It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. I encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs.
The awesome co-hosts for the February 1 posting of the IWSG are Jacqui Murray, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Pat Garcia, and Gwen Gardner!
February 1 question – If you are an Indie author, do you make your own covers or purchase them? If you publish trad, how much input do you have about what goes on your cover?
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I can’t wait to read writers’ experiences with book covers and get some secret insights into the publishing world!
Since I don’t have any publishing experience, I’ll share a small victory I’ve had in my writing lately.
I had been feeling discouraged and was having trouble making myself sit down in front of the laptop, so I made a change. I bought a small mechanical timer (didn’t want to encourage myself to pick up my phone while I was supposed to be writing!) and pulled out a notebook and pen. I set the timer for five or ten minutes, figuring that those amounts of time wouldn’t be too intimidating. The experiment worked and now writing longhand is my favorite process. Usually, I end up writing for much longer than five minutes. Other times, I grind out the five minutes then take a break. Later I set the timer for another five minutes.
It’s been great! I’m writing a lot more and I have much less anxiety about what I’m writing. Maybe it is because there is no temptation to “backspace” and remove the horrible material I just put on the screen. I just keep going.
Editing will be more of a challenge than usual, but a rewrite from notebook to screen can act as an editorial pass, so I think it will work out when I finally get to that point. In any case, writing a bunch of words in a notebook is better than staring at a blank screen, no matter how it affects the editing process.
Have a great month!
Lori
Word Philosopher 
Definitely a good way to ‘make’ yourself write, Lori. Early on I had some great ‘unbroken’ time periods with a definite start and end that keep me on track. Now that I’m retired and endless time…yeah, maybe I’ll borrow your idea. 🙂
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