Kate Coursey remembers well the enchantment before bedtime, when her mother read J.R.R. Tolkien aloud. Soon after her mother finished reading Tolkien's entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, Coursey wrote her first short story. She was 8 at the time.

"It was a lot like The Lord of the Rings , except I replaced the 50-year-old men with 10-year-old girls," Coursey said.

Now 17, she's never stopped writing. After four long novel drafts, which she vows no one will ever read, Coursey's efforts hit competition paydirt this spring. She received a National Scholastic Art & Writing gold medal award in the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers' novel category for her fantasy novel-in-progress. As part of the award, she'll be working with a New York editor who will coach her through the publishing process.

Her story is a contrast to that of Robert Goble, a 39-year-old father of three, who earned a bachelor's degree in international studies, but took the day-job route to carving out time.

One of the first lessons he learned about writing is that -- as in life -- plot and characters sometimes take care of themselves. So don't condescend when you learn that his day job is working as head custodian for Orchard Elementary School in the Granite School District.

Goble saw his first novel, A Winter Morning's Sun , published last year by Salt Lake City's Waking Lion Press. His latest novel, Across a Harvested Field , received this year's Marilyn Brown Unpublished Novel award and a $1,000 honorarium in a competition hosted by Utah Valley University.

"It doesn't quite work culturally, does it? A little bit of a non-sequitur, I guess," Goble said.

His career trajectory might suggest a novella-length tale, but the short-story version is that the nature of his job allows time for his family and his passion for writing.

"The beauty of the job is that it's real solitary -- you can think," Goble said. "The ideas come, you jot notes down, then you go home to flesh them out. Some of my best ideas have come simply by doing my job."

Coursey and Goble offer local proof that novel writing is about the old-fashioned idea of time in a chair.

For Coursey, a junior at West High School, that means at least two hours of writing daily, usually between 7 and 9 p.m. after family dinner. During the school year, homework on weekdays afterward can mean burning the oil until as late as 2 a.m. "I try to write 1,000 words a day," she said.

For Goble, writing is an occupation that, like water, fills the gaps of random free time until he can give it prolonged attention. His laptop goes everywhere, inside and outside his Magna home.

For her prize-winning novel entry, Hamsa Song , Coursey spent hours researching Indian mythology and deities to build a fantasy novel plot built on an Asian culture little known to most Western readers. The dwarves, wizards, dragons and other stock features of fantasy novels borrowed from European myths were old hat, she decided.

Although her finished book hit an estimated 375 pages, the National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards -- which required judges to consider more than 165,000 entries in a variety of writing and visual art categories -- requested only the first 50 pages and a plot synopsis. She's prohibited by competition rules from discussing plot details of her novel. Coursey's next work-in-progress, however, involves encrypted messages in Buddhist prayer flags.

"It's a real job to read student novels," said Virginia McEnerney, executive director of Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, which administers the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. "For most students, originality is not what they're asked to produce, but original work often transcends the classroom."

Goble's latest award, the Marilyn Brown Unpublished Novel prize, comes in a competition launched 10 years ago targeting stories set in Utah or about members of the LDS Church. His novel, Across a Harvested Field, explores the relationship that results after a widowed Spanish teacher rents his basement out to an Italian pop star who wants to escape the weight of international fame.

If that sounds unlikely, Goble knows a school custodian and novelist he'd like you to meet.

"All good writing is about digging deep into your own experiences, and how well you understand other people," he said.