In case you missed it, this week the girls over at Murder She Writes have been blogging about their first books. Not necessarily their first published books, but the first books they wrote. It’s been a hoot to read…and very interesting.

The general concensus seems to be most authors sell their 4th or 5th book. Why that is, I’m not entirely sure, although I’d bet it has something to do with practicing your craft enough so it finally hits home. (BTW one girl at MSW did sell her first completed ms. And we struggling writers all hate her! LOL – just kidding.) For me, that’s encouraging news because I am right now working on book #5. And while I don’t want to jinx myself, I can sorta see the theory behind the 5th book idea. My writing is better with this one. My characters are deeper, and (most importantly to me) the words flow onto the page easier.

Book #4 was tough for me to write. I loved the characters, like the plot, but I had trouble with it. It’s much darker than anything else I’ve written. And it took me six months to get it done. Now, part of that could be the fact I had a newborn in the house, but six months is a long time for me. Book #5 just seems to be going so much smoother.

Does that mean I’ve finally found my voice? I have no clue. That word is tossed around so much, I’m not entirely sure what it means. At my RWA meeting last week, a fellow writer complimented our new blog at Romance Worth Killing For. She said she’d read the first line of the post up that day and immediately said to herself, “This has GOT to be Elisabeth.” So she scrolled down to find out who had posted, and sure enough, it was me. Obviously, that means my blogging voice is in line with my normal voice. But does that mean I’ve finally found my writing voice? I’m not sure. I do know this much though, if my writing voice is finally melding with my natural snarkastic voice, then yeah, maybe I have found it. And maybe that’s what people mean when they say it takes you 4-5 books to really find it and work with it.

Tomorrow I may have a different view, but today that sounds pretty good. 😉

I could go in line with the girls at Murder She Writes and tell you about my first book – *SHUDDER* – but I’ll save you from that horror. Let’s just say I’ve come a long, LONG way.

Have YOU found your voice? If so…how long did it take you? Or are you still searching?