I’m back home after a week away with zero writing. We drove from Tacoma down to my Mom’s home in California–lovely weather, good traffic, probably our best road trip to date. When visiting relatives, I usually carve out at least an hour each day to work on my current project. This time, I added zero words to my WIP for a whole week. Not writing bugged me like an itchy mosquito bite, but I wanted to spend quality time with family, not holed up in the guest room.
This ties into an issue much on my mind lately. On the RWA PAN loop (discussion board for published romance writers), writers far more experienced than I are discussing falling income and reasons to stick with a writing career, scale it back, or quit. Some writers insist that you can earn a good living if you publish fast and furious, at least four books per year. Others assert that few can do that without A: writing crappy books, and B: suffering burnout.
My takeaway: THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN. While far from wealthy, I don’t need to pay my bills with my (so far minuscule) writing income. I’m doing this because I love writing stories and being part of the writing community. So when I get too intense, glaring bleary-eyed at the computer screen as I hunch over the keyboard, it’s time to step away. I don’t want to lose my writing joy.
Today’s topic for the Marketing for Romance Writers blog challenge: Putting Real People into Stories: the Pros and Cons. Join the discussion here: https://mfrw52week.blogspot.com/
I’ve taken great satisfaction killing a few former foes—on paper, of course, and with names changed to protect the guilty. But that’s in my horror and crime fiction. In romance, I haven’t yet included any real people, though I have used several real places. I wonder how the staff at North Eugene High School feel about having a romance hero among their coworkers. I do get a giggle by inserting a minor character with my own first name in each story—like Stan Lee, I enjoy my little cameo appearance.
Do you include real people in your fiction? I imagine this question has more relevance for writers of historical fiction.
As we slide (feels more like zooming) toward May, I wish you happy writing and reading.
I like the idea of adding your own cameo to each story.
The idea of injecting myself as a minor character for a cameo appearance intrigues me. Sounds fun.
I love that you include your cameo in each of your books. So far, I haven’t killed off any real people (in books, of course). Your Mt. Shasta picture is beautiful. I have a 3 panel picture on canvas of Mt. Shasta from the Oregon side my son took and made for me. He lives in Northern CA and goes up there often and can see it from his home on a clear day. You can see a picture I took of it on my About page. I have more pictures in a past #MFRWauthor post.
Like you, I’ve been following the same thread in the PAN forum. I try to keep writing fun, too. Only one year so far have I been able to publish four books, and that was my whole life that year. I don’t want to do it again, but when everyone else is, it’s easy to get lost. I’d be happy if I could publish two full-length books a year. I guess the key is shorter books, but I won’t sacrifice the “fun” part of writing.