And The Winner Is…..

I have spent a month having the best fun EVER!  I wrote my first book.  71334 words.  I must say I loved every minute of it, including the final days of painful back spasms.  They’ve finally calmed down, which is good because I want to enjoy this victory.

What have I learned?

• That there is a writer in me.
• That I love writing.  If I go more than two days without writing I get very crabby and hard to live with.
• That the best way to write is to start with a rough concept and then let the characters come to life.  They will control the plot.
• That the joy is in the journey.  When I finally typed THE END it felt a little anticlimactic.  When I was young I used to feel the same thing when I would climb a tall mountain peak.  The fun is in challenging yourself, pushing yourself to get to the top, not in sitting on the top.  Even though the scenery is beautiful, it was the journey that I loved, not the destination.
• That if you want to be a writer you just have to sit down and write.  That’s the first sentence in any book about writing, but no one believes it.  I spent a year doing daily writing exercises but produced nothing because I was spending all my time worrying about the writing instead of just doing it.
• That I have one of the world’s loudest critics inside my own mind, and I have to write fast and write hard to silence the little devil.
• That having a passion in life is what makes you come alive.
• Just write.  Editing comes later.
• I have a partner who loves me and puts up with all this nonsense, and that is worth the world to me.

Thank you for coming along on the journey with me, my friend.  I will be putting up a new chapter each week, so look for that announcement.

Blessings!