The Beginning - Here goes nothing!

My name is Rachel, I am a twenty-one-year-old college student and I am writing my first novel and my first blog simultaneously.

The novel idea started about a year ago but I have wanted to be a writer since I was little. (I know it’s a weird dream for a kid!) I grew up with a mom who was a great storyteller. She would spend hours at night telling stories about a boy and his dog or about a traveling sales man and his family. They were wonderful stories and somehow that, along with an avid love for reading, it translated into me wanting to be a writer. I have tried several times to start novels with little success. I currently have a few short stories, a very bad one-act play, and the beginnings of a screenplay under my belt but none of that compares to the journey I am about to embark on.

As I said, this is my first novel. To be honest I really don’t think I’m a very good writer but we will see if that’s true! With this blog (an assignment from one of my teachers) I am hoping to catalog my progress on the novel as well as get a grade for class! To me, this is an opportunity to force myself to write and maybe, if I’m lucky, get some feedback from anyone who might read this. I will be posting my struggles and some excerpts from the novel. If you’re reading this please comment and let me know what you think. I am new to the criticism thing but I believe it is helpful especially because of my inexperience in this area.
Well, that is the plan! Oh I think you should know, the novel doesn’t have a title yet. Thus the reason I keep saying “the novel.” It also only has nine pages so far! So this really is the beginning.