As I've previously mentioned in my post, I have a tendency when I begin a project that I don't finish it. Since I was young, I knew I always wanted to write. I was rather a "creative" child and many people within my church community knew me as "the girl who could draw." To this day, when I run into someone that knew me, the first question they will ask me is, "Do you still draw?" Sadly I would answer with a no. Not because I feel my talent has diminished, but had I continued to prosper, my skill would utmostly improve. The focus of my fascination as a little girl was fashion and I enjoyed drawing women in exotic-looking clothes. Then I moved on to painting because while in high school during my art classes, I gained valuable knowledge and attained skills to improve my creativity. I loved it so much that I went to Michael's and bought brushes and canvases. (I paid a pretty penny for it, too.)
Somehow that love for crafting turned into writing. The idea of being my own director, creaing my own world and people was too appealing to pass up. I've begun countless stories, with a good first scene, and somehow I never managed to write past page three or four. Why? Because I didn't have a plan how the story will progress, nor did I know why the story was being written. I gave no purpose to my characters, they weren't driven to go after what they wanted. When the writer begins to write and is unprepared results in a forgotten story hiding somewhere on your desktop. . . .
Much later did I learn that once you get an idea, you must expand on it and at least know the direction in which your story will go. For example, when you begin chapter one, know in general where your character will mentally or physically be toward the end. I faced the same problem until I wrote my first "novel" and it was Godawful, too. Yet at the time, I was extremely proud to have accomplished such a humungous task. Now I know it was just a piece of garbage and I disposed of it because I never want to see it again. I continued reading, reading, reading, and slowly through reading and becoming familiar with history, I decided to give it another try. I've always been fascinated with romance that took place many, many years ago. The next book I wrote was called Insignia, which took place during World War 2 and required a lot of research on my part about the time period and also on the career of my main character, which so happened to be a nurse. I set out to read as much as I could on wartime nurses working close to the front lines. The story turned out pretty good. Feeling proud, I decided to send it out to agents, and after many rejections, I received one Yes! Petrified of anyone seeing my work, I never sent the script.
Putting Insignia on the side, I began another project, which I managed to complete because the story and the characters grasped me so much I was addicted to it until the day I finished it. It was all I could think about, dream about and write about. Coming Home was even more dear to me because not only was it another historical romance, but it took place in my home country of Croatia during the reign of the fascists and how they and the Nazis tormented Slavs during the Holocaust.
However, during my writing process, another story developed. While researching for Coming Home, I discovered another great topic I was fascinated about. I usually pick a specific period in history, or in my case, in WW2, and weave a story around it. Then an idea of writing about an S.O.E. agent struck me, and born was Dangerous Lies, which, by the way, I am still "researcing." I've been contemplating with this story for a few years now. I've never actually found the courage to begin writing it--although I do have a few scenes written down, I'm working on character development and I am 100% eager to finish it because the characters are haunting me, and it is a story that needs to be told. The reason I am afraid--there, I admitted it--to write it is just the same as when I begin painting, I am scared to finish it in fear of ruining it. Yet I know it won't help that it's only in my head.
Currenly, I am writing one contemporary piece, The Contract, and another very dear novel to me called Time of Loving, which takes place at the turn of the century in Italy. It is another historical piece and I am so in love with it that, shamely so, I neglected my contemporary one. All in all, my goal is to complete The Contract and Time of Loving this year, and hopefully by I would say, end of the summer, at least BEGIN on Dangerous Lies.
If you enjoy novels such as The Notebook, The Lost Valentine (this movie was AMAZING, I highly recommend it), and Sunshine (starring Ralph Fiennes), you'll love the kind of stories I tell.
