The Work of Writing

I’m spending my Labor Day laboring. I’m wrestling with characters who want to go their own way. I’m weaving in bits of research about grief-stricken children, commitment phobic men, and guilt-ridden women. I’m struggling to find the best words and craft them into the best sentences. I’m writing, and writing is hard work.

I’m indolent by nature and a world-class procrastinator, but I have an extra incentive to fight my inclination to waste time and to persevere in meeting a personal goal of 30,000 words by September 28. I just started my second week as a member of the Bon Bon Chocolate Mafia team in the 2009 Unleash Your Story fundraiser to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The team is made up of a dozen (at last count) friends, most of who met on the Eloisa James/Julia Quinn bulletin board. We are writing, reading, and editing our way to a team goal of many thousands of words and $1500.

Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of about 30,000 children and adults in the U.S. and 70,000 worldwide. Research has led to progress. In the 1950s, few children with cystic fibrosis lived to attend elementary school. Today, thanks to advances in research and medical treatments, many people with the disease can now expect to live into their 30s, 40s and beyond. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation works to find better treatments and, ultimately, a cure for this fatal illness. (Information from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation website).

You can join the Unleash Your Story event by making a donation through my page, joining one of the existing teams, or signing up as an individual and collecting donations from family and friends for meeting your own writing or reading goal.

Those of us who write and read romance fiction have a special dedication to the HEA. Participating in Unleash Your Story directly or through contributions to a participating writer or reader allows us to play a small part in working toward a real-life happy ending for the tens of thousands of children and adults whose lives are threatened by this disease.