The goal is to avoid the lonely land of undeveloped plots.

You know how I always say I love writing and that one of my biggest dreams is to write at least one book? You know how I even have a Pinterest board filled with pins on writing techniques and encouragements? You know how I've purchased more than enough notebooks saying they'll be my writing journals that will document my book-writing process, but have remained blank until now?

You know how I always say I will do it, I will get to it, but never really get anything done?

Well...

Earlier today I attended Mina V. Esguerra's #romanceclass, a mentorship program with the goal of producing a romance novella with at least 30,000 words by the end of a three-month period. Sixteen "students" from the first batch have completed their own romance novellas, and most of the books I reviewed for the Book Blog Tour were actually part of the program. That's the goal. I first got interested to join not only for the output, but also because a support group can prove to be very valuable. If there's anyone who can facilitate this, it's Mina because she churns out characters and romantic plots like it's nobody's business.

After much deliberation (mostly because I was having self-doubts and Greenhills is just too far), I signed up past midnight last night. Good thing I still got in! But then, when I woke up this morning those thoughts came back and I was tempted to not go and just stay in the house watching movies, but NO. I owe it to my 14 year old self, who dreamed of being a published author before she reaches 30, to step up and JUST DO IT.

Good thing I did.

I have two batchmates: Justine and Bea. After introducing ourselves to one another, Mina explained the goals and rules of the program. What I love most about workshops is the immediate feedback, and our mentor had lots of that. When we were given an exercise to compose our story's description, the main characters' descriptions, and the ending, everyone was too busy scribbling on their notebooks and not looking up (except for me because I took a peek hihi)!

Bea, Justine, Mina, and me

A confession: I can't concentrate on what I'm writing (even if it's just an inane blog post) when there's music. I hear the song, get distracted, and sing along until I've forgotten what it is I wanted to write in the first place. Something magical happened today, though. Since I had no choice but to write within the 30-minute time frame until I was done, I did it even with Toast Box's background music! I couldn't believe it. That alone was worth going to far-away Greenhills for me!

It was such an inspiring afternoon! I went in full of apprehensions and with zilch plot ideas, but I walked away with a plot AND an ending that I couldn't wait to explore completely! Ideas were freely flowing in even while I was on my way home, and that's how you know #romanceclass is the excellent way to jump-start my dream. My characters don't have names yet but I am so excited because they feel so alive to me right now. Now I just need to soldier on and make sure this excitement doesn't fizzle.

30,000 words by July... Do you think I can do it? I think I can! I mean, this will be my first output if ever, so I am not expecting something in the leagues of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or the Before trilogy. Aside from *actually* finishing it though, I'd like it to be well-written. I'd like my novella to be an easy and comforting read, like a nice movie in your head, or like something you'll come back to every time you just want to read something that almost feels like a friend.

It's a romance novella but I swear I will ease on the cheese and not make you want to retch.

I breezed through college without having to leaf through Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, but I actually passed by a bookstore earlier to get my own copy. For this project, I am using an orange notebook given to me by my friend Mike. It's not my favorite color in the world but I'm hoping it'll be enough to jolt me and tell me, "Reach out for me! Grab me! WORK ON ME!" whenever I want to procrastinate, which I hope will not happen a lot.

Oh well. Wish me luck and cross your fingers for me, will ya? This is it!