Breathe - Insecure Writers Support Group for November 2013 #IWSG

This is my eighth 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 November 2013. The topic I chose for this one 

is "breathe."

With the work I am doing writing my novel for NaNoWriMo, idea-generating for PiBoIdMo, writing for Write 

Write Non-Fiction in November and putting both the Jingle Bells anthology (almost done) and the SuperHERo 

Tales anthology together (not as done as Jingle Bells but also close), I feel like I haven't had time to just 

breathe, to relax and take a moment not to worry about how many projects I have completed today.

Now that the Jingle Bells anthology is almost finished and the SuperHERo Tales anthology is also close to being

done, I feel as though I am so close to being able to sit and take a breath. Yes, I still have a lot to do. And I still 

have NaNoWriMo and PiBoIdMo and Write Non-Fiction in November to complete, but the anthologies have a 

more urgent deadline if I want the authors to be able to buy print copies in time for Christmas, and once 

November is over, I will have The Talisman Chronicles to put together for all of those creative kids who wrote 

stories for it.

So right now, although I am still a little bit stressing about completing the anthologies, because the end is in 

sight, I can take a moment to rest. I can sit and breathe in the fresh air, blanking my mind of worries - just 

for a moment.

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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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Work - Insecure Writers Support Group Post for August 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 August 2013. The topic I chose for this one is "work."

The one thing that will make the dream of becoming a published author come true, the most important ingredient in the mixture of success, is a strong work ethic. It will never happen without putting the work in. If you want to publish a book, you first have to sit down and write it. It won't be easy, and once you are finished, then the real work starts. That's when you have to start editing and revising it. You will have to cut some of it out, rewrite some of it and write some new parts to it. You will have to make sure that everything makes sense and nothing is out of context. You will have to check your language and then, once all of that is done, you will need critique partners to tell you what else you need to do, and beta readers to tell you even more ways that it can be improved. You will need to check and re-check and check some more to make sure there are no spelling, grammar or punctuation errors. It takes work and drive and the will to keep at it no matter what might try to get in your way.

I am about to publish the anthology of fairy tales written by members of the Chapter Book Challenge.  The Kindle version is almost finished. I have spent a ton of time editing and proofreading each story and working on getting the format just right. I am determined to make sure that the Kindle will have useful clickable links. I have made the table of contents clickable to take a person to the story of their choice and the title of that story once they get there is clickable to take them back to the table of contents. The author byline under the title of each story will be clickable to take the reader to that particular author's bio. And in the bio, there are clickable links to take the reader to that author's websites. In an anthology which has several different authors, I think this kind of things increases the reader's enjoyment of the book and the ease for them to use it. It's a lot of work, but worth it to create a fabulous book for people to buy. The editing and proofreading is also a lot of work, but no one wants to read a story full of typos, spelling mistakes, poor punctuation and grammar problems.

And once the Kindle version is out, I have to spread the word about it while I am putting together the print version. The print version won't need any clickable links. and through all of this, the germ of an idea for a new kind of publishing company is growing in my mind, so I know I will be doing a different kind of work if I want this new idea to come to fruition.

But you know what? It feels good to do the work. And even more? It feels great when everything comes together and the finished product is there, ready to go out into the world.

Have you been doing the work it will take to make your dreams come true?

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Insecurity - Insecure Writer's Support Group post for April 2013 #IWSG

I almost missed the IWSG post for April. It had to be written today and it's now late evening and I only just remembered due to some terrific people who are also part of the IWSG group leaving me comments on the last post today, wondering where this month's post is. (Yes, I know that's a run-on sentence, but this is a blog post, not a book, so deal with it.)

Today, writing about insecurity seemed appropriate. I just completed the Chapter Book Challenge. I run the challenge, so I had a lot of stuff to deal with over on the ChaBooCha blog, on the ChaBooCha Facebook group and organizing prizes to send out. And I did all of this while also writing a complete first draft of a chapter book. I am not very confident about the story though.

Most of the Chapter Book Challenge members are at the stage where they are exchanging their stories for critiques, and I am not confident enough in my own story to be willing to share it yet. I'm not confident enough in any of my stories yet to share them. I know they all need revision, and I know that, through critiques from others, I will be able to get some perspective on where the revisions are most needed.

