NaNoWriMo begins tomorrow!

I have never done this before. Which is exactly the reason why I am going to do it! Check it out — November is National Novel Writing Month. (NaNoWriMo for short).

If I haven’t been able to write the thing in the last year, may as well try to cram it all into a month, right?

I can explain. A year ago I began a huge transition. I bought Scrivener, moved to the Midwest, and was “on the beach” (or “jobless” as we say in radio) until January. I was taking my time to write what little of the novel has gotten done. Yet the idea still consumes space in my brain each day. But I’ve spent all year working hard at my new job doing morning radio in Wichita and the novel is just a little tiny Scrivener file still.

It needs love and life and energy and attention and whatever else I can give it.

So I guess I’ll be hanging onto my cracked Macbook I was going to send in for repairs. I’m not giving up the machine until December now. By then, I should be so tired of looking at it because I’ll spend the next month trying to get to the 50,000-word mark on my novel.

Want some more NaNoWriMo inspiration? Check out how some other Mac geeks are getting into it.

There’s another reason to force myself into a November of NaNoWriMo. I am too busy to write. Certain things have sat on a back burner for a while because I’ve been busy at the radio station. It’s not just the novel I want to rekindle, it’s several items I’ve been writing in my very small amount of spare time. I am more than anything challenging myself to find the time and space to fit my writing into my lifestyle.

It’s a lifestyle where a normal Monday for me turned into needing to do a live broadcast I didn’t know I needed to do as well as a couple hours worth of “due immediately” type work that I should’ve done last week but didn’t have time to do… I have the same 24 hours as anyone else. And a 12-hour -a-day job. Five hours of work I didn’t realize I had to do popped up into my day today.

But this is the challenge. Even on the impossible day, can I fit the writing in? The training at the gym didn’t happen today, but I am getting some writing in — at least on my blog! It is at least related to the NaNoWriMo project.

The project also entices me because there are these write-ins scheduled all the time. I’d like to meet more local writers (I’ve met one) and this seems like a great networking opportunity. With my work schedule (yes, that again) I haven’t been able to check out the Kansas Association of Writers meetings yet, much less write something to share at such a meeting.

So those are my motivations to partake in the NaNoWriMo this month. Will I finish the novel? Will I make it to 50,000 words? Will I give up and just send in the cracked Macbook to just be fixed already?

Let me just find out…

Follow on Twitter @heatherlarson

My latest article: “A World Peace Diet”

I just started freelancing again! I’m so excited; it’s been about six months since I last wrote for HalogenTV.com. Check out my latest article on how world peace begins on your plate. I talked to World Peace Yoga instructors Anna Ferguson and “Yoga Dan” Gottlieb for this one. Enjoy!

Should I get an MFA in creative writing?

I really hope someone will see this post and comment openly and honestly. Because I came across this blog started by some ’08 MFA grads and it’s really got me thinking.

I really just want a master’s degree. I could get it in anything. But getting an MFA in creative writing just sounds so fun to me. I work full-time in radio as a morning personality and my writing has therefore taken a backseat over the last six months. I just now started freelance writing again for HalogenTV.com. I usually write general interest-type features. This marks the second time I’ve written about a vegan lifestyle, which is one of my interests. I wrote a “How I Went Vegan” piece years ago for Veg News magazine. (See it here on my Media Bistro profile).

I like writing for HalogenTV.com because Halogen — the cable channel and website – is all about social good. As someone who wrote “bad news” for so long (local, national, and entertainment gossip) it’s really refreshing to write about topics that affect society in a positive way. I’ve done journalism for broadcast, online, and print. It’s a great skill to have and I’m certain it makes me a better broadcaster.

As a morning personality, I have a responsibility to my city to be responsible on the air. If you’ve heard our show, you know we play a lot of music and have a ton of laughter happening every morning. But every once in a while some major newsy thing happens, like the day Bin Laden was killed. And we can’t go on air our normal joking selves on a day like that. It’s then that Journalist Heather Larson snaps to attention and comes on air with proper presentation of the facts so our listening audience is served properly.

So again, journalism is a good skill to have. I wouldn’t get a degree in it these days just because of the job outlook on that. I think now if you want to do journalism for a living you should get a degree in new media or just learn how to make tablet apps.

But really, why get a master’s degree in creative writing? 

It’s probably worse than the bachelor in liberal studies I obtained from Boston University last year! Every time I tell someone I have a BLS, they ask me if I can say, “would you like fries with that?” in Latin. But how many of us actually use the degree we have in our career? Radio personalities certainly don’t need a degree in anything. I know many in my industry who have no degree at all.

So this decision I am struggling to make isn’t about a career move, although I’m sure a master’s degree of any kind can’t hurt a person no matter what their chosen career path is. Wanting to get an MFA in creative writing is about feeding that part of myself that actually liked to attend creative writing class in summer school. As a kid in Scottsdale, AZ, I used to love the long bus ride in summer school in 100+ degree weather just because it took me to my creative writing class. And sadly, it was the only true creative writing class I ever had. I have taken screenwriting at the community college level (twice!) and every English class I could lump into my schedule. I love language classes too (you mean I can sign up for Arabic next semester? Let me just register for that right now). I’m the type who has a box of old journals — a really big, heavy box — stored in the darkest recess of my home. I swear, I will do something with them someday… You also may have noticed you are reading WriterHeather.wordpress.com. Enough said!

So I think my desire to do an MFA program is really about taking my creative writing side to the next level while getting a degree. Is that a good reason to dedicate a huge chunk of time in my life to getting an MFA in creative writing?

Because let’s face it — school is for people who need to be taught. 

I can write creatively on my own. I can write on my own time and figure out how to publish. Anyone can do that. It’s like people who take classes on how to blog… Really? You paid to take a blogging class? All you have to do is open a Blogger or TypePad or WordPress account and get it done. You do read blogs don’t you? I mean, I don’t want to be that person who has to be taught something that can just as easily be figured out with a little curiosity and independence.

But if I enroll in an MFA program, I’ll be around other writers! I’d be in a community, an environment! I’d feel like I was a part of something. I’d feel like I had peers. I’d have professors who would encourage me. Right now, I’m writing in what little spare time I have (like right now, on a national holiday). No one encourages my writing, save for my Halogen editor who is awesome and just doing her job.

Sorry for the long posting today. Thanks for reading down this far! I’m really not sure if I will enroll in the MFA program that has caught my eye. I’m just a year out of BU and still remember all too well how much time and dedication it takes to balance work, school, and life while doing a degree program. At the moment, I really am enjoying lazy Sundays with coffee, a gluten-free bagel with vegan cream cheese and HBO. Maybe in seven more months, I’ll be adding homework to that Sunday morning ritual…

Follow me on Twitter @heatherlarson or leave me a comment here, please!