Say Victoria, Why Did you Read Romancing the Beat?

That's a great question! For as long as I can remember I've wanted to write and when I was a child and a teen I did write, then life got in the way and I spend my 20s thinking I needed to have experiences worth writing about instead of writing. Then I got married and had kids and well, that was a lot. To be fair, I did some blogging and I wrote a bit, but mostly I didn't and then I thought should I go back to school and get an English Degree or study creative writing? Then I thought, how can I even consider spending money on going back to school when we have three kids to put through college? After thinking on that for a while, I decided maybe writing doesn't need to be me creating a best seller or the next great American novel, maybe I could write a cozy mystery.

So I did that, and right when I was getting something together and ready to be at the editing stage, then I found out I had cancer. Then when that was done and my brain was mush, then Covid happened. Oh sure that could have been a really good time to go back to writing, but as you can see I'm quite good at pushing off my dream to write stories other people want to read. 

So lately, I've been thinking about writing again and writing in the romance genre. This time around, my plan is to get to the point where I can self-publish via Kindle Unlimited. I've started listening to podcasts and following smaller successful romance writers who share how they do the business side and based on my past work experience, I think self-publishing would be something I could manage--once I have something to publish.  Plus I'll need to save up money to pay to have someone edit my book. Here is my process and timeline (I'm posting all this so I have some accountability for my writing dream)

Now thru end of May:

Listen to podcasts for writing and publishing romance. 

Work on a very detailed outline as well as character sheets 

June: 

Participate in the #1000wordsofsummer writing challenge and draft 1,000 words per day for the first two weeks of June. 

Then assess--ideally be in a writing groove and finish my round draft by end of summer - or fall. 

*****

I enjoyed reading Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes, it's a short book that breaks down the plot points that make a good romance so good. For me, I need to plan to be creative, so this book is perfect for me to start with as I begin writing from an idea I had a few years ago!