Only?

I have already mentioned that I have been writing on my story, book, fiction, all those things I call it, again.  I had to make a new resolve after not completing my first draft by the end of last year like I had planned.  When I was admitting this during the holidays Dante had expressed a desire to read the story so I had better get working on it.  He had also come up with an impossible deadline of February. 
Since I have made some real exciting progress I mentioned it to Dante.  He asked me what genre it was.
I read a lot of different books but quite a few mysteries.  I read some pretty good homicide, serial killer, mean, dirty mysteries.  There is nothing frilly about them so he was a little surprised when I told him that mine was a love story.  Excuse me while I stammer but it is possibly a rr...rro..romance...?
Did I say that or more to the point am I writing that?  Yes.  And I was able to give him a pretty good run down of the story so far with details.  I hadn't been able to do that when I was writing it before.  I obviously have a better idea where I am going with it and could actually put it into words to describe it.  That was a great step in the right direction!
Just recently Sonny asked me about my book, story, fiction.  I admitted to him about the genre.  He asked if I was writing a bunch of sex scenes.  No, not yet, probably will but not a bunch, not like on every other page like some of the romances I've read.  It's not like that.  So he was curious about the male lead.  So I told him he was fashionable and wore Italian leather shoes.  In fact we were on the phone and I was at my laptop so I opened the first chapter and read him a piece of what I had written to describe the character...

...He wore a dark suit with a shirt of starched white cuffs that peeked out of his sleeves that were exactly the proper length.  Even with his tall height his trousers hit the precise spot at the tops of what she noticed were Italian leather shoes.  Since he was facing away from her she had the opportunity to take in the lean length of his back.  She continued to grin as she perused the nice cut of his jacket and wished it wasn’t covering so much of what she imagined was a taut backside.  She couldn’t help but think it was probably just about the right…

I asked Sonny if he opened a book at random did he think he would read something like that?  He thought yes or at least told me yes.  I know he couldn't tell much, if anything, from one snippet, out of context, but we were having a conversation and it seemed to flow well as I read it out loud.  Sonny then asked if it was going to have a happy ending.  I said, well yeah.  He thought I should end it differently - like maybe a twist.  I don't know about that but I suggested maybe I could write multiple endings and could state...If you would like this to happen read this...or if you choose this instead, read that...

It is nice to be getting support on this and feeling like I am able to answer questions about it with some confidence.  I am not trying to do anything but something for myself.  I want to see if I can actually write an entire story.  I am taking it as a challenge to commit to the work to accomplish a finished story.  I am not looking beyond the mere writing of it.

So why is it a love story, romance, when that isn't what I ever thought I would be writing?  I'm not entirely sure, except I had this idea and I started writing notes and it started to form in my head.  This is what it started to develop into as more pieces were put together.  And maybe I wanted to be able to wade into more shallow waters slowly to get the feel of it.

I don't think the work to put it together is any less but maybe expectations of others won't be as high if I am only writing a love story romance.  Besides I am only doing it for myself and don't let anyone fool you...no matter what the genre, it isn't easy.  It takes work that you have to commit to in order to get it done.  

So expectations, romance or not...I'll never meet Dante's February deadline.

But you can bet I'll keep working at it.

TT