Confessions

Confessions of a Gay Romance Writer: Day 6 – A New Desk and Rereading a Gay Classic

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Today I did my morning pages as per usual and then had a quick cardio workout. I then spent the morning putting together my NEW TREADMILL DESK! Putting it together wasn’t that difficult, but I’m getting a little too old to be crawling around on the floor attaching large steel pieces (this desk is VERY sturdy), I haz me some serious aches! I got it positioned and hooked up in my office (thanks to my every helpful husband) and the computer rebooted as well. Tomorrow I’ll finish arranging some of the other furniture and I’ll be ready to go!

Yesterday I finished rereading Sweet Dreams, the first book in the Alex Kane series by John Preston. I really, really love this adventure series and I think it’s a crying shame that they’ve been completely forgotten. Originally released in the 1980’s, they were reprinted in the 90’s, but have been out of print for more than 20 years. I plan on writing a review in the next day or two and share my thoughts on the series which I hope, in some small way, bring it to the attention of modern readers.

Confessions of a Gay Romance Writer: Day 6

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I skipped yesterday’s pages because it was Sunday and Easter and I just didn’t feel like it. I did do my pages this morning though.

My new desk set-up just arrived here at casa Jeff & Will. Rearranging everything to fit into my office is large task that I expect will take all day tomorrow. I will try and post my progress here as per usual, but I can’t make any guarantees.

Confessions of a Gay Romance Writer: Day 4

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No new fiction word count to report today.

After getting up I did my morning pages and worked out. I had breakfast with my husband (the new biscuit tacos at Taco Bell are quite tasty) and went to the grocery store to do our shopping for the week. This is the standard start to our weekend, with ancillary activities fill out Saturday and Sunday.

I got the Latest issue of RT BookReviews in the mail yesterday and I just wanted to congratulate all the M/M authors who got reviews and featured ad spots in the lead-up to the RT convention in Dallas next month. We’re takin’ over people! Gay fiction is everywhere!

Confessions of a Gay Romance Writer: Day 2 – Practice is Needed

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No new words to report today.

I took a step back today and after some encouragement from friends online I realized the fear and anxiety I was experiencing was completely self inflicted. So despite the lack of word count I’m feeling more confident as the story concept I want to write slowly percolates.

I happened to be reading Rob Parnell’s Fast & Furious 2: Writing For Amazon and Kindle last night and he had some interesting and helpful things to say about the fear/anxiety/creativity connection. Despite their hyped-up titles, I’ve found Parnell’s books to be helpful and informative. I’ll do a longer post about my own issues concerning the anxiety/creativity connection in a later post.

I also came to the realization that while taking part in Camp NaNoWriMo I fully expected to go from zero to sixty (or 50K in this instance) without any real plan or training.

I NEED to practice.

Writing creatively is like working any muscle and I figuratively need to learn to walk before I can run. I’m going to start doing ‘morning pages’, a sort-of wake-up ritual than many people swear by, but I always thought was a little silly. Starting tomorrow, I’m going to sit at my desk with a pad and pen and write something, anything, first thing in the morning. It will be good practice and accomplishing a creative task (no matter how small) will hopefully set the tone for the entire day.

Confessions of a Gay Romance Writer: Day 1 – High Anxiety

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Zero new words to report on day one. I knew I might fall flat on my face eventually and embarrass myself publically, I just hoped it wasn’t going to be right out of the gate. For some ungodly reason, creating fiction makes me very anxious. I have no clue why I’m so fearful (if I did know I wouldn’t be in this predicament), but it’s a serious issue for me and one that I’ve been trying to work through for many years.

I did find pictures of several main characters (I like having visual references) and have a better grasp of some of the events that will take place in the short stories that I WILL write in the coming weeks.

As Scarlet O’Hara once said, “Tomorrow is another day.”