A Mission Statement of Sorts

     As of today, March 1st, 2011, my first novel The Odd Season is at 2,865 words. The average novel, around 240-300 pages, contains roughly 60,000-70,000+ words. That number range will be my goal. Which means that I am almost at 1/20ths or 5% of the way to completion.

     I will refrain from saying that I have a long journey ahead of me. That would feel akin to standing at the base of a mountain, looking up in scrutiny, and remarking aloud that "Wow, I still have quite some distance to go."

     Well, no shit, there's still a mountain to climb.

     So what I propose is that this blog will be my travelogue. Here I will talk about anything and everything that pops into my mind as I write my novel – hopefully most of it will be pertinent to the creative process. Perhaps this will come in the form of an anecdote, insight into how I write, a photograph, or a bit of information that I found interesting while doing research. I will also document my progress with each entry, telling you how many words or pages I have gained.

     Then every other weekend I hope to put up a short story, as a treat.

     I feel that I also owe you, the dear readers, a brief introduction. My name is Neal Hallenbeck. I am 20 years old and I live in Toledo, Ohio. I attend Adrian College in Michigan, where I major in writing. I hope to one day become an author, because I can't imagine being anything else.