Hi friends! As my inaugural blog, I will (slightly begrudgingly) introduce myself, which is a bit of a nightmare for an introvert. But here it goes! My name is Dana, and I write romance novels. Everything from squeaky clean, to steamy queer, to rom-com. Give me all the love in all the forms.

My quick story on my writing journey. I first started writing in July 2021. Twenty months later, I finished four full-length manuscripts, signed my first publishing contract, and received my second publishing offer for a different manuscript.

Ok, now on to the blog. When I first started writing, I was so intimidated. My last formal education in writing was in the late 90s in a high school creative writing class. (I’m aging myself, but whatever. Proud Gen X’er here raised by Pearl Jam and Nirvana). But the words flowed with the story I wanted to tell, and I was hooked. I have since learned, for me, there are four main emotional phases in writing.

Phase 1: Delusional Confidence

This state of being is a gift; when it arrives, enjoy it. With a satisfied cross of arms, I completed my first novel and declared to the universe that this was a bestseller, and the book would be picked up by Hollywood within a year for movie rights. That was a beautiful moment.

Then I sent a few chapters off to a beta reader who kindly, graciously pointed out sweeping errors. Head-hoping within chapters. A full two chapters of all backstory and NO DIALOGUE (um, what?). And these weren’t any baby chapters, either. They were a whopping 20 pages each. Oof. Past and present tense. The list goes on. The plot may have been good-ish, but the writing was not.

Phase 2: I. Know. Nothing.

You know that phrase the more you learn, the less you know? Once I started researching what “head-hopping was” (for those of you who don’t know, it’s using two characters’ thoughts within the same scene. Choose one, my friend, no matter how clever their thoughts may be!). I started down a frantic rabbit hole to learn as much of the craft as possible. I bought lots, and I mean lots of books. Below is a sampling of a few of my favorites:

• On Writing by Stephen King
• Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody
• Method Acting for Writers by Lisa Hall-Wilson
• Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi
• Anatomy of Prose by Sacha Black

I listened to every podcast I could. Below are some of my favorite:

• The Shit No One Tells You About Writing
• Badass Writers with Kathleen Fox
• Fiction Writing Made Easy with Samantha Guthrie

The more I learned, the less I knew.

Phase 3: Maybe I got this

I met a fantastic critique partner (check back for how to find one for yourself!) and started building back my confidence. Not quite to the delusional confidence level, but once in a while, that beautiful friend would pop up for a quick visit when I reread something I forgot I wrote.

I tweaked and edited and came up with a pretty good story. And then I did it again, and one more time. Finally, I was ready to query (check back again for info on queries).

Phase 4: Imposter Syndrome

I got a book deal! How in the h.e.double hockey sticks did that happen? And what is a dangling modifier again? And possessive pronouns, and third person limited, and structure vs. plot vs. pacing, and talk to me again about why exposition in dialogue is bad… Gah!

I will forever have imposter syndrome to some degree, which is ok. It keeps folks humble.

Phase 5. I definitely got this!

This is what I’ve learned. Do you need a degree to be a writer? No. If you have an MFA- great! Congrats. That’s a huge accomplishment. Did you always intend to get your GED but never did? All good. You got this! Everyone has a story. Why not just give it a shot and write one down?