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.
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.
Yes, I realize that we’re almost a month into the year. But it seems like a good time to spread some cheer since I just mailed my New Year cards. I also just finished putting away the Christmas decorations. Evidently, being a month behind on holidays is my current trend. Add that I chickened out of a New Year’s Eve party (sorry, friend!) and failed to win the CHAMP game on Thanksgiving, and you could come up with general holiday failure.
But it’s fine. I might have bailed on New Year’s Eve, but I did get brave and go to a party later in January. That’s showing improvement, right?
And at least I showed up for Thanksgiving. At 3:00 a.m. the day I was supposed to start my trip, I woke up and had a bit of an anxiety attack. At 7:00 a.m., I declared that I could not handle the stress of the trip and went back to bed. But at 9:00 a.m., I mentally wrestled myself into the car and got on the road. Another brave moment—go me!
Losing CHAMP—our family’s version of the basketball game HORSE—was a bummer, but it wasn’t a surprise. I’ve never won. Since the “modern era” began, circa 1987, we’ve played at most family get-togethers. That means I have lost at least fifty times in a row. Me not winning is practically part of the tradition at this point. But, again, it’s fine. My goal is never to win. My goal is always to not go out first. Not only did I accomplish that this past year, but I also surprised everyone by coming in second place for the first time! I’m definitely moving that technical loss to the personal victory column.
Plus, I don’t fail at everything Thanksgiving related. My deviled eggs get rave reviews and I excel at the garage party. Neither of those is a competition, but I do a great job at both, even if I say it myself. (If the garage party were a competition, my family would sweep every event. It’s just a fact.)
So yes, it might seem like I’m falling short in the holiday category, but it’s all good. And really, is it ever too late to send good wishes?
Purpose: 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!
January 4 question – Do you have a word of the year? Is there one word that sums up what you need to work on or change in the coming year? For instance, in 2021 my word of the year was Finish. I was determined to finished my first draft by the end of the year. In 2022, my word of the year is Ease. I want to get my process, systems, finances, and routines where life flows with ease and less chaos. What is your word for 2023? Why?
Self-proclaimed word philosopher checking in! I love words. Of course I do, I’m a writer, right? But words are fascinating beyond the stories we tell with them. The words themselves have stories and I love that about them!
I’ve never had a word of the year before (generally I’m a “Give me ALL the words” person), but I love the idea. Pick a word? Twist my arm!
It took me a day or two to decide on a word. I wanted something positive, but not sappy. Active, but not naggy.
I finally decided on “already.” If I’m waffling about doing something—either procrastinating or being insecure—I will remember “Get it done already.” It will also work as a celebratory word when I can say, “I did that already.”
I’m excited about this word of the year. If it turns out to be a little too aggressive, I’ll revisit and try to come up with something a little gentler.
Purpose: 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!
November 2 question – November is National Novel Writing Month. Have you ever participated? If not, why not?
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I have participated in National Novel Writing Month several times. My results range from bailing mid-month to completing the word count challenge. This year, in addition to the word count goal, I am trying to incorporate more “writer-y” type activities into my life—things like reading craft books or listening to writing podcasts. I do those kinds of things now, but I don’t do them with any regularity. By the time NaNoWriMo ends, I hope my routines will have changed enough that my thoughts will default to things like “Hey, you have time to bust out some paragraphs! Woot!” or “Check out that blog on commas while you’re waiting on the dentist.”
So November’s goals are super easy—just 50,000 words and a new outlook on life. No big deal.
A girl can dream, right?
Good luck with your November goals everyone.
Have a great month!
Lori
P.S. I’d love to hear about your favorite books/blogs/podcasts. Feel free to post your suggestions in the comments.
Purpose: 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!
October Question: What do you consider the best characteristics of your favorite genre? If you want to read a variety of different responses, then hop around to the different blogs.
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Epistolary novels are fun to read and write because you get perspective from each character. There are other ways to approach that (the omniscient viewpoints), but the structure of a series of letters, journal entries, etc. is more fun sometimes.
When someone writes a letter, they provide the overall story with some important details. There is less description of surroundings and less “‘Let’s go to the mall,’ said Robin” type prose. That can make for a more fast-paced story.
