I'm Either Crazy or Brilliant. Or Both.

I still don't have a thesis topic. I have wracked my brain trying to figure out what on EARTH I could research and write about in the realm of business or German that would, as the professor I talked with put it, "get my juices flowing."

And then, tonight, while sitting at Starbucks brainstorming, I had an idea.

Why not write a fiction novel? We're allowed to do pretty much anything we want with the thesis project. I could try and get it published at the end of the year, and honestly, when else am I going to have a chance to set aside huge blocks of my time to write like this? Certainly not after I graduate and dive into the real world. I could come up with a premise, write a book proposal, and the meetings with my director would serve as deadlines for chapters and drafts and outlines and brainstorming and editing. For the final touch, I go to a publisher. It's just crazy enough that it might work.

The most encouraging thing about this idea is that the moment it came to me, I shot up straight in my chair (nearly knocking over my coffee in the process) and started scribbling ideas in the notebook in front of me that, up to this point, had a list of halfhearted thesis topic ideas on it.

Christian Fiction. A thriller, like Ted Dekker's stuff.
Historical Fiction. Set in Germany. World War II.

I rushed home and pounded out a draft email to a professor in the English department, who I will contact tomorrow. This is one of those moments in life where you realize

a) you've finally snapped under the weight of all the stress and totally lost your mind (a novel from scratch to publishing in 9 months??) or
b) you've just had the best idea you've had in a loooooong time.