By Sarah Szczepanski
Assistant Features Editor

It’s after 3:30 a.m. and the lights are still on in Room 253 in Hillenbrand Hall.

Senior Jennifer Hobson sits at her computer as her fingers fly across the keyboard. Even though she needs to be at her 7:30 class in a few hours, she doesn’t sleep; she’s reworking the novel she’s writing.

For every tick of the clock, the keyboard clicks like a set of chattering teeth, and soon Hobson walks to her 7:30, thinking about the next chapter.

After three years, Hobson is getting ready to graduate with English and Spanish majors and is trying to publish her first historical romance novel, "In Love and War."

Whether it be writing a 400-page novel or taking 27 credit hours in one semester, Hobson doesn’t procrastinate; she just does it.

"I really, really, really want to write," said Hobson. "I want to be a novelist."

She writes during her free time, which sometimes leads into two to three all-nighters each week.

When she is not busy writing, she is practicing for competitions for the Purdue Ballroom Dancing Club or choreographing ballroom dances for engaged couples.

She said what she has done with ballroom dancing is like a lot of other things she does in her life.

Hobson said the thought of giving lessons to people probably occurred to many who know how to dance; but she is one who actually does it. She said the same principle applies to her writing.

"I’m sure everyone in the world has thought ‘Oh, I’d like to write a novel,’ but I have actually sat down and written a novel."

She said people need to know themselves and their limits and try to reach them realistically.

"You know, your goals themselves don’t have to be realistic, just your progress. I would like to be a New York Times bestseller. If that doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. But I am going to keep trying for it; I am going to prove to the publishers that I can be one."

One of Hobson’s English professors, Robert Lamb, said that because of Hobson’s reading, analysis and writing skills, she would succeed in any career she wants. "A lot of people have skills that fit them for one or two professions, but she has skills that could benefit her in everything she wants to do."

Another skill Hobson has is her attention to detail. She is meticulous in her planning; aside from knowing her entire plot before she begins her story, she has even planned reasons for her pen name, Lydia East. With the last name "East," she would have a prime location on a bookshelf.

"Whenever you walk into a bookstore, it's not too high, and it's not to low on the shelf," she said. "A lot of people in those letters have bestsellers. I thought ‘they are at eye level, I want to be at eye level.’ So I put my name in there."

Hobson hasn’t always been thinking of ways to publicize her writing. In fact, when she was little, her first career choice was to be a grandmother.

But after telling stories at Girl Scout camp, she decided she wanted to be an author. "I loved how involved and interested I could get other people," Hobson said.

She started her first novel in sixth grade and 400 pages later, she still revises pieces of it occasionally.

Although, suprisingly, the writing in her first novel was not bad, the manuscript, like many others, has undergone revisions. She said that sometimes she revises manuscripts up to five times before she is satisfied.

"You can’t be afraid to admit when something is bad, you really can't," said Hobson, who once deleted 120 pages of a story without saving a copy. "You have to be able to look at it and say, ‘you know, that’s horrible.’ I've found that once you get something bad down, you are revising something bad. So it gets better, but it is never good."

This same student who sold 800 boxes of Girl Scout cookies to win a dogsledding trip in sub-zero temperatures now focuses her seemingly endless energy toward finishing up this semester.

"Jenny is really dedicated," said Francis Hegarty, a sophomore in the School of Agriculture and Hobson’s roommate. "Once she starts something, she really sticks to it."

A novel-o-meter hanging in their dorm room marks the time until the semester ends and Hobson can spend her time writing her next novel. Even though the novel-o-meter says she must wait until after her last final, Hobson is already 42 pages into writing her next novel.

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