A Penny for your Thoughts: One thing I’m very, very good at…
I have always wanted to be a novel writer.
I wanted to grab a reader by the throat and keep them entranced until they finished every single word and when they put it down I wanted them to not only feel satisfied with the ending, but also that they went on an adventure. I think the most into a story I have ever gotten is 15 chapters. And then I threw it all away. I don’t even know why I threw it away. People kind enough to read it, people I had been gaming (RPG Online) with told me they were enjoying the story and wanted more. I believed them because I was writing about the character they knew from our gaming.
Since then, I’ve had a very hard time writing anything over 5,000 words. I couldn’t seem to figure out what I wanted to happen in the story and I wasn’t really paying attention to what the characters wanted either. A lot of what I write tend to be short erotic scenes. I’ve shared those as well over the years and people have told me they want more, that it’s turned them on, that they couldn’t wait to see what I come up with next.
Bombarded by Ideas
Several years went by that I didn’t write at all, other than my personal blog, and even that I rarely touch now. I still have characters begging for my attention in the back of my mind. Conversations I have about ‘what-ifs’ and dreams make me think ‘that would make a great story premise’. One of those I am currently writing about. And last night I just pounded out over 3,000 words on another idea I had and I couldn’t concentrate on any other writing until I got it down. By the time I got it down I was wrung out and exhausted, but totally satisfied. I shared that with one of my close friends who is being kind enough to tell me what works, what needs to be fixed, and ‘try wording it this way’ opinions. I don’t think he knows just how much I appreciate him.
Every dream, every idea, every character, that comes to me now that says “WRITE ABOUT THIS” has been gathering on my list of things to write about. There’s a niche I might even be able to exploit since it seems to not really have all that much in it from what I have seen. I haven’t researched it yet but when I go to write for it, then I will.
I grab a lot of novels when they are on sale by authors I love, new authors I have never heard of, and freebies when they peak my interest. Usually, I grab them without reading reviews and with some of them I end up wondering why I didn’t read the reviews. (Especially on the freebies!) Some people truly weren’t meant to write, or they pantsed it and didn’t take the time to have it workshopped or revised. Or maybe they did and it just ended up still being terrible.
Reviews
I did download a novel, which I haven’t opened yet, and then went back to read the reviews. The first two shredded it. The ones after that were in love with it. It was free, so I haven’t bothered looking at it to give my own opinion. I may have skipped out downloading it if I had read the reviews first. Sometimes, they are worth reading. I won’t know until I open it which ones would apply to me.
Anyway. I’m very good at writing short, hot and sexy scenes. However, I am hoping that with a timeline/outline that I can put my skills into a novel-length romance story. Currently, I am up to 8,132 words. Most of that will end up being backstory that gets sprinkled through the rest of the novel. That’s okay, though. I like knowing things that happened in the past so that I can use it in the future.
