I've been writing since I was a kid. 

Just a brief run-through, which now seems far more humorous and a bit surreal.  Bad college experience #1 with a committee.  I lost the fiction person on my committee when they went "slightly" mental and threatened to bring a gun to one of their classes.  That left me frantically looking for a new committee member months before graduating and getting fiction feedback from people who only wrote poetry and nonfiction.  I was young.  I quit writing fiction   Bad college experience #2 with another committee.  A pure nightmare that left me stuck spinning for about six years until I found a replacement completely outside my area--I'm a lit geek and a postmodernist; I ended up with someone in Restoration British lit on my committee (I call this period "fun with tenure requirements, and what happens when their aren't enough tenured professors in your area at the college you attend).  I quit writing academic stuff. 

I switched to writing nonfiction and returned to reading for fun and came out reinvigorated.  I've mainly published some poetry, some nonfiction, and some academic stuff here and there.  My husband finally convinced me to return to fiction, which was always my first love, this past spring.  I think the timing was finally right, and since February, I've been working on my first book.  I work full time, but try to complete somewhere between 2-4 chapters a week.  I'm hoping to have a draft finished by mid-May.  I also hope it doesn't completely suck, but right now, I'm just in it for the pure enjoyment I've found in writing fiction again

I think several people mentioned just how long it actually takes to write something and how long you mull it over in your head before you even begin.  For me, it's the how many games of cards did I play while mulling over. . .   damn distractions.

But, I broke page 200 yesterday.  Today I cooked, though, cuz I'm very tired of Totinos and Spaghetti-Os!

Okay, so I've decided my mind is the problem   Just need a shut off switch somewhere.  I listen to audiobooks on my way to and from work and keep finding myself drifting into my own little world!

i hope so thanks The Deposed King
i got 200 word done to day wow thats bad  oh well there is always tommorow

Not bad at all!  Even if you get a small amount done, it still means you're moving forward.  Plus, most of the time, even when you're busy with other things, you're probably still thinking about where to go next--still moving forward

Sounds like the characters probably will be important later, but you just don't have a use for them right now.  I'm going to guess that what you have is just a small plot glitch, which you could easily fix with a few lines of dialogue/a little explanation when you're ready for those characters to come back into play.

hay i just looked at my word count some how it increast by 300 words with out me noticing i have ritton more then i thought
but thanks

good luck with your writting everyone 

CWG

You are definitely making steady progress!  It's nice when everything just flows, and before you notice it, the pages have just rolled out


I hit page 150 this week, which is by far the longest piece of fiction I've ever wrote.  I did a little happy dance--okay, I didn't move out of my chair for the happy dance because it's more like just moving my arms around since I'm considerably lacking in the dance skills department, but hey

Apparently I got con crud at I-Con. Or something. Scratchy throat and coughing aren't too conducive to writing.  I've gotten maybe 1/2-3/4 page written the past two days.  So less than 250 words.  But I'm hoping this stuff will die quick, and the writing should pick up easily since I know where the next few scenes go.

Once you get past the sucky crud (which could be a good band name), it sounds like you'll be flowing again! 

The long awaited screenplay is almost ready. 4 years in the making.
5 scenes left to revise for the new draft. Then one pass for typos.
Then off to posting to Amazon Studios.

Congrats on that and good luck!  That is so exciting!

There definitely is a place for paranormal romance, after all, a huge chunk of the populations wants that romance--it's the feel good warmth it can exude that draws most fans--that happily ever after that appeals to all of us fairy tale lovers (and I am no exception there).  And, I want to make sure I emphasize that not all of them are the same.  Those gems in between sameness are the ones we usually cling to.

I think the problem that I, personally, have, is that many of the series don't focus so much on the story, but on an exceedingly limited formulaic process, particularly in paranormal romances where there is always a "true mate."  Character A meet character B.  They are destined for one another.  They have a lot of sex (which if most of us are honest, it's the only thing we're flipping through the books for )  there's a big conflict because Character B's life is going to be irrevocably changed, then happily ever after after when Character B accepts said change.  Rinse and repeat with different characters.

Is this all there is to paranormal romance?  Of course not.  Is this what the market is flooded with?  Yes.

And then we can twist back to the impact on urban fantasy as well.  Sex sells.  Hence, we get Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake books.  Anita's as vanilla as you get through (if I remember right) the first five books.  Then bam, the books suddenly open up with menages, which immediately divides fans into the old and the new. This series has probably one of the most violent reactions not because there's suddenly lots of sex, but because the character change is too rapid and trying to fit a growing market.

Okay, so now I'm swinging back around again--I think it's pretty much a cyclical pattern, as are most things in life, but paranormal romance impacts urban fantasy, and vice versa, but the authors we love the most tend to be the ones that buck the trends.