See the Smile?

I wish you could all see the smile of relief on my face. Why is it there? It's not because of the gazillion feet of snow that's piled in our driveway, I'll tell you that much! No, I'm smiling because I stopped procrastinating and just began writing.

Now that I'm off to a good start, I'll let you in on a little secret: I was seriously dragging my feet about beginning this January book. Why? I don't know. All I know is that I would have rather curled up with the new Stephen King and read my way into the New Year.

But I didn't. Yesterday I made myself put fingers to keyboard. The first few pages came hard, but then the magic began. The story began to unwind, characters came to life and I lost myself in the pleasure of writing. I'm home again, and it feels fabulous.

So, One Grand Season is shaping up. I've got the first 8,286 words down, and now that they're there I know I'll just keep rolling along. My goal for the month is to finish the novel, which I figure for approximately 50,000 words. I've counted the actual number of days I'll be available to work on the book and calculated the word count I'll need to produce to keep to the schedule. It's going to be tough but I'm pretty sure I can handle it. I'm good at being disciplined and while I'm not crazy about chilly winter mornings, I'll write before the day officially begins if I need to do so.

The first line of the book, now that it's actually written, is enough motivation to keep my fingers on the keyboard. I realize it isn't a line that might make anyone else's heart race but it works for me. The line?

Vivian Fox detested being the family's poorest relation.

I love it that everyone else has also begun. It looks like we're off to a great start, doesn't it? Yay for us!

Happy New Year! And Happy JaNo!