Linda Nelson

After struggling for seven months on my first teen romance I am happy to announce the first draft of Along Came Neil is DONE! And it is about time.

Writing this book is a big learning curve for me. I don’t normally read romances to begin with. I am the action adventure type of person who reads almost any kind of fantasy book that is plot oriented. Happy endings were never a prerequisite for my reading taste. I just hunger for a good plot.

By writing Along Came Neil I not only had to come up with a plot but I needed to develop my characters. This is something I have noticed in most of the really good Romances I have read this past year.

So now that I have the plot down with the first draft and a basic sketch of the characters when I go back through the story for the first edit I will be concentrating on description and character building. The biggest question I will be asking while I edit is why are my characters acting the way they do?

Hopefully this story will come out to be better than my others. I know I still have a lot to learn about the craft of writing, but I also do know one doesn’t learn it all over night. The best writers have had years and years of practice.

How has your writing been going this month?

Has the heat and the holiday gotten in your way?

Stop by and let me know how you’ve been doing. I’d love to hear about your latest work in progress.

Stop by and cheer on other Round of Words in 80 Day participants. Interested in joining us? It is never too late. We would love to have you on board. Come join us.

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Linkey List for ROW80

For the past year I have had trouble focusing on writing and I’ve found every excuse in the book. (Or so I think.)

But then along comes a blog post that motivates me beyond any of my expectations. There are a couple of folks I truly follow. One is Kristen Lamb and the other is Rachel Gardner. It almost seems like they synchronize their posts at times.

A recent post from Kristen talked about writers who may suffer from some amount of ADD. They tend to lose focus very easily. Those are the writers who have multiple projects going at one time. I was one of those a couple of years ago. Now I have two unfinished works to prove it.

Her post about keeping focus was right on.

People who find all sorts of excuses not to write can be contagious and I really do need to steer clear from them.

I have to write every day – even if it is only 200 words. I just have to do it, whether it is this blog or my work in progress or both.

During the last Round of Words in 80 Days I never set a true goal except for finishing Road Salt. That was back in January. Hello, it is now what – July? What is wrong with this picture? Along Came Neil should be done and in the middle of edits right now.

I know it is tough and I don’t know much about writing Romances. But I do know how to imagine how things could go in life even if the story is not realistic. Isn’t that what fiction is all about anyways. It is just a story and a good thing too. I wouldn’t want to be my main character after all she has been through and will continue to go through. Anyways, that’s what creating stories are all about.

Hello Land of Make Believe. Goodbye Reality.

By the way – I can’t stand Reality TV Shows. Give me a Soap Opera any day before you insist that I have to sit down and watch one episode of Big Brother or the Amazing Race.

I watch TV for the same reason I write, to escape reality.

So now that I have taken care of my latest excuse not to be working on my work in progress, I will now follow it with a bowl of ice cream and then get back to work.

J – Keep on Writing 6k words to go to the minimum word count for Along Came Neil. – I can do this – I can do this – I can do this…