped hatch my master plan. Back then the school bus was most likely the highlight of my daily life and I think the country music aspect of the story centers around my parents taking me to the State Fair a few times where we attended country music concerts by some of the biggest names of the era including Ronnie Milsap, Tom T. Hall, and Charlie Pride.

I rediscovered this story a few years ago when a relative found it while doing some spring cleaning and returned it to my mother who passed it on to me. I hope that my story telling efforts as an adult can result in such honest appraisals of my life. I'd like to channel some of that 7-year old innocence again as I continue writing my "book".