Kung Hai Fat Choy

Congratulations and be prosperous in this new year ... yep, I was inspired by the Chinese New Year today to start my blog.
Why a blog?
Well, why not blog? Everyone seems to be doing it and I have read over and over in stories about writers that they journal regularly, to put their thoughts down, for future stories and keep up the habit of writing.
So, if I am going to ever get that book done in collaboration w/my vbf, I'd best get a move on and start writing.
It occurs to me that I don't have any idea who can or will read my musings ... I assume that people have to find this obscurely titled and not easily categorized collection of words and be interested enough to get past the first few scribbled (so to speak) entries to figure out whether it's worth their time to read someone who is just using this tool to practice literary work.
I don't even know if that last sentence made sense ... oh well, I will keep on plugging as the days go by and see what pops up.
I recall the only time I seriously attempted to complete an assignment of creative writing was in college. It was freshman year, I think and the assignment was to sit somewhere for a prescribed period of time and write about my observations. I took to my dorm room and wrote about all I heard and it was pretty enlightening to me ... I heard airplanes droning overhead, dorm neighbor conversations and comings and goings that I never paid attention to before that. I saw the sky differently and felt my bed and alternately, the hard chair underneath me for the first time. I thought what a great thing this writing was ... but then I went back to my obsession with science and my nursing studies and the rest of the writing I did was certainly not creative unless I didn't know the answer to a narrative question on an exam, sometimes I tried a little creative BS to mask my lack of knowledge.
So, when my friend and I had the great idea that we could write a novel just as sure as all those other writers who never wrote before but had an inspiration, I had to sit down and start the process. But I had NO idea how to put thoughts to screen (we don't put pen to paper anymore even tho' that sounds much more romantic) and I ended up with writer's block before I even could remotely consider myself a writer.
We have a great idea, a story about 2 women who have been friends forever but went off in totally different directions after high school graduation (I wanted to say divergent but kept misspelling, now I got it right but it didn't sound right in the sentence so I am leaving it here to remind me how to spell it) and periodically come back together to "save" the other in some crisis or another that occurs. These women are both strong and smart and make decisions about where to go and what to do about the various situations they encounter in life, sometimes consulting each other but usually not, although they always have each other as best friends even if they are miles apart in thoughts and deeds. Each knows the other is always there, part of her and part of why the individual is stronger, because each has the best interests of the other in the back of her mind and always seem to know when and how to show it.
It's to be a story of love and struggle in good and bad times but always about friendship, the bond between women that they only realize as their experiences grow over the years. They come to recognize how powerful and necessary it is to have that bond with each other and various women over the years.
It's to be a story whereby the women "know" that no one gets them like they get each other.
We both think it's such a good premise and my vbf has actually written some chapters ... I am lagging behind and I WANT to do it. But life seems to get in the way.
We got the brilliant idea, btw, during a week at the beach house and we had a lot of good ideas penned the first day. My mother even got into it, suggesting some twists and turns. She even asks periodically and I do admit it's me that hasn't kept up.
But now, finally, I think I have found a way to get going.
I will come here and begin the thinking and writing process and do my best to get the ideas out.
My boyfriend is a wonderful writer, if he can do it, I know I can too.
I know I can do the editing and rewriting once I get the ideas down. I did it for a technical writing project in the past. I organized the whole damn chapter of a book with 3 other writers and got published.
It's not the writing, it's that I always want it to be right so I keep editing it.
Actually it IS the writing, I am too damn wordy and can't seem to write my thoughts.
So, here I am writing my thoughts.

The hardest 2 steps are those out the door ... Joan Benoit Samuelson said something like that about her marathon training.

So, here I go ... first steps

Wish me luck