Hello! I'm new here, in my mid 30's, and working on a novel. It's the first time I have been really intent on finishing a rough draft.
I used to read and write constantly from the time I was a child, up to about my teen years. Not long ago, I was looking through some things at my Mom's house, and found my first "book". I was a huge Peanuts (comic strip) fan, and Snoopy was my hero, lol. He would sit on his doghouse with the typewriter and try to write a publishable story. One of his stories was about a skating couple, Chill Blaine and Dutch Waltz (lol). I picked up on that idea and wrote my own short story based on that. I even illustrated it and stapled the pages together. It was quite amusing for me to see it again after all those years. I wish I had dated it, but I'm sure it was written when I was in first grade or second grade.
In my adult life I got away from writing and even reading fiction, to some extent. But now I am back, and hoping to just get a rough draft completed, at least 80,000 words. I'm up to about 18,000 now and have been writing for a week and a half. This story is more in the paranormal romance genre.
I first had the idea a little over a year ago and started to write, but quickly became frustrated and gave up. The things that tripped me up the most were that I didn't know how to structure a novel, and I didn't know not to edit as I went. So I would go back and edit and get so tangled up in it that I never went any further. Now I know to mostly just keep pushing forward without going back and trying to perfect things before the story is finished.
I have learned a lot by reading here on the forums. I have also read some books that taught me how to set up a novel, and that made me feel more sure about what I was doing. I'm having all the usual frustrations, difficulties, challenges and joys that I'm sure most other writers experience. I would love to be published, as most writers probably do, but I have a lot to do until I have a publishable book. I'm learning as I go. And if I never get published, at least I will have actually written a novel.
I will probably post some questions from time to time. Nice meeting everyone!
I used to read and write constantly from the time I was a child, up to about my teen years. Not long ago, I was looking through some things at my Mom's house, and found my first "book". I was a huge Peanuts (comic strip) fan, and Snoopy was my hero, lol. He would sit on his doghouse with the typewriter and try to write a publishable story. One of his stories was about a skating couple, Chill Blaine and Dutch Waltz (lol). I picked up on that idea and wrote my own short story based on that. I even illustrated it and stapled the pages together. It was quite amusing for me to see it again after all those years. I wish I had dated it, but I'm sure it was written when I was in first grade or second grade.
In my adult life I got away from writing and even reading fiction, to some extent. But now I am back, and hoping to just get a rough draft completed, at least 80,000 words. I'm up to about 18,000 now and have been writing for a week and a half. This story is more in the paranormal romance genre.
I first had the idea a little over a year ago and started to write, but quickly became frustrated and gave up. The things that tripped me up the most were that I didn't know how to structure a novel, and I didn't know not to edit as I went. So I would go back and edit and get so tangled up in it that I never went any further. Now I know to mostly just keep pushing forward without going back and trying to perfect things before the story is finished.
I have learned a lot by reading here on the forums. I have also read some books that taught me how to set up a novel, and that made me feel more sure about what I was doing. I'm having all the usual frustrations, difficulties, challenges and joys that I'm sure most other writers experience. I would love to be published, as most writers probably do, but I have a lot to do until I have a publishable book. I'm learning as I go. And if I never get published, at least I will have actually written a novel.
I will probably post some questions from time to time. Nice meeting everyone!
