Getting started is half the battle, they say. For me, finishing is a bigger challenge. I have no problem getting started; I have started four novels, I have started cleaning up my office, I have started painting and decorating my house. But I don't want my headstone to read, "She almost finished," so I've decided to make an end-of-the-year resolution to get some things finished.
I'm finishing an online writers' course taught by Leigh Michaels, a Harlequin writer. It's been wonderful and I've learned a lot. I'm on the final lesson and I WILL FINISH. I will have done all the lessons and writings, something that is more difficult than you might think. It's very easy to fall behind and skip some of the steps with an online class.
What have I learned in this class? Diligence. That there are unlimited sources for an interesting story in your local newspaper (something I have always worried about, the end of ideas and being blocked). That a romance novel comes down to one man and one woman overcoming adversity together and making a happy ending. Wouldn't it be great if life could be that simple? Perhaps that's why so many of us enjoy romance novels, their simplicity and promise of a happy finish.
So, with that, I'm off to do my last writing assignment and then draw lots on which of my unfinished novels becomes the first one to be finished. And I think I'll clean off my desk while I'm at it.
Happy finishing!
No comments:
Post a Comment