in which i submit to my first interview

*reprinted without permission*

Frustrated Writer: So, I hear that you are trying to write a novel. That true?

Joe: Yes, sir. I am participating in National Novel Writing Month and am currently writing my first novel. I think it is going well so far.

F.W.: So what makes you think you can write one, huh?

Joe: Well, I have always had a somewhat hidden and mostly unspoken goal of writing a novel and I had not made any progress on that goal in more than a decade. With NaNoWriMo I was given the motivation and a deadline to try. I don't think that I can write one better than published authors, but I want to write something and finish something.

F.W.: Wait, so you haven't even finished it yet and you're already telling people about it? Isn't that a bit presumptuous?

Joe: Perhaps, but I figure that telling people could give me additional motivation. If I keep it all to myself than nobody would know if I failed to reach a word count goal or if I just quit. But if I told somebody than in some sense I would be accountable.

F.W.: What is this "novel" called? Have you even given it a name?

Joe: I'm calling it Diary of a Vampire right now, but I have The Vampire Diaries in my mind as a possible alternate title.

F.W.: *snorting* Your novel is about vampires?

Joe: Yes.

F.W.: That's not literature.

Joe: I'm just trying to write the best story that I can and make it something that I would be interested in reading. Hopefully other people will be interested, too, and after revisions some small publisher will give it a shot.

F.W.: It's not literature, though. It's not a real novel.

Joe: I would respectully disagree, though perhaps not about the Literature part. Hopefully my story will be entertaining and lord willing be something that people want to pay money to read. That's the greatest literary respect I would want to hope for.

F.W.: I fear for the literary soul of America if you are the future of writing.

Joe: Thank you.

F.W.: I hope that your computer battery overheats and sets your computer on fire before you make back up copies of your work and you lose everything.

Joe: And also with you.