I had no idea what I was doing or what I was getting into. So, the first thing I did was sign up for a writing class. Which made me start writing.

Amazingly enough in my naivete or stupidity, I really thought I’d be published in a year. Little did I know how long it would take to write that first book. Much less to get an editor or agent to look at. Or for an editor to love it enough to pay money to publish it! I attempted a few children’s picture books but I never got anything but a standard rejection letter. I was at the time reading a lot of romance novels. So my first novel was more along the lines of what I was reading. I stumbled upon an ad in the Tyler paper about a local chapter of Romance Writers of America having their monthly meeting. A published author was speaking. Someone who'd broken through that mythical barrier! So I went. I joined RWA. I became active in my local chapter. I lived and breathed writing all day, every day. I was either writing or reading about writing.

There are a ton of great writing books out there. Here are a few of my favorites:

Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain
Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass (the workbook is great too!)
Goal, Motivation, Conflict by Debra Dixon
On Writing by Stephen King
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Escaping into the Open by Elizabeth Berg
Making a Literary Life by Carolyn See
The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and Screenwriters by Christopher Vogler
Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell

Tomorrow: The Writer's Journey (aka Christopher Vogler)