Most romance authors start out as romance readers. Then the writing bug bites. Some of these budding authors just sit down at the keyboard and start typing. But others immediately try to over-analyze the process, and there be dragons on that path. As soon as you start reading books about the craft of writing and how to format your manuscript and how to build a writing career from the ground up, some of your innocence and wild enthusiasm are lost. You cannot unlearn what you’ve read, and all that new information can stifle your burgeoning creativity. And suddenly, before you’ve even taken your first stab and writing a book, you’ve got a full-blown case of writer’s block.
Until you’ve written a first effort, who knows what your sticking points will be. You may have an innate grasp of character growth. But if you read other writer’s “rules” about mapping a character’s growth before you’re secure in your skills, you’ll start to second-guess yourself, fixing problems that don’t exist. Or you may be reading dozens of books and websites about plotting when your real struggle is with dialogue.
Once you have something on the page, you’ll start to see your personal weak spots and can approach craft books and workshops with those issues in mind. You’ll also be able to notice other problems as you become more educated, but by having completed a first book of your own, you’ll be able to apply what you learn to your own work.
Your mileage may vary, of course. Put two dozen writers in a room and you’ll hear two dozen stories about how they wrote their first novel or how they approach the writing process. So what’s your story? Did you study first or write first, study later?