Is there a book in this?

For some time, I've been churning about turning a story I heard into a book. There's never any time. Isn't that a great excuse?

So I've joined NaNoWriMo, a crazy proposal to write a book in a month. It's been less than a week, and I can't say that I've been amazingly successful yet. Oh, I started it, and surprise, surprise - it's turning into something I really hadn't imagined.

I've been thinking my beginning is boring, but you're not supposed to "think" too much during this process. Instead, I've been thinking about the other writers who are joining me in this ridiculous venture. And yes, I did tell them all I thought it was ridiculous - but compelling.

I'm a deadline person, so maybe this is just what I need. To hell with research and facts. Just get it down on paper.

I've told the others very little about my idea, but here's what they're thinking about:

One woman had a brother who committed suicide. She's going to work through that in her book. Another woman, who by the way looks great, had had a horrific car accident in which there were broken bones and other things I can't repeat. She quit her job in health care to write, and will be working through all this. 

A very gregarious man, who may or may not be one of the facilitators, was homeless once, but not now, and wants to write a "homeless mystery." I can't wait. 

Another young man talks really fast, as millenials do, and said something about Napster, so I'm thinking he's going to write a technology something-or-other. 

One woman is writing a dream sequence where she goes back and forth from high school to the present. This, of course, sounds like an utter nightmare to me. I think there are visions of the future in this, although that may be another writer's thing. 

We have someone doing horror. We'll see what that means. And then there's the writer who's doing a Peter Pan in the Regency era story. I had to look up Regency Era. I don't think we studied this in school, did we? Here's what Wikipedia says about that:

The Regency in the United Kingdom is the period from 1811 to 1820, when King George III was deemed unfit to rule and his son, the Prince of Wales, ruled as his proxy as Prince Regent. On the death of his father in 1820, the Prince Regent became George IV.

The term Regency (or Regency era) sometimes refers to a longer period than the decade of the formal Regency. 

There is a man, I'm going to say of my generation, who is writing about his great grandfather during the Civil War. There was some kind of trial, so he has all manner of material, but is struggling with voice. Like, aren't we all? 

Finally, there's a woman whose story I want to read right now. She has a friend whose son, Drew, was adopted. They got to talking and found that he was interested in finding his birth mom, but all he knew was her first name — Kevin. Not a common woman's name. 

Well, the writer freaked because when she lived in southern California, she knew a woman in the apartment complex named "Kevin." So somehow they trace back to California, actually find this Kevin lady, and hear the story of how she handed her baby boy to someone through a car window in a parking lot. Wow. 

Meanwhile, I'm struggling with the barriers I always struggle with — TIME, husband, health (meaning that I fade fast in the evening) and all the stupid obligations I've created for myself. 

I'm doing the unthinkable - research - by meeting a man from the Sudan on Saturday. We'll see where this leads me, if anywhere.