Achievements - Insecure Writers Support Group Post for September 2013 #IWSG

 This is my sixth monthly Insecure Writer's Support Group post. The IWSG is hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh. The purpose of the IWSG is:

"to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!"

  
This is my post for Insecure Writer's Support Group for September 2013. The topic I chose for this one is "achievements."

One of the biggest things that has helped my confidence in my writing has been getting my short stories into anthologies. My longer novels may not be ready for print, but those short stories keep working for me. Every time I get to see another of my stories in print, I feel a little bit more confident in my writing and it strengthens my belief that I am a capable of finishing my novels and getting them out there into the world.

I've found my critiquing skills have grown as I help other writer-friends by looking over their stories and I know that I am strong at proofreading. Each achievement is another step taking me in the direction I want to go.

Now, here is where I get to boast a bit about some of my recent achievements. As some of you know, I run the Chapter Book Challenge (ChaBooCha) every year in March, and the ChaBooCha Facebook group stays open all year. The members of ChaBooCha (mostly ones who are active in the Facebook group) all came together to write flash fiction stories for an anthology of fairy tales with proceeds to benefit ChaBooCha.

On August 10th, Teapot Tales: A Collection of Unique Fairy Tales became available on Kindle. And any day now, the print version of the book will become available on Amazon.

This book is a wonderful anthology of fairy tales, from twists on the classics to band new stories. The stories are enchanting, and getting wrapped up in the magical worlds created within Teapot Tales' pages is a terrific way to spend a bit of time. I had help editing some of the stories, but overall, I edited, put together, formatted and created the books. There were 35 stories in total, including two poems, and there were 21 authors.

Getting Teapot Tales out into the world feels like one of those achievements I've been writing about in this post. It feels terrific!

And, I have achieved another small achievement. The doodle books I created are now available for purchase on Amazon too! The doodle books are pattern coloring books with pages for doodling in the back. Both books are the same inside, but are different sizes. Their titles are Doodle Your Heart Out and Little Book of Doodles.  My blog Designing Doodles has a post that shows some of the interior designs within the books.

The doodle books are books created completely by me (using some of my husband's art too) and I am so pleased with how they came out. No, they aren't an example of my writing, but I still think they are fun little books and creating them was another notch in my editing and publishing knowledge. And they will make some wonderful Christmas gifts for kids!

I am currently working on putting together the female superhero anthology, which is an anthology with 27 stories and 24 different authors. It still needs some illustrations for the interior and a cover. The proceeds from it will be benefiting the charity Because I Am a Girl.

Added to this, I have a story in an upcoming anthology, Crock of Charms. And I have three stories which will be in an anthology that will be out later in 2014 called Keepsakes. Another group I am a part of is creating an anthology of Christmas flash fiction which I will be contributing to, and the Chapter Book Challenge group members are now creating an anthology (for kids) of short stories with a Christmas theme, called Jingle Bells.

All of this means I have a lot of work ahead of me over the next few months, but I am loving every moment of keeping busy and CREATING!

If you want to contribute to the Jingle Bells anthology, check out this post for details. It is open to everyone.

If you are an illustrator and would like to donate a female superhero drawing to the female superhero anthology, you can e-mail it to me along with your bio (which will be included in the anthology if we use your illustration. Interior illustrations are to be of one of the superheroes in the stories ( links to posts with the stories can be found here) and to be in black and white.


Oh, and another achievement to mention: I now have an Amazon author page!

What I've learned is this: Every time you create something tangible using your own creativity, it is another nail in the coffin of your self-doubt.

So what are you waiting for, get out there and start creating!

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