All comments on this post count toward the 1,000th Blog Post Contest

In addition to getting some “music videos” of me singing uploaded last week, I also processed the recording of my Senior Recitation from my second-to-last semester of undergraduate work. At my undergraduate alma mater, Trevecca Nazarene University, every student has to present a topic in a one-hour session they’ve spent the semester researching, writing, etc. I know a couple of students from the English department who presented the same semester I did read poetry or essays or short stories they’d written. Well, my faculty mentor, Dr. Stevens, suggested that since I’m a novelist rather than reading from a novel for an hour, I focus on my entire writing journey as the topic of my Senior Recitation.

I hadn’t remembered until I watched it as I copied it to the computer and then broke it down in segments small enough for YouTube to digest that I gave this presentation when I was in the midst of writing Love Remains—and that I talked quite a bit about how I came up with the idea.

The entire presentation was a little more than an hour in length. I’ve linked to all of the parts here, but actually put the clips I think you might find of most interest up to watch here.

You’ll hear me mention “category romance” several times throughout the presentation—keep in mind that in 2003, the market was much different than it is now. Back then, I had been told that to break into publishing I had to start by writing HeartSongs—the Harlequin-style, short novels published by Barbour for a monthly readers’ club. Obviously, the market has change quite a bit in the last seven years.

Creative Writing: A First Person Point of View, Part 1—“When I was growing up…”

Creative Writing: A First Person Point of View, Part 2—“An Alarming Addiction”

Creative Writing: A First Person Point of View, Part 3—“My First Creative Writing Class”

Creative Writing: A First Person Point of View, Part 4—“My First Creative Writing Class” in which I write a short story and get the first feedback on my writing

Creative Writing: A First Person Point of View, Part 5—“Declaring a Major” in which I learn what it means to major in Creative Writing

Creative Writing: A First Person Point of View, Part 6—“A Dream is born”: the inspiration behind the “epic” 230,000-word manuscript I worked on throughout in the 1990s—and learning the secret of writing fiction—as well as the birth of Bonneterre, Louisiana (a.k.a. College Park)

Creative Writing: A First Person Point of View, Part 7—“Building College Park, LA”: the development and growth of the fictional setting that would become Bonneterre, Louisiana.

Creative Writing: A First Person Point of View, Part 8—“The growth of College Park”: Bonneterre grows as more and more ideas for characters, both major and secondary, develop (in which I talk about Character Casting and creating a Character Database).

Creative Writing: A First Person Point of View, Part 9—“Dream Therapy”: Using writing to work through depression and major life changes.

Creative Writing: A First Person Point of View, Part 10—“Putting the Dream into Perspective” and “The Five Girls”: How long is To Build a Dream compared to published novels? And the inspiration behind the first complete manuscript I would write. (By the way, Bekka d’Arcement, whom I talk about in this section and who is the main character of my first completed manuscript, is none other than Bekka Blakeley in A Case for Love—Alaine’s friend at the TV station.)

Creative Writing: A First Person Point of View, Part 11—“What’s a Writers’ Conference?”: My experience and what I learned at my first writers’ conference, including the most important thing I’ve ever learned about writing.

Creative Writing: A First Person Point of View, Part 12—“Learning What Matters Most”: I begin writing what would become my first complete novel—and I read from it, too.

Creative Writing: A First Person Point of View, Part 13—“What I learned from WMM”: What I learned from the process of writing my first complete manuscript.

Creative Writing: A First Person Point of View, Part 14—“ACRW Conference and a Noble Theme”: I enter my first writing contest.

Creative Writing: A First Person Point of View, Part 15—“The Next Steps”: What I did after finishing my first complete manuscript (including a discussion of finding a graduate school program).

Creative Writing: A First Person Point of View, Part 16—“Inspiration comes from the strangest places”: The process that led to the original inspiration for Love Remains.

Creative Writing: A First Person Point of View, Part 17—“Love Remains”: The inspiration and origins of Love Remains.