These past few weeks I’ve been doing a bit of ‘soul searching’.  Basically, after reading Get Known before the Book Deal, I’ve been concentrating on platform building.  This involves taking some time to work out my interests as a writer.

Years ago, I experimented with writing different genres.  One that I particularly remember was romance writing.  I read ‘how to’ books, listened to tapes, even joined the RWA.  I was foolish enough to believe that writing in this genre was easy, but I actually found it difficult.  Why?  I think it was because (pardon the pun) my heart wasn’t in it.  I wasn’t interested in the ‘girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl wins boy’ scenario: in fact it bored me.  Personally, I don’t mind reading romance in a story as part of the sub-plot, but the main story has to grab my attention and pure romance wasn’t doing it for me.

I grew up reading and watching suspense, mystery, crime and horror.  History always fascinated me as well, so by combining all these elements I have now come full circle.  I have come to understand who I really am as a writer.  In order to be successful as a writer, one needs to write what they are passionate about.  Anything else and you’re not being authentic and true to yourself.

So this Valentines’ Day, listen to your heart when it comes to your writing.

Are you following your passion as a writer?