Diving Into the World of Writing

Like so many of you aspiring authors out there, I jumped and then looked at where I was going. I love to write. I have been writing in secret since I was a teenager and have only recently thought about writing as a career. Okay, so in my high school paper I put being a published author as my life goal, I was joking (I think). I digress, I started sharing my writings. First it was just my sister, who gave me tremendous feedback but heck, she's my sister, she has to give me terrific feedback or I'll tell everyone her secrets. Then I joined the Avon FanLit competition and was amazed at some of my feedback there. I was in a Sally Field kind of daze when I came in 9th place during the last round. I didn't win, but I persevered and accomplished something I never thought I would do. I let other people read my writing and some of them liked it. Some of them hated it, true enough, but I am an optimist and perfer to look at the glass half full, some of them liked it.

I joined a critique group. I wrote a book in two months. I am facing the scary possibity of searching out an agent. That is so scary to me, I have nightmares over the agents reading some of my work, or just my query letters and having themselves a fun filled time of laughing over it. During my reading and research on agents, they said I need to get my name out there. I needed a webpage. ACK! I can barely format my manuscript. The thought of a webpage actually causes hives to break out on me. Not a pretty sight. I am doing this in small steps. I am going to blog, see how that goes, and then leap from there.

Wish me luck in my endeavors, I have a feeling I am going to need alot of it. Any aspiring authors out there who would like to share their experiences? Any advice for a newbie romance author in mid-dive?