Woot!!

Okay, so I know it has been ages since I've written on the blog and I feel more guilty about that than I should. There for a while I could pump out at least a chapter a day and I had more than my fair share of ideas. I have a folder full of finished manuscripts to prove it. Then one day I sat in front of the computer and nothing.

For days.

And days.

And days.

Until those days turned into weeks and those weeks turned into months.

If you've ever suffered from writer's block I'm sure you understand how debilitating that feels. It's not that I didn't have ideas. I had tons of them, but when I turned my computer on and focused on writing, it was like running head first into a brick wall. I was dazed and confused, staring at that oh-so-cliche blank computer screen for minutes looking for anything to distract me from not writing.

Ever hear of this thing called "the internet"? Well as a writer it can be your best friend or your worst enemy. In my case, this time around, it was my worst enemy. I let it distract me. And not just for a day or two or even a week. I let it become my writing. I couldn't find the words I wanted for my story? No problem! Let me check out Facebook. I knew what I wanted to say but every sentence felt like getting a tooth pulled without the luxury of Novocaine. Still no problem! The internet is full of nifty little websites to sidetrack and derail.

Well, the other night I had this awesome conversation with my friend Samantha. She and I are just now finding time to reconnect via the internet. Chats, texts, Facebook. We had one of those interwebz chats the other day and both came away with some pretty sweet ego stroking. Afterwards, when I should have been cuddling in bed with my husband, dreaming sweet dreams of vow renewals and vacations, I was stuck trying to get my writing mojo back. The words were there, the ideas were there and that confidence I'd been lacking, was finally back.

At 6am, I hammered out a complete chapter in less than 40 minutes. I don't know if it's gold. Right now, I really don't care. I haven't reread it because I know that I will be able to find fault somewhere and if I ever expect to move on and finish the story I can't sweat the details before the finish line. But it's done. One whole chapter closer to where I need to be.

Apparently all I needed was someone else to tell me I can do it and that it's worth it.

Now it's 4:34am and all I want to do is dive back into my writing. I feel like I have so much to catch up on, to make up for and I don't want to lose this steam so you'll catch me burning the midnight oil for another hour or so, hoping to plot out and begin Chapter Sixteen of Penalty Killer.