And so it begins.

The title of this blog comes from some very good advice, a quite successful writer gave me. She said, "Glue your butt to the chair until you have a breakthrough or a breakdown."
To tell you the the truth, it was the mantra that got me through NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, where insane people attempt to write 50,000 words of a new book in 30 days). With a trip to a family wedding in Delaware at Thanksgiving (and no, I can't really write in a moving vehicle), I was stressing about how I would ever meet the deadline. On my worst day I didn't write at all and on my best day I sat in the chair for hours pumping out 9,000 words. I'm not saying they were all "good" words; in fact at one point I was ready to just put words on a page and sort out the order later. But when the final bell sounded I had an incredible feeling of accomplishment, a neat t-shirt, a congratulatory dinner from my husband and a good start on a chick lit book I think could be interesting.
I try to do a little something every day toward this dream of mine. Today, it's starting this blog. Some days it's editing, emailing other writers, entering a contest or reading and critiquing other struggling writers on authonomy.com (more about my love/hate relationship with that site in a later post).
I was in the newspaper business for over 25 years and was surrounded by talented writers. I can only guess how crazy they must think me: a designer trying to become an author. I tell myself I'm new to this and I can only get better if I work at it. I'm on no timetable except my own. I know the publishing world is changing a lot and it's a tough nut to crack for a new writer, but hopefully there will always be agents, and publishers and readers out there. At the end of the day, a good story well told is my goal.

I try to do a little something every day toward this dream of mine. Today, it's starting this blog.