#14. I've always wanted to write a book.

In the past 3 days, I've gotten a total of 12 hours sleep. Maybe. No joke. I don't require that much sleep as it is, so that's not a big shock. I wish I could say I was doing some really exotic activity, like spelunking. OK, not that, I'm slightly claustrophobic. And clearly I have no attention span as I'm now wondering WHY people would purposely crawl through small, dark, cold caves for fun. Back to the main topic...please.

I've been depriving myself of my much needed beauty sleep because I'm writing a book. Yes, a book. Hopefully a good one. I seem to be entertained by it so far. My characters have completely taken over my life, to the point where I'm dreaming about them. Awesome. I've also created a playlist in iTunes for the two main characters. I listen to it constantly as I'm writing about their highs, lows and all that good stuff in between. I've always wanted to write a book. Hence the title of this post. The #14 refers to the place on the list where this little wish of my mine was written. It's a random, fun little list. Please, take a look. 

I've had this idea for a book for awhile, but I never took the time to actually sit down and flesh it out. Then, I had an epiphany. I'm an avid reader and have always been inspired by the (good) books that I've read. Then, I read quite possibly the worst series of books ever produced. And I was SUPER inspired. I will most likely be flogged and whipped for saying this out loud, but man, did they suck. Over the summer, I was coerced into reading the Twilight series. I'd been able to keep my entire human existence free of that nonsense, because it held zero interest for me. ZERO. But, due to the fact that I was bored and essentially being bullied into reading it (by my MOM of all people), I borrowed the books and went home. I know, I know. If I hated the books so much why didn't I just put them down? Or burn them? Shred them up and use them for kitty litter? Simple. I'm a glutton for punishment and I just HAD to know what all the fuss was about. It was like watching a train derail. You know you shouldn't look, you should turn your head away. But whatever. Anyway. My epiphany. I figured I had nothing to lose by finally sucking it up and writing the story that I've been dying to write for years. 

So I started writing an outline. It was so much fun finally getting the skeleton to this story out of my system. I was all pumped and ready to write this thing! November came and I was Little Miss Writer Princess. For two weeks I did nothing but write. Then, I did nothing. Yeah, all that pontificating about how my cat could write a better book than Twilight, and I was fried. My brain refused to work. I got to the fourth chapter and stared blankly at the screen. Sad, isn't it?

I could do nothing more. I felt like an asshat, I was letting my characters down. They had a story to tell and I was at a loss. Needless to say, I stepped away from the writing process, but never really stepped away from my characters. They were always on my mind, subtly suggesting that they needed to speak. They needed to express themselves. I saw shades of them in everything I did. Last week, it finally became too much to bear. They were loud. They wanted out. And I had no choice but to oblige. Then, earlier this week on the Twitter, an author that I follow (Hi Ann Marie!) kept tweeting about a contest to win a critique from her agent. I died. It was the final jolt I needed to give my characters the love, respect and freedom they deserved. 

I started furiously rewriting everything I'd done so far. And it's pouring out of me so easily, I'm almost embarrassed that I wasn't able to do it sooner. I'm loving it. Even the no sleep. Oh, I didn't win the contest. But that doesn't matter, because I get to spend my days, nights and every other waking moment playing with my characters. And that is a priceless reward.