Thursday Thirteen- 13 Things I Discovered When I Started a Novel.

I have always wanted to write -and was writing years ago, then stopped. Due to a lot of little miracles, I’m back. I pulled out a story I had started years ago and am finishing it.

Here are 13 things I’ve discovered since then.

1. Don’t try  to write alone and w/o support from other writers. You need to know the madness is OK.
2. Take a writing workshop -it’s amazing how much better and more consistent you’ll become.
3. I don’t read romance novels. I said I wasn’t writing a romance. I’m writing a romance.
4. Your characters and their world take over yours.
5. Other writing friends are invaluable.
6. When you proclaim you are a writer, you are a writer.
7. A writer sits and does the work, day in and day out.
8. On some days that works totally sucks. But that’s ok. This is one job where sucky work is ok and expected.
9. With this job, if you decide to sit and watch movies all day, its ok -its research.
10. But you can only do that once in a while, the rest of the time, you have to sit and do the work.
11. My characters tell me where the story is going and they have made me cry.
12. Yesterday, because they were talking to me, I put the phone in the garbage can. This happens a lot.
13. Family members eventually learn to recognize that look in your eyes that lets them know you are off in  your characters world and they finally stop mentioning the Psyche ward.