It's Officially Over

The Holiday Season is officially over! My Starbucks ran out of the red holiday cups. Boo hoo. I haven't given up my Skinny Peppermint Mocha quite yet. Might not be able to let that go until we are out of January.

Snapshot: 4:30 a.m.

When my alarm clock wakes me at 4:30 every morning, I stumble out of the bedroom to my desk and gather up the three essential tools I need to write...
1. Apple MacBook (aka my life)
2. My pretty floral patterned folder stuffed with notes, pictures, etc.
3. "Empire Falls" by Richard Russo...my inspiration for great writing.

I proceed downstairs to the kitchen where I immediately start brewing coffee and then drop all of my things on my corduroy upholstered sofa (the softest, most comfortable sofa ever made).

Once I'm settled in with my coffee and computer, I proceed to write until 6:00 am. Now, granted, I'm not always writing. The internet is my kryptonite and can easily pull my focus towards the many blogs that I like to read every day. But, if I'm in a good writing groove, I forget about my blogs and emails and get something accomplished with my novel. I can tell when I'm on a good track because I can write about 1,000 words in an hour and a half. But if I'm forcing it too much, I struggle to write even 200 words.

One thing I've learned through this process, I need to let my story and my characters speak to me. My fingers need to stop typing until my characters break their silence and reveal what happens next.

Why Blog?

Why Blog? I'm not quite sure, but I have a very strong feeling that it boils down to PRESSURE. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I can't read a writing blog these days without seeing terms like "social media" and "author platform" repeated more times that I can count. Frankly I'm getting rather tired of reading about everything I should be doing that I'm not so, as a result, I have decided to drink the kool-aid.

Will it work? Who can say. I don't know what I have to contribute to the internet universe, but I'll give it a whirl. In reading all of these blogs, one thing I've learned is that no successful blog will happen overnight and that it could be at least a year or two before a blogger will begin to see any substantial results, so I guess there's no time like the present.

I am a newbie writer, currently revising the novel I wrote during the 2011 NaNoWriMo. I am in love with all of the characters in my book and, although I have a history of dropping projects for new ones quite quickly, I am determined to rewrite my book into something that will be suitable for an agent to consider.

So, I hope you like my little blog and find at least one thing I have to say useful for you. Comments are always welcome.