I fell in love with books when I was in grade school. It started when I found some of my classmates reading Sweet Valley Twins books. I borrowed one then I got hooked. Pretty soon I was asking my dad to buy me my own copies. I then discovered a lot of other books too. My collection grew and grew and grew. I LOVED to read and I’ve never stopped reading since. I love going to book stores and browsing through books. I love the feel of a book in my hand. I love how they smell. You could leave me in a book store all day and I won’t complain.

Author Nora Ephron explains exactly how I feel about reading when she said this:

I guess it was my love for reading that also inspired my love for writing. In school, I always had really high grades in English grammar and English literature. While my classmates moaned in despair whenever we were assigned to write essays, I was always really thrilled to do them. Even during my high school, college and MBA days, I have always loved writing reports. Needless to say, my classmates would always be thrilled to have me as part of the group whenever there’s a group report.

So, it’s weird how I never really seriously thought of having a career as a writer until recently. The thought has crossed my mind before but I never dwelled on it because I wasn’t raised to think that being a writer was  a career, at least not one that will bring forth huge money. In our family, we were raised to be in business, or if not that, then either as a lawyer or doctor. No one in my family ever really took the time to read the essays and poems I’ve written. No one encouraged me to be a writer. That’s why I also never ever thought that I was good enough to be one until last year when my WAHM-ing led me to my present profession.

I now know that I’m a good writer. But, I’m also aware that I still have lots to learn and lots to improve on. So, I’ve been reading a lot about being a writer. I guess, what’s different now is that I now have writer friends who can relate to me and who love doing the same things. That really helped boost my self-confidence. But I think the most important confidence booster is my hubby.

Hubby doesn’t really read most of what I write. Well, at least I don’t see him read them. Maybe he just reads them whenever I’m not around. But he’s always supportive and believes in my abilities. Proof of that is him buying me this book, Chicken Soup for the Soul – Inspiration for Writers, when he saw it at 20% off during the last Manila International Book Fair. He knew I’d been eyeing this book. He made sure I got it.

I’ve been reading this book since then. I haven’t finished it yet, not because I don’t like it but because it speaks to me so much that it makes me emotional. I’ve cried reading some of the stories in the book. Actually, after reading only a few, it already inspired me to write a novel of my own.

Yeah, it’s CRAZY! It sounds like such an unattainable dream. Writing a novel is something that has been hidden in my heart for so long. Reading the book dug deep into my soul and made the dream of being an author come alive. And suddenly, I found myself writing the first few chapters of my first novel. Then I stopped.

I stopped because I came across this blog by a local author, Mina Esguerra, who has already published her own romantic novels. While I haven’t read any of her novels yet, I knew they’re really good because the books are so popular. She’s also won an award or two. From her blog, I  found out that she organized her own workshop wherein she taught aspiring authors how to write their own romance novels but got bummed when I saw that the workshop had long since ended. It was really so inspiring because some of her romance class students were already able to publish and launch their own stories recently. I wanted that to be me next year. So, I was really happy to find out that she has decided to make her romance class lessons into a book. Needless to say, I bought that book in a heart beat.

Yes, I plan on writing my own romance novel. I want my first book to be a light, easy read. What’s the plot going to be about? Well, that’s a secret for now. Haha! All I can say is that I was inspired by this quote.

Life’s too short to be wondering, “What if?”

Sound interesting to you?

I haven’t even started writing again yet. I want to finish the romance class book first and see how the lessons there can help me write my novel. I wasn’t even going to blog about this. But, I needed to feel accountable to somebody so that I can push myself to finish what I started. So, I figured, blogging about it and having YOU read it will make me feel accountable to you, my dear readers. I had kept my novel writing a secret for fear that I might not finish it anyway, that it might not even be good enough. However, because of Chicken Soup for the Soul, I became inspired to just write it. I’ll worry about publishing it later.

I’m so scared but so excited at the same time. But, my heart wants this. I have a hubby who backs me up and who believes that I can do this. What more can I ask for? I’m starting something new – to fulfill a dream. Maybe one day I’ll finally find myself in a bookstore looking at books with my name on the cover. What a wonderful day that will be.

Wish me luck!