I’m sitting here with a glass of iced coffee (in my neck of the woods, it was 106°F yesterday, and it’s supposed to be hotter today), contemplating the holiday weekend and what I’d like to accomplish.
(Mind you, when temps are hot, I feel like a slug. My husband feels the heat far more keenly than I, but it still makes me want to take a nap. In fact, no doubt I will. A few. But I still need to Get Things Done today and tomorrow.)
This weekend is all about Romance Novel 2.
I wish I could say I’d written more than one, but on the other hand, I’m laying the groundwork for a post-university career — still pretty far in the future — in which I can segue into full-time romance writing. Given that I currently publish academic books and articles and short literary nonfiction also, I think I’m probably doing pretty well for the moment, though. Slow and steady wins the race and all that.
More importantly, I’m learning my craft as an author of romance. Academic prose? I’m good. Literary nonfiction? Also good, though of course I can and do strive to do better with each thing I write. Romance fiction? I’m getting there, but man, it’s an Entirely Different Kettle of Fish from the other two, as each of them is from the other also.
I know I have followers who are successful, prolific romance authors. You amaze me.
I’ve read thousands of romances. Doesn’t mean I can write them. Well, I can and I have, but it takes more than being an avid reader. One must be an avid reader, I think, to write well and learn, in whatever realm one writes, but it’s no guarantee of anything. I used to teach writing (I think I’d suck at teaching it now, actually, as a primary focus), but really, I’m a perpetual student of writing, always trying to learn by doing, reading, and sometimes still taking classes.
Today? It’s a learn-by-doing day. I’m struggling a bit with writing the next scene in RN2, so I’m going to depart from my usual custom, jump forward quite a bit, and try to write a scene that occur significantly later. Couldn’t hurt.
You can’t edit a blank page. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
Wordsmith@Work 