The Return of Pretty Peggy

For all 4 of my loyal readers, you may recall that back in June I was challenged to write a post about what I had wanted to be when I grew up. You can refresh your memory by reading that post here but basically to sum up, the post had talked about how I had always loved to write and had at one time aspired to write novels, my first attempt at which was entitled The Pretty Peggy Series.

Well, I found it to be a huge coincidence when only 2 months later, I started reading again, most notably of course the Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer (and if your rolling your eyes, thinking oh no, not another fanatical post about these books, please try to bear with me). As I scoured the internet for any and all information I could get about the books and the author, I discovered that Stephanie was at the time a 30-something stay-at-mom who had a dream. When she woke, she could not shake the dream so she started writing about it and before she knew it, she had written a book. If only it was that easy for the rest of us, right?

But I have to admit it inspired me. I had always wanted to write a novel, I am the same age and in the same position as she was, why not? I am not saying I could ever come up with something as wildly entertaining and popular as Twilight, but just to have accomplished the feat of writing a complete book would make me quite proud. I briefly toyed with writing a story I had in my head for awhile but it never really came to together. I got busy. The idea kind of got kicked to the curb.

And then, and try not to laugh at me but I had this really vivid dream on Friday night and I am not usually one to remember my dreams. It was like I was watching a scene from a movie play out in my head and when I woke up, I couldn't stop thinking about it so finally I decided to write it out, honestly just to get it out of my head and down on paper.

Later that evening when I was driving to my girlfriend's house, I came up with a complete outline for a story based around the "scene" I had written from my dream. In the last 3 days I have committed almost 13,000 words to a Word document.

So I guess what I am saying is, I am in the process of writing a book. I haven't fooled myself into thinking it's anything good. I will openly admit it is amateurish and immature and rough. It would probably get labeled young adult, after all that is what I have been reading as of late. but that is of little consequence because I would never actually try to get it published. I guess I would describe it as a love story, maybe a character study. There is nothing autobiographical about the story, except for the use of my knowledge of the military and 29 Palms. Don't worry it doesn't have any vampires, werewolves, wizards, aliens or a doomed future of our country.

At the same time, I am slightly curious how others might react to it. I wonder if it would even make sense to an outsider. At the very least, assuming I complete it, which at this point I am pretty sure I will, I would like to have someone else help me edit and perfect it, just for me to have. Even if no one else enjoys reading it, I find it entertaining. I also wonder if anyone would be able to pinpoint the chapter that was derived from my dream, since I wrote that first but oddly enough the story kind of worked around it so it is neither the first nor last chapter chronologically.

So I am looking for a few volunteers, who would be willing to look at what I have and give me gentle but honest criticism so that I can tweak it. Obviously having churned out that many words in such a short time, I am just going with it right now. I am afraid of losing steam. So I have not stopped to go back and edit it at all but I also don't want to wait until I am done before getting feedback, because it may be helpful in getting it completed.

And now that its out there, that I am telling my 4 loyal readers and various family members that I am writing a book, I feel a little exposed. At the very least, it will keep me motivated to finish it.