I guess the best place to begin is the beginning.
But what should I call the beginning?
Is it where my “romantic history” began? Is it what lead me to create this blog in the first place?
Maybe the easiest thing to do would be to talk a little more about my motivation behind this blog. I touched on it a little in the About blurb but that was kind of the overview. There is so much more to what I am trying to do.
I have never really been one for writing in journals and talking to someone else about the things in my head never really works as well as I hope. I prefer to write things down where other people can read them. It’s not really about a need for justification or vindication; it’s just about this belief I’ve always had that if I’m going to write it down, it might as well be public. Whether or not it’s anything anyone wants to read is another story entirely. The point is it is available to be read.
At the same time, while I always write with an audience in mind, I never write anything for an audience. I don’t write things thinking, “I want to write something that will appeal to this demographic.” I just start scribbling and put it out into the world and let people figure it out for themselves.
That’s not to say I’m not aware of my content.
I intend to keep it mostly PG-13, but because these are intended to be mostly true stories about everything I’ve been through and experienced in my life, in “relationships,” I can’t guarantee a little TV-MA to R content won’t drift in. I promise to add disclaimers if I feel like things are getting crazy. But I guess this is the initial “you have been warned” warning.
It might get crazy.
Largely, I expect it to be pretty boring. That’s how I remember most of my life, thus far – boring with intermittent moments of pure insanity on a “you can’t make this stuff up” level. But that could be my own personal bias. Like, nothing that happens to you really seems that great but when you get drunk at a party and tell everyone about “then this one time…” they all laugh and you’re a big hit. For a little while. Until you run out of stories. Or beer. But I have a ton of stories so we’ll see how this goes.
I’m curious about the idea of writing a romance novel. On the one hand, they sell. And, as one of my best friends and fellow writers pointed out, sex also sells. That’s always appealing to a writer, I don’t care what anyone says about just writing for the love of writing. That very well may be but tell me you’d turn down even a $100 royalty check if someone thought you were worthy of one. I’ll wait…
On the other hand, I know literally nothing about the genre. I rarely even write romantic partnerships into my other stories, nevermind focusing on them for an entire 50-60,000 words. I don’t usually like romantic movies either. As far as “chick movies” go, I’m more attracted to the girlfriend movies. Thelma and Louise, Mona Lisa Smile, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Secret Life of Bees, Fried Green Tomatoes (at the Whistle Stop Café – full book title) …
So, likely, whatever I do end up writing will be more along those lines. There will be a romance, or two, because what better girlfriend foil than a boyfriend? But I don’t see myself focusing on that aspect of it, primarily.
One of my favorites of the genre (cinematically) is How to Make an American Quilt. I like the format. A group of older ladies are making a wedding quilt for one of their granddaughters and through making it, they talk – to her and to one another – about their own romances. I could do something along those lines, maybe even incorporate some of the more popular stories from this blog (comment and like to let me know what stories you like best).
So, that’s what I have planned for this blog.
I hope someone besides me gets something out of it. But if not, at least I got the words out.
First to Love 