AT LONG LAST!

It's DONE!

I FINISHED IT!

I typed the last words yesterday afternoon, and today at our monthly Romance Writer's Meeting I got my chocolate and a round of applause.

That applause felt awesome. (You can take the boy out of acting, but you can't take the acting out of the boy.)

Seriously, I accomplished several breakthroughs yesterday.

First of all: I completed something that I started.
Second: It was something for which I had no TRUE deadline.
Third: I did it because I loved it.
Fourth: I turned out not half bad.
Fifth: I did it in a reasonable amount of time. (More on that ina minute)
Sixth: I worked till it was DONE.
Seventh: I now know I can write a complete story/book from begining to END!

All this because I slowly pecked away at it.

And as for the the "reasonable amount of time" thing, well, here's my reference for that.

At today's meeting, I was asked by a couple of fellow members how long it took me to write my first one. I told them, and they were COMPLETELY STUNNED.

They both told me it took them roughly TWO YEARS to write theirs.

And one of them had written a book that was EXACTLY the same length as mine!

What a RELIEF!

Here I was thinking I wasn't taking this whole thing seriously enough, and I come to find out that I'm a tad prolific in my writing.

I can DO this.

I'm not saying my rough draft is anything better than a VERY rough draft. But the point is I got the ROUGH draft done in ONE THIRD of the time it seems to have taken other people.

Which means: I have a passion for this. I wanted it done, because I believed in it, and felt, intrinsically, that I could do it.

Even if this manuscript never sees the light of day, I will know that I did it.

And more importantly, I can do it AGAIN!

The other short contemporary writer and I have decided to share our stories with each other and see if we can't help each other rejig our respective manuscripts to get the into some kind of acceptable form for submission.

Next steps.

I am SO excited.

And proud.

Can I just revel in that for a moment?

J.D

Knuckle Biting

It's so close I can almost taste it.

I'm talking of course about the ENDING OF MY BOOK.

I am roughly 3000 words from the end! That's less than one whole chapter!

THE END! Can you believe it??????

You have to understand, I NEVER finish ANYTHING I start. EVER.

I've just written a 50000-ish word novel. How AWESOME is that?

I have learned so much so far. About myself, and myself as a writer. It's fascinating.

Like for instance:

I don't like to write more than 1000 words a day, and that if I stick to that I am more likely to actually
write those 1000 words.

Writng 1000 words a day means I can write a chapter in four days. Three if it's going well.

I will also make sacrifices for writing that I would NEVER have made when I was acting.

Example:

Tonight, when I got home, (anxious to get another thousand or so words down on my chapter--I have a deadline of Saturday this week to get it done), THE POWER WAS OUT ONLY ON MY BLOCK!

Can you believe??????

And I didn't have any part of Chapter Eleven in my home computer. It was saved in my email so I could download it from my work computer. Stupid.

Here's how I handled it.

I actually packed up my laptop and marched down the street to Starbucks to see if I could get on the internet and do the writing I needed to do.

I would NEVER HAVE DONE THIS for ANYTHING to do with the acting biz. EVER.

Something has changed within me. (Not a deliberate quote from Wicked, but what can I say, it's TRUE!)

I want to sell MILLIONS of books!

I want to tour the world spreading the joy of writing and reading romance.

I am so bloody excited, I can't stand it.

I'll post again when I'm done.

Keep your fingers crossed for me. I gotta be done by tomorrow night.

Yikes!!!!!

J.D

After WOTS

Word on the Street was a great experience.

I met several more of our members at the Toronto Romance Writers booth.

Also, I noticed an odd reluctance on the part of passers-by to openly talk about romance.

People seem embarrassed to admit that they like to read or write romance.

I think it has to do with the fact that ultimately the romance industry is about promoting love, joy, hope, and faith in something intangible.

Something that EVERYONE wants.

We live in such a cynical time, that I believe people don't want to been seen as "foolish" by admitting that they believe in something as seemingly simplistic as love or joy or hope.

WHY?

HOW have we arrived at such a place?

WHY is it foolish to be optimistic?

I would say it's BRAVE to be optimistic.

I have refused in my past to be closeted about a number of things. My homosexuality, the fact that I grew up on a pig farm, that I suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and that I like cheesy pop music.

I again to refuse to be closeted about my love for romance, joy, hope, faith, and love.

Wouldn't we all be in a better mood if we believed that GOOD things can acutally happen?

Something to think on.

J.D