I might have mentioned in a post way back when that I was writing a book. Though this book is fictional I was drawn by two of the characters I had created to have a romantic relationship with one another. I wrote the scene and all that jazz included and continued writing the story. And then I reread it. And again. And a couple more times after that. Mind you these characters had a couple of sex scenes. Whatever. Then I thought for a bit-what will people think of me if this was published? I've never experienced anything close to this with a person to what the characters in my book have or others. I had used what my friends and the movies had told me. 

Is that enough? Do I need to experience love -specifically romance-before I continue writing about romance? How can I consider even calling myself an author -at that a credible one-if my characters have experienced events I never had?

So I took a break from writing a book. I thought of it as a sabbatical. I have myself a year to find love. A year. The fact that I have myself a timeline to do something like this should have been a warning sign. Mind you though, it was going well at first. Finally I guy had professed his love for me. It just wasn't the way I had ever imagined it. It wasn't like the movies of anything I had ever read. It wasn't even romantic. Not one bit. And naturally I ran away. Literally. I bolted. 

So maybe my year of finding love didn't happen. Maybe it wasn't supposed to happen either. If I learned anything it's this: you shouldn't put or make a timeline for love. And people, from what I've experienced it's nothing like the movies. Zippo. Half of the illusions I created in my head about guys quickly evaporated when the scenes played out the complete opposite way I had intended them to.

But I still haven't answered the issue of credibility yet. Sure, I still haven't had any first yet. But from this year I took the time to understand that a lot of people haven't either. Everyone has fantasies. Who says that they're not credible? Someone came up with the inspiration in both books and movies somehow. So maybe the answer is that everyone has a different method to their madness. Not everyone is going to perceive the same events as you in the same cookie cutter way. The shape if the cookie might have different edges, it might have sprinkles, and they even might have used a different recipe then you had. The result though is the same: a story. 

So, dear fellow authors that find yourselves a writers block, don't fret. Let this be a lesson that it's good to have doubts, but to realize that everyone has them. How one perceives someone as experience is going to vary person to person. And it's not like your publisher or readers are going to ask for a resume of life experiences you've had. 

-Keep on writing

Sabrina Kennelly