But there is that awful niggling voice in my head that tells me my friends and critique partners will lose respect for me when they see how awful those manuscripts are. Once they read what I have written, they'll think to themselves that I shouldn't even be bothering. Part of this insecure feeling comes because, well, on these first drafts, maybe those thoughts would be partly right. They need a lot of work. But my stories aren't meant to be perfect on the first write. The first draft is meant to get the story down and then revision and editing and re-revision have to take part in making the story stronger. Beta readers and critique partners and eventually an editor all will take a hand in making my stories shine. I shouldn't feel this worry about what my friends will think of me if they read my first drafts; instead I should be hoping they will come up with some great insight as to how I can make my stories stronger.

The other part of this worry comes from the fact that I have read some really wonderful books out there, books I can not even hope to write to the level of, but I have also read some really poorly written self-published books out there. Most self-published books are terrific, but a few writers are so eager to be published that they publish before their writing is ready for it. They have the basis of what could be a good story but instead it lacks the necessary element to draw the reader in to the story. They have some brilliant writing, but it's mixed in with a lot of tedious writing. They could be so much more, but they jumped the gun and published too soon, without enough revision and practice. I worry that I will do the same, or that I will never be able to make my stories shine enough to be published.

But I have to stop letting those niggling thoughts bother me and get back to the writing, to the editing and to the revising. I am a little bit in love with each of my stories and it is my job to shine them up enough so that when others read them, they will fall in love with them too.



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Doubt - Insecure Writer's Support Group post for February #IWSG

This is my third 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!"

Doubt. It's one of those things that every writer lives with on a constant basis. All of us. Whether we are published or brand new at this writing stuff. And I am not any different from the rest. I'd like to believe that my doubts and fears are somehow bigger than everyone else's, but I know that's not true. The difference is that some people work past their doubt, or they work in spite of their doubt. And some people let the doubt eat away at their resolve; they let it convince them to give up. I refuse to give up.

It might take me longer than other writers, but I will succeed. I believe in dreaming big, and I don't intend to let any excuses stop me from working towards my dream, and that includes that plaguing self-doubt that keeps trying to creep in and convince me I'm not good enough to keep trying. (It's been trying very hard lately to convince me to give up.)

Anything worth dreaming about is also worth effort and work. It's worth giving it our hearts.

What about your dreams? You're not going to let a little self-doubt stop you, are you?


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Insecure Writer's Support Group Post #IWSG - December 2012

I just joined the Insecure Writer's Support Group hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh for the first time. 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!"

I think a monthly post about my doubts and fears might be helpful to me. After all, it is my fear of my writing not being good enough that kept me from pursuing my dream of being a writer for many years. Most of my life was spent wanting to be a writer but being afraid to try, afraid I didn't have enough talent.

I've realized, over time, that most writers don't have the talent to write something superb with their first drafts. It takes a lot of time and effort and revision to get the words just right. My problem is twofold. I worry that my writing won't be good enough even if I revise and edit a million times, and I worry that I am too lazy to actually do all of the revision and editing that my novel needs. Yes, I said that I am scared of being too lazy.

I know, it sounds strange. Surely laziness is a choice and something I have complete control over, right? Ah, but therein lies the true problem; any act of laziness in regards to my writing is truly an act of fear. If I'm too lazy to do the work, then it's not that my writing isn't good enough, it's that I am not good enough. I'd rather be lazy than a bad writer. I didn't say the rationale was a good one, just one of those crazy subconscious things I've been trying hard to recognize within myself so that I can circumvent it or ignore it.

I've recently finished National Novel Writing Month, and this time, I wrote a full manuscript, all 100,169 words of my urban fantasy/paranormal romance story. It's very rough and probably not very good. But I love the story. And I hate the idea of reading through it again and possibly finding out I hate the writing when I read it through for the edits. I want to continue to love my story, and I want anyone who reads it for critique to love it too. I know that the whole point of a critique is to help me improve the story, but I worry that they will read it through and think "she shouldn't even bother with it because it's too poorly written to save."

I guess I just wish I was one of those rare people who can write a masterpiece,a well-written and immediately gripping story, on my first write-through. But I'm not one of those people, so I just have to bite the bullet and put my work out there for others to see. Eventually. After I've had time to edit. And edit some more. And more...


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