Okay, my cp wrote this totally adorable short romance and she’s posting a chapter a day on her blog. Go read it. It’s a treat. I absolutely loved it.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Everyone has a special talent. Some of us struggle our whole lives trying to figure it out, some of us know what is the day we become conscious of who we are, and some of us, like me, fall somewhere in between.

I didn’t always know I was a writer. Even though I was scribbling stories at an early age and heavy into make-believe, being “a writer” didn’t occur to me as a possibility for a very long time. However, I always thought of myself as “an observer”. I saw things other people didn’t because I was watching. Now, before you start thinking “stalker”, let me say that many people who know me would not describe me as particularly observant. I’m near-sighted, and I have a bad habit of walking around with my gaze on the floor, deep in thought.

But every once in while when I lift my gaze and focus, I take mental snapshots of other people. I notice the faces on the couple at the table next to me, and just “know” they’re breaking up. I smile at an old lady digging through her change purse to buy a small gift for her grandkid and see the wealth of love in her gnarled fingers. I pay attention to the special bond between a dad and his daughter when she races out of school with her latest art project, and he immediately oohs and aahs.

I think this observing thing is a fundamental part of being a writer. At least, it is for me. A love of words is also important, of course, but isn’t noticing the first step toward understanding? And from there, a short hop to sharing?

What do you think?

Do you set goals for yourself? Do you write them down and track your progress? Some people do, some people don’t. I do. But only because someone once told me that if I really want my dreams to come true I need to make them happen.

You might think it odd but I don’t list getting published as a goal. Why? Because I can’t control that outcome–only the publishers can control who gets published.

My goals are focused on things I can control, like how many pages per day I write, what contests I enter, how many queries I send out, who I send them to, etc.. I pick goals that are “audacious”…not so easy that accomplishing each one is a guarantee, not so hard that it’s like climbing Mt. Everest. I make them as verifiable as I can. i.e. Enter three contests judged by target publishers by the end of August.

Trouble is, my biggest goal is not easy to wrestle into a nice neat package. My BIG goal is to be an excellent storyteller. My theory is that if I’m an excellent storyteller, someone will want to publish my stuff. But how will I know when I’ve achieved such a lofty goal? I suspect I will keep this one as a permanent goal, shifting my definition of what it is over time. For now I defined it as: 3 people I respect tell me they stayed up all night to finish reading my story and they were on the edge of their seat wondering if the hero would accomplish his goal (or similar wording).

For me, this is a BIG goal. I might be a decent wordsmith, but plotting is damned hard work. Keeping people on the edge of their seat is not easy–I don’t write thrillers. Still, I have a target, and I’ve got a whole series of stepping stone goals leading me in that direction. Wish me luck.

How about you, what’s your BIG goal?

As a writer, do you ever sit back and think about how unique you are? Published or unpublished, we’re still part of a very select group of people.

Next time you’re on a bus or on a downtown street during lunch hour or rush hour, pause and take a look at the faces around you. How many of the people you see look happy and fulfilled? When I did it, the answer was, not many. I’ve also had lunches with friends who are not writers, and listened to them talk about their work and home lives. For some there’s enthusiasm and vivacity, but for many there’s just frustration and drudgery.

It’s very different when I talk to other writers who’ve discovered they write because they must. Yeah, there’s still frustration, but we’re all doing something we’re driven to do from our hearts. We’re all chasing our dreams. There’s very little in life that’s more powerful and energizing than that. Sure, writing is hard, getting published is harder, and staying published is harder still. But no one is making us do this. It’s only our own passion that drives us.

And when you look at all the faces of the people around you, ask yourself how many of them would thrill to be in your shoes, to have something they were passionate about. If you’re one of those people who wishes they had passion (I was one until three years ago), I encourage you look inside yourself for the things that excite you and follow your heart.

See that one person over there in the corner with the smile on her face, scribbling on a napkin? She’s a writer.

It’s easy sometimes to get caught in the negative currents of life. The undertow can suck you right out to sea if you’re not paying attention.

