Linda Attends her First Ever RWA Meeting
Yesterday I attended my very first Romance Writers Meeting in Bow, NH. I had a great time.
My friend Linda Kepner whom is also a member of the Monadnock Writers’ Group invited me to this meeting as a guest. She has been a member since last year and wanted to share the experience with me.
I think I got a lot more out of this meeting than was apparent to me yesterday. It has helped spark some enthusiasm in me just by being around these fun loving girls.
Can you imagine being at a meeting in a library where you have been taught over the ages to be quiet and to find that this meeting is so loud with laughter that it can be heard in the main part of the library behind closed doors.
I had such a good time that I began to check out the National site to see how much the membership costs. What I say made me say ouch. If it wasn’t for having to have a root canal taken care of over the next few weeks I think I would have had the money to join. It is kind of steep when you are living pay check to pay check.
Oh well, it will just have to wait a few months.
In the mean time I began to poke around and discovered that the RWA also has a subchapter that is right up my alley. The Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal Special Interest Chapter of RWA.
If this doesn’t motivate me to join, I don’t know what will. When I saw this I said, “Wait a minute. I guess I really do need to find a way to join.”
But still it is going to have to wait. I can’t pull money out of a hat unless it is in a story line. Unfortunately reality does not work that way.
So coming back to reality…
My ROW80 Check – In:
At the beginning of the week I had only added 1k words to Road Salt. Working on this story has been like pulling teeth. Sometimes I have found it to be almost as painful. It is not meant to be an entertaining read and I have to destroy the lives of my characters. I’m not really having fun doing this. Even the humor is lacking making this to be a dark sort of fiction, or so it seems to me.
But I do have to write this story. I promised to write it and by golly I will write it and finish it. Then I will be able to reward myself by writing the next installment of the Orgarlan Saga.
Today I am happy to report on my current additional word count of Road Salt. In the past 2 hours I was able to add another 2k words.
That makes 3k words for the week. Yes!
Now I will go back and fight off the temptation to put Road Salt away for the rest of the day. World of Warcraft is calling me. Hopefully I will be able to resist the temptation and keep on writing.
Have you written any stories where you felt like you were pulling teeth?
Stop by and check out and meet some of the other ROW’ers with our Linkey List.
Linda Nelson 
Some times — and some stories — you just have to let the story take its time.
And it’s always nice to find a really good local chapter of a writing organization. National organizations are good, but you get the most benefit if the local serves your needs.
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I have to agree with you about the writing process. It just feels so good to be moving forward once again with Road Salt.
I would never have given the National RWA a thought if I had not attended yesterday’s meeting. Especially with their costly memembership.
The local RWA chapter here in NH is a good strong one and will definately make it worth the cost of the National Membership.
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My experience with writing novels suggests that it’s always at least a bit of a slog to get all the words out that you want… But this third one is dragging itself out much longer than I’m happy with, so I can definitely appreciate the pulling teeth feeling–albeit because I feel like there are too many competing priorities, so just not enough hours in the day to add my quota of words.
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I am fortunate to have grown children. All I am left to care for is the dog, cats and the chickens. The rest of the house hold pretty much moves about without disturbing my writing time. Except when they decide to hold that conversation with me. It seem like they always wait to hear the tap – tapping on the keyboard before they engage in conversation with me. Then they say, “Oh, you were writing, weren’t you? Sorry, I didn’t realize that.”
I say, “Yah, right.”
That is what I deal with for competing prioties.
Your slogging will come. Some say it is part of the plotting mode when no new words show up on your screen.
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I haven’t written stories that make me feel that way, but I’ve had jobs like it and a similar sense occurs every time I view the pile up in my laundry! Linda, would it be worth putting it aside for awhile and considering adjustments to the storyline to make it less dark and depressing to write? I don’t know, only you can answer that question. I am merely throwing it into the mix in the hope it may help. Sometimes when I get really stuck in the mud, I need to backtrack and find a lighter path. Then the hard slog lifts a little. Maybe you just haven’t stumbled on your most ideal version of the story yet?
Whatever way it happens, I hope it’s a success for you and that you gain a great deal of personal satisfaction from the finished work.
Cheers, Cate (ROW80)
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Thanks Cate for trying to help cheer me up while I work through this manuscript.
I must persevere. I am determined to get this story written no matter what. The story is on the dark side because of the nature of the story.
Drug addiction is a difficult topic to write about, especially when it has entered into one’s life at some point as it has done to mine with a loved one.
I may be able to find some humor for the story when I begin the edits but I have to get through the rough draft first.
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Good on you for tackling that topic Linda. It is a tough one! Best wishes and if it needs to be dark, I certainly understand. Let it help others stay away from that path.
Cheers!
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