Once upon a time, there was a girl who wanted to be a writer.  She went to college, impressed her English professor during her first year of creative writing, and then a little over a year later, promptly got married to a military man and adopted the life of a nomad.  Years passed with nary a word written that didn’t begin with Things To Do preceding even the simplest sentence such as buy eggs or wash laundry.

Because of her love for her husband and the complicated nature of birth control pills (seriously, you have to take one every day … like, you know … every day), five children sprang from her loins and immediately began to run wild around her.

(The above is what we writers call backstory.  Most writers believe it is information that a reader needs in order to understand the story.  Alas, that is usually not the case.  Honestly, I could have cut the above in half and not lost the gist of the setup.  Get rid of useless backstory.  Just go for the pertinent information that relates specifically to the main conflict.)

In no time at all, our heroine decided she wanted … nay … she NEEDED to write.  Her sanity depended on it.

(Ah-ha!  Inciting incident.  Children equate insanity.  Solution.  She must write.  This is where our story begins.  It’s the action our heroine takes that changes the course of her life as she’s known it.)

With a nubbin for a pencil and a scrap of paper stained yellow from baby spit-up, she scratched out a beginning of a story that tortured her hero, a medieval military man who deserved to be punished for leaving the love of his life alone far too often.  Being abandoned by her own husband as he went off to war, our heroine seriously got into this story and five hundred plus pages later, she wrote The End.

Satisfied she had done a good thing, our heroine went on a search entitled, I’ve Written a Book, Now What? which lead her straight into the eager embrace of RWA.  Knowledge and wisdom flowed into our heroine.  She lapped at the free advice and devoured how-to write books until she was fat and happy and caught a clue as to how to write a book.  Yet, there was a problem.  Her story was not an acceptable length for a romance novel.

Our heroine quickly embarked on another story.  This one a contemporary.  Much shorter.  And when finished, it only had four hundred pages (an amazing feat of restraint in her eyes).  It was dang good and she sent it to a publisher.  After months of waiting, an editor contacted her and said she loved it.  Sadly, it was also too long and the editor begged her to write another book within a limited page count.  Our heroine was thrilled.  She quickly produced another book, grousing at the limitations, yet following them faithfully until she had a book she loved just as much as the other books.  The editor agreed with her, but alas, before any firm offer could be gained, the editor was canned.  Sacked.  Booted mercilessly from the office that would see our heroine published.

(I see your tears flowing and rightly so.  This is our first black moment.  It is a setback that will either snuff the passion out of our heroine or spurn her on to greater heights … or, you know, something like that.)

Amid woeful cries and shouts of, “Unfair!  Life is sooooo unfair!” our heroine heard about a contest called, the Golden Heart, an RWA sponsered writing contest to reward the best up-and-coming writers.  Of course.  The solution to her problems.  Enter.  Win.  Get published.  Entering the Golden Heart was a marvelous idea!

Our heroine entered the Golden Heart and finaled in the Single Title category.  Her friends were ecstatic for her.  She went to RWA’s National conference where perfect strangers lauded her accomplishment.  She floated on accolades and embraces for four days.  Until … The Awards Ceremony.  Our heroine did not win.

(Gasp all you like, Dear Reader, but a story needs more than one black moment.  Our heroine is learning what it takes to achieve her goals.  It is our hope that the reader is now rooting for her, seeing her diligence and wanting her to succeed.)

Fortunately, our heroine would never begrudge the winners their moment.  She was happy for them.  They would soon have their dream.  But as the weeks passed, she realized a win did not mean a publishing contract was forthcoming.  She met many wonderful, talented authors who had won and finaled in the Golden Heart contest many times who were still unpublished.  How could this be?

Determined to gain her goal, our heroine studied writing books and listened avidly to other writers and instructors.  She wrote everyday and produced several more manuscripts, but did not enter the Golden Heart until …

Her latest manuscript – Dark Secrets.

On the surface, it looked like a paranormal.  In reality, it was a cross-pollinating gigolo – a dual first person read, a character-infused story with a heart-of-gold laced with a bit of horror book antics a la Anne Rice.  In the book, the naïve heroine believes science is the end all, be all of life.  The otherworldly hero knows the supernatural lies in wait to devour unsuspecting humans, and the naïve heroine would be a nice little snack for some ugly creature of the night.

It was a fun story.  But there was one, teeny, tiny problem.  Over the years, our heroine came to realize she was not really a romance writer; she was a romantic leaning writer.  But good writing will always win out.  That is what our heroine believed, and she entered her book within the Paranormal category.

She did not final.  She couldn’t believe it.  This was by far her best story.  How could it not final?  Easy.  It simply was not a romance.  Our heroine was devastated.

Seeing the pathetic-ness that had become our heroine, her friends slapped her aside the head and told her to stop being such a whiny baby and get over herself.  Which she did.  Especially when a friend threw the latest RWR at her and told her to open it to the page with the Golden Heart category explanations.  Our heroine quickly readjusted her thinking when she saw the words Strong Romantic Elements.  It took only a few words of encouragement from her friends before our heroine took the plunge and entered her book again.  This time she finaled.

(This is what we’ll call the love scene.  Here our heroine finally finds her niche.  Her heart is racing and her mood cannot be any more annoyingly cheerful.  As love scenes go, I prefer mine less graphic, but if you want to throw the doors open for all the world to see, then go ahead.  The choice is yours.)

Again, she attended RWA’s National conference, met amazing writers and learned that writing is an ever-evolving art form.  Another four days of intense praise was followed by a night where she sat next to her agent and listened and cheered as another writer took home the award.  Her agent leaned close and whispered, “You’ll always be a star in my eyes.”

Our heroine giggled at the corny line and a deep appreciation was felt for her agent.  As the ceremony continued, our heroine cheered and smiled and refused to let another loss taint her joy of doing what she loved.  Tomorrow was a new day and a new story begged to be written.

(The climax to our tale is quickly followed by the ending. The above, in the Strong Romantic Elements genre, is what we call a satisfying ending.  It’s not a traditional happy-ever-after, but we can imagine our heroine achieving her goals in the future because of her tenacious nature.  It is up to the sequel, if the author so chooses to write one, to see if our expectations have been realized.)

A writer is born in the tempering of the craft, and our heroine takes great delight in forging words into sentences that make up stories.  Will our heroine’s dream of publication be met?  She is hopeful it won’t be much longer, because, as we’ve learned, she is a tough little nut who’s determined to become a mighty oak.

(Epilogues can be nice, especially after emotionally intense stories or stories that have been unfolding over many books within a series.

P.S.  Clichés are fun if done for a purpose, but if overly used, they are stale and should be avoided like the plague.)

So, there we are, Dear Reader.  The journey of our heroine has been long and intense, yet it is far from over.  Her persistence and imagination are the main tools she uses to survive her story.  But she is not alone in her struggles.  You, too, are the hero or heroine of your own story.  Whether it ends in triumph, tragedy or somewhere in between, it is up to you.

Tell me, how far along are you on your dream?  Did you stumble into it, or did you always want to see your imagination on the page? 

Today I’m giving away your choice of either a first chapter critique (up to 15 pages) or a lovely Ruby Slippered Sister mug.  So keep your comments coming for more chances to win!