But lately I’ve been struck by how lucky I am. Struggling to become a published writer is like many things you do for yourself–it can be grueling and lonely. So when someone who has absolutely nothing to gain helps you along the way, it’s a real treasure.

I can honestly say that if it were not for those helping hands, I’d never have made it this far. Some of them I can put a name or a face to, some I can’t. Who are they? The women of my chapter who’ve applauded my every advance, no matter how small. The contest judges who’ve clearly spent hours pouring over my entries, marking up my pages with examples and writing reams of comments (both good and not so good). Those people who’ve taken late night pathetic emails from me and responded with “of course you’ll get published, I can’t believe you’re not already”. Wonderful people who’ve reached out and invited me to join a new loop. Writers willing to give their time and energy to teach a workshop, or critique a synopsis or just share their experiences. Critique partners that have squeezed reading hundreds of pages of my writing in between the things that are really important in their lives. People who’ve blogged or emailed about painful mistakes or challenges they’ve faced, so I could learn. The on-line buddy who started it all with a simple “I hope this won’t be the last time I talk with you”.

These same people help others as often and as unstintingly as they’ve helped me, and were it not for them, the world would be a much colder, harsher place. Thanks to all the generous people out there. For whomever you’ve helped along the way.

I’m going to offer this out there, not because I think I’m an expert in character development (’cause I’m not) but because it helped me. A lot.

Have you ever struggled when developing a character, trying to get their strengths and weaknesses just right? Maybe it’s just me, but I used to agonize over what flaw my characters were supposed to have — I loved them so much, giving them a horrible flaw seemed cruel, even though I knew I was going to help them grow through it by the end of the book. Picking the right flaw was hard.

Until someone enlightened me with: a person’s greatest strength is often also their greatest weakness.

Huh? I had to think long and hard on that.

But now I can see how true it is. Let’s say, for example, your heroine’s greatest strength is that she’s tough — she can handle anything that comes at her. Doesn’t it make sense that her greatest weakness is that she never thinks to ask for help? If your hero’s greatest strength is that he’s honest, doesn’t it make sense that he’s going to say things that hurt? If you have a character who is extremely generous to everyone, isn’t it possible s/he is emotionally bankrupt when at home? Or, if you have a character who’s intelligent, that s/he tends to debate even the most trivial of things when they don’t make sense? This yin yang concept works really well in reverse, too. If your villain is bitter and twisted over his mother having abandoned him as a child, doesn’t it makes sense that he finds homes for stray kittens?

I know, for some of you, this is “duh, of course that’s the way it works, silly” but understanding this concept really helped me. I hope it can help someone else out there in blogland, too.

Happy Easter everyone. I hope the Easter bunny delivers lots of chocolate to your house.

I’ve had two days to absorb the news that I’m a finalist in the Golden Heart. Thank you for all the congrats. My hands have stopped shaking and it finally seems real, but I’m still blown away. The reason for that is two-fold: a) I was sure it would be Sylvia who finaled and not me (I’m not kidding) and b) I’d convinced myself this was not the year.

I’m a re-writer - one of those people who writes the first draft in a couple weeks and then spends months polishing it. So, despite all the rosy ideals I had when I mailed in my entry last November, I had re-written so much of my ms I was sure the GH version was crap.

When I heard I’d finaled, I was amazed …and incredibly touched that five judges - at least a few of them my peers in PRO - had read my partial and thought it was good enough to grace with a high mark. Thank you, if you were one of those judges. It was a wonderful validation. I swear I get tears in my eyes and goose-bumps just thinking about those 5 people liking my story.

Yeah, I know the GH is as subjective as any other contest (Sylvia not finaling is a case in point :???:), but it still feels good. It’s helped stoke the fire I know I’ll need to reach the finish line - publication - which still might be some distance away.

For those of you who’ve considered entering the GH, or any other contest, and haven’t yet found the courage, I hope my experience will show you that anything is possible. But you have to enter. You have to get your stuff out there.

Go for it.