Being a writer just means you have to write, right?

Hi there. I'm Robyn.

I started writing my first novel at the end of February, a little over a couple months ago.

I really had no idea where to start. I mean, how do you sit down and write a novel?

I'm partial to the reasoning that if you are writing, even if you haven't been published, then you are a writer. As long as you keep writing, you are a writer.

It's a much clearer profession than my last one. Much simpler to explain too. My last job involved dragging and dropping, cutting and pasting, emailing.

Well, being a procrastinator, I had to read another book on how to this. Then I had to take notes on that book to make sure I had a clear way to get started. Well, it's probably 40% procrastination, 60% some variant of OCD.

But like with anything else in life, the key to actually accomplishing something is apparently to actually start doing it.

So that's what I did.

Now that it is done, I can see how the plot meandered a little. I can see the structural weaknesses, see where I could have done better.

But no one should expect their first book to be a masterpiece. (Some are just really talented or lucky.) So, if I just keep writing I can't help but get better at it. People who practice their craft will get better at it.

So I'll just keep going.

The first novel is a lesbian romance. But now that I have actually stuck to writing, stuck through 270+ pages of a continuous story AND come out the other side, I know that I have many, many other books in me. All types of them.

And for the first time, I've actually felt excited while "at work". Like there could be a whole different life for me.

PS. It also might help that birds cheerily wake me up each morning now that spring is here.