March is starting off on the "write" foot....

and I am so happy about it.

I know it's been almost a month since my last post and I would like to say thatIi've been too busy writing to post but that wasn't the case until today.

I spent most of my day in Barnes and Noble(one of my favorite places in the whole world) and I handwrote 8 pages of a non-fiction story rotating around the heroes of Jane Austen's writings. I'm the last one to have ever thought I would write a non-fiction novel, or even attempt it, but I did and am. I'm surprised that my hand hasn't fallen off yet and there's even more proof of that because I'm typing this blog after writing all day.

Since I've reviewed almost twenty books I'm learning that writing a non-fiction novel about fiction characters is like writing a review. I'm telling people about the book and giving my two cents about it and the characters. That sounded like I was tooting my own horn but I wasn't trying to. I found writing really easy today. Almost effortless. That hasn't happened in a long time. I think the reason it felt that way was because I was interesting in what I was writing about(who isn't interesting in Mr. Darcy and all the other Austen heroes) and I knew what I was talking about. I did realize that I'm a bit rusty since the only book I've read is Pride and Prejudice but since I own all of her novels that problem can easily be solved. I could make snarky, snide comments and be funny and witty and it made things so much easier and made it fun to write.

In the times where I've written with a witty voice it's always gone by pretty quickly and before I knew it I had written 3,000 words or more so I can't help but ask why I don't do it more often. I just the answer is that I haven't found a balance yet. I want to be witty and humerous and smarmy and snarky, I just haven't figured out how to do that in every plot I've plotted, especially the historical ones. I quit writing on a story because it gets hard and I get stuck and I end up stiffling my inner witty voice that is crying out for attention that I'm not giving her. So I'm going to give it to her and see what happens.

I've been asking myself the question, "Why non-fiction?" all day? The reason... I saw at least 3 different stories about Mr. Darcy today while roaming B&N and I know there are countless others so I wondered, "Why do we love Mr. Darcy so much?" and the idea was born and eight pages later I had the answer, or at least part of it. I'm proud of what I wrote today, it's not total rubbish so I think I'll keep going...