Lessons Learned from Writing Fiction

Inspiration for "Max",
taken from Jason Momoa's Instagram. 

Well, it has been a month. My writing challenge started back in March. I had written so sporadically in the past year that I made blogging a daily goal in March and I didn't miss a day. In April, my challenge changed. I have never really written a whole lot of fiction, so I thought I'd try that for the next thirty days. Since I've been reading a plethora of romance books, I figured why not try that genre. I had no idea where the challenge would go, how successful I'd be, or not, and thirty days later, here we are. 

I've learned a lot over this month. 

One, I can find time to write. I've written at track meets, in the car on the way to track meets, late at night, early in the morning, I've squeezed in the time. If I miss a day, it doesn't derail me. Our schedules have been insane this month. Typically we've averaged four track meets per week, which we usually go to from around 4 until 9. Liam has had a band concert or event once a week for the past four weeks. It has been crazy, but I've written. I wrote a note by my computer, no excuses. It has helped. 

Two, I need to take notes. Some people who write fiction can just write and remember everything as they go. I need notes. I finally got organized this weekend and went back and reread everything I've written, taking notes on what I've written about characters, locations, timeline, etc. It helped a ton.

Three, I need inspiration. I can't just dream up a character from scratch. I used actors to start, but gave them their own personality. Locations were based on places I knew, but then tweaked to become what I wanted them to be. Real life trickled into my writing, but then morphed into something else. 

Four, writing fiction is fun. I like to write, and non-fiction is pretty easy for me, but I enjoyed writing fiction. I want to write each day to see what my characters will do next. I have an inkling where I think this is going, but there have already been twists along the way and each one has surprised me. 

Five, I'm not stopping yet. As of today, after thirty days of writing, I've written 21,855 words. I kept track of my time and word count each day. Low word count days weren't bad, just what I needed on those days. Each day made me look forward to the next, which was a fabulous feeling. While almost 22,000 words is a lot, the average romance book averages around 80,000-90,000 words, so I have a ways to go.

I have no idea if this "book" will only be read by me, or if I will decide to one day share it. I know that my inner editor, Helga, likes to still tell me my writing is crap, but I'm better at ignoring her. This journey I'm on is what it is, and I can't wait to see where it goes from here. So for May, and beyond, my writing challenge is simply to keep going. I do know that the longer I sit to write, the easier it is. Because of our schedules, most nights I only had 30 minutes. But when I can write longer, it is so much better. For that reason alone, I'm ready for summer. I'm excited to see what Max and Emma get up to next. 

My daily accountability