Epistolary form can also provide a way to contrast a character’s reactions to a situation. For example, the main character will respond to an insulting email from a customer in one way, but will text her real feelings of outrage to her best friend. You get an extra layer of character development with one scenario!*
Epistolary novels are cool!
I hope everyone has a great weekend. Try not to be sad that summer is over. Yeah, fall is awesome, whatever, but I am already missing the warm weather.
Peace and love!
*This happens in real life, too. I am writing in my blog how much I love epistolary novels, but later I will be writing “Is this a stupid idea?” in the margins of my work in progress! I’m kidding. (A bit.)
Ok, that might not be entirely accurate. Yes, I do frequently wonder what the previous owner was thinking, but at some point, doesn’t everyone question the sanity of the person who had lived there before? I have moved a bunch of times and it seems like there was something crazy at each place. Some examples:
–Two houses with carpeting on the stairs only. I assume it is a safety thing. It’s not likely to have been a fad since the houses were built about thirty years apart.
–A house with a sump pump that didn’t kick on until there was two feet of water in the crawl space.
–A house built with the laundry room in a shed in the carport. By the time I moved in the laundry hookups had been moved into the house and the shed was just a shed with weird plumbing remnants, but it was still a weird idea to do laundry in the driveway.
–A different house with the laundry room outside. It was attached to the house, but you had to go outside to get to it. Why?
–Two consecutive houses with doors installed to isolate the dining rooms. Did I follow the same person from house to house, or does everyone do this to their dining rooms now?
–A house where all the addresses on the street (it was new construction) had been flipped sometime between when the addresses were assigned and when people moved in. Everyone in the complex had to exchange mail for a few weeks, and we kept inadvertently canceling each other’s cable installation.
–A house with a baby nursery. This doesn’t seem bad at first, does it? My son’s bunk bed, dresser, and toy box all fit in it, with enough room left over for a play space. It had its own window. You could only get to his room via his sister’s bedroom, but otherwise a nice little room, right? Wrong. At some point in the preceding fifty years, someone had put a small clothes bar in one corner. So now my son likes to get all “Cupboard Under the Stairs” about it and complain that we made him live in a closet. Why did someone hang that clothes bar? A dresser isn’t good enough for a baby?*
Of course, it might not have been the immediate previous occupants who did all of those things. The crazy person might have been three occupants past. Some of the decisions could even be blamed on landlords, architects, or bureaucrats.
This is not to say that I’m innocent in this—I’m part of the crazy, too. By now, someone must have discovered that their baseboards were stuck to the walls with poster putty.** Someone else had to wonder why there was an old–fashioned schoolroom pencil sharpener mounted in the garage.***
I haven’t gotten around to doing anything crazy in this house yet—I’m still dealing with unusual decisions the previous occupant made. This time it’s the flooring in the dining room. It’s a large vinyl sheet that doesn’t reach the walls in one corner of the room. Because of that it is curling up. I considered just putting a piece of furniture over it and forgetting about it—who doesn’t need another bookshelf, right? But there’s another problem; when the heat pump comes on the air from the vent blows under the vinyl, lifting it several inches. It looks as if something is trying to break into this dimension through the dining room floor. Are vinyl sheets supposed to be glued down? I don’t know. But I’m tired of heating the space between worlds, and if I have to pull the vinyl up to fix that, I might as well put down flooring that fits the room better. The internet assures me that even I, Queen Sort of Good at Home Repairs, can handle this.
It didn’t get off to a great start. Five minutes after I brought the boxes of flooring in, I realized that I had stacked them on the floor that I needed to tear up. As I was dragging the boxes to another room it hit me–this project needs a bingo card! It will be good for my morale when I inevitably screw something else up. Also, why work on a project when you can write about it instead? (This is the opposite of what usually happens. Usually, I plan on writing then suddenly find the need to do something else entirely.)
My list for the bingo squares:
Avoid an injury
Wonder why I have so many books–likely to happen while I am moving them out of the room and then back in. The sad part is that the bookshelf has been in there less than a month. Planning is clearly not my strong suit (see: stacking boxes, above).
Discover some other