Good news everyone – I’m writing a book! Although, you want to know a secret? I’ve technically kind of already written one.

The book I’m writing is part of Camp NaNoWriMo which is National Novel Writing Month. The idea is you write and write and write for a whole month, you set your own goals, and at the end of the month you have a book.

I’d never heard of it until my buddy Shawna talked about it, and I asked if I could do it with her. She took part in regular NaNoWriMo in November, and she now has a finished book. She pulled some of her strings and got me in a cabin with some buds and now, thanks to Shawna, I’m working away at my first novel.

It hasn’t been easy, but then again it hasn’t been hard either. I’ve decided to write ostensibly about the last seven years of my life, which is how long I’ve been in radio for. All the good and all the bad that’s come with it will finally be out there for the world to see. I just feel it’s important to get everything out there. I’ve been holding so much in and protecting so many people’s dirty secrets for so long. Looking forward to some muck being thrown in the right directions!

Which brings me to an interesting point. As I said, In Camp NaNoWriMo you set your own targets. My original target was 50,000 words but that was just deeply impractical so I changed it to 25,000 words and I’m in good shape to finish it.

But here’s the good part. I’ve been doing this column for almost a year now, next week will be column 52. and my goal every week is around 400 words or so. So if you do some quick maths, 400 times 52, you get 208,000 words. That’s kind of impressive! I’ve very proud of the work I do for the Barrhead News, and I thank them for printing a year of my nonsense.

My ultimate point though, is: if I can do it, you can do it. Starting is always the hardest part but once you’re going, it’s so easy to get into the swing of, I promise. So if you’ve always wanted to write a project, I implore you to sit down and begin. If for nothing else than just how it makes you feel once you accomplish it. That’s got to be worth it.