What would happen if we stopped lowering our expectations of young people, and instead set a very high bar for them?  So high, in fact, that most adults would love to have the tools to vault over that bar themselves?  That's exactly what "A Novel Idea," a new program for middle-school and high-school students in Nashville, aims to do by teaching students to write a novel.  In a month.

At first blush, this task may seem overly ambitious, especially for young people struggling through the most awkward time of their development.  But that's exactly why college professor, Kristen House, started "A Novel Idea."  "They have stories to tell," she says, "and they feel othered by their experiences growing up.  So they read books and watch movies in search of answers. I hope to teach them that their answers are already inside them, and that everyone on the planet is struggling with the same issues."

"A Novel Idea" will be located at Abintra Montessori School in west Nashville and is accepting applications from aspiring authors through May 12.  For details, visit www.anovelideanashville.com.

House wrote her first novel at 15 years old at the insistence of a particularly insightful teacher.  It took her 17 years to write another, after searching for instruction and inspiration through high school, college, graduate work in Ireland, and a stint in Law School (which did nothing for her creativity!). Her second novel was crafted under a strict set of rules: no revising, no re-reading, and no editing until the first draft was finished.  It was this experience which led her to create A Novel Idea for aspiring novelists.

And by the way, Kristen's debut novel, Jimmie Ann's Divinity and the Blue Ribbon Bakery, is currently under agency review.  She hopes you'll see it on bookshelves very soon.