Does the pace a reader reads affect their opinion of the book?

I am a romance writer and reader. I love it. I have a hard time getting into a book if there is zero romance in it. I have always been a romantic at heart and my heart swoons whenever I read a book or watch a romantic movie. I yearn for the happily ever after for the characters.

After an interesting chat on my Facebook page the other day, I found myself wondering something.

Often the timeline in romance novels and romantic movies is very short...sometimes as short as a week or a month. It seems perfectly logical to me for a couple to find love in that short amount of time (I did!) but I know many others are skeptical about it. They believe lust is a possibility, but not love. I once had a reader tell me my book was unrealistic because my characters fell in love after only knowing each other a short time. But in romance novels, there is a level of suspended belief that must come along. It's a fantasy...an escape from reality. While some parts are realistic, some are not. And while my love story happened fast, I know it doesn't really happen for everyone. (Though all the successful marriages I know, it happened the same way as mine. My mom and dad dated for years then got married...divorced a few years later. My dad met my stepmom and 6 months later they got married. It's been 30 years.)

But anyway, the real point to my post today.

I started to wonder..... Say a hero and heroine fall in love and find their happily ever after in a novel that takes place over the course of a week. Say reader #1 reads this book in only 2 day's time. So for them, the entire relationship happened really really fast. But what about a slower reader who takes a month to read the same book. Do you think it's more believable for that reader, since they read slower and the relationship sorta took longer, in their mind, to develop??

POV change is DONE! Holy Cow was that a lot of work!

This POV change was for Spellbound, my 3rd completed novel. Basically it's about a simplistic woman who falls for a wealthy man and the differences they must deal with when they start a committed relationship. It tackles a lot of issues today's couples must deal with: financial, religious, familial.

I shouldn't have been surprised at the amount of work this took...I knew it would be very time-consuming. But in the beginning, it was just time consuming....easy....replacing I and we with she and they. But the more I went on...it just got to be a huge pain in the butt. Worth it, hopefully, but a huge pain.

But today I finally finished it. Whew! Huge weight has been lifted! This change was necessary and it was worth it. I think the story is stronger...love that I can add my hero's POV in. I think that helps the story a lot!

So next step...after I let this baby sit for a week, is to go back through and tighten it up. I need to add in some more spots with hero's POV and determine where I can cut some things. It's a tad too long. But I'm not overly concerned with that.

So now I have a little over a month to get this story ready for pitching at The Write Stuff Writer's Conference the end of March.

It's OFFICIAL!!! I'm beginning this journey!!

I received an email from my editor today...yep...round 1 of copy edits!!!!

I am beyond excited for this!! Yes, this all started months ago when I had a "Congratulations" email in my inbox. But now is when it REALLY starts! She told me she loved it and did the entire edit in seven days time!

And she prepared me for what lays heads. I know it's not gonna be all compliments and adoration...I know a ton of work is in my immediate future. But the work will be worth it. This time....editing is getting me where I want to go...it's not just endless work that might get me somewhere. And I have a professional to guide me along the way!

She'd like it back by Jan. 15th...yeah...not a problem! I'm lucky in that I get a solid 3 hours a day while my son naps. Plus, the way I'm feeling right now, it may be all I want to do over the next few days! I say that now....I haven't even opened the file yet. She already warned me that there will be times I will call her names and close my laptop.

To all the NANO's out there....

Wishing you all lots of luck as you start today!!!!

One of these years I WILL do it too!!! It always seems something comes up when November rolls around and I just can't set it aside to concentrate on it. This year it's editing. I am expecting my first round of copy edits from my editor soon...hopefully by mid month. I'd hate to be on a roll and then have to set it aside to concentrate on something that needs my immediate attention.

Or maybe that's an easy excuse. What would the harm be in getting something new started???

I don't know..... I'm working on editing some other projects too..so that I can submit them to my publisher. Plus I want to do another edit of my third novel so I can take it to The Write Stuff conference in March and pitch it to an agent.

And time...throw one more excuse on the pile. I really really need to carve out more writing time. I get a solid 3 hours on the computer in the afternoon when my son naps...but that time needs to be divided between email, networking, blogging, fun stuff (Facebook) and other stuff like check book balancing, uploading photos, etc... Sometimes the writing portion of my time is reduced to an hour or so. Hubby and I keep saying we are going to get a better schedule for me...giving me more time to write. We need to treat it like more of a job than we are. If I had a job outside of the home...I'd have to leave every day. We need to treat writing like a job. But as always, we have trouble with that....I may leave the room but they all know I'm still in the house. As any good mom out there...it's extremely hard to hear your child scream and not go running towards it.

So anyway...doo luck to everyone out there!!! Can't wait to hear of your progress!!

That first moment

I remember the exact moment I knew I wanted to write a novel.

I've written my entire life practically, though I never called myself a writer. I kept a diary when I was a kid and teen, religiously....pages upon pages I'd pour my thoughts onto each night...especially in high school with teenage drama at it's peak. I was the reporter for a club in high school too..even won a state award for it. It was thrilling to have my little pieces published in local newspapers...see my name in lights...or newsprint anyway. I even applied to college for Journalism- I passed on it though. But I continued to write in my diary/journal..sometimes I went months without writing...adult life can get so busy.

But the moment I wanted to write a novel..an entire fictional story...that came at a friend's house during game night...before we all had kids. A bunch of early twenty-somethings playing Guestures and drinking. At one point, a couple of my friends broke out into song..an old song- like 60's I think. We laughed and everyone continued on....except me. The wheels in my brain were spinning. What if I took that silly song lyric and applied the situation to a real person in present day...and wrote a story about it. I could do that!!

And so started my infatuation with writing stories and creating my own worlds.

That original story did get shelved..the MC was male and I found it incredibly difficult to write from a male's perspective, especially in 1st person. I will finish it some day though...i still love the concept! I moved on to something a little closer to my heart after that. And like many novelist, my first completed story was based on my own life. I love that story so much...it was so near and dear to me, as crappy as it was!! But I had done it...I had completed an entire novel!!! I felt so accomplished!! It's sitting here in my laptop...waiting for the day I yank it out, dust it off and make it into something fantastic.

What about you??? Where is your first masterpiece?? What inspired you? When did you first know when you wanted to write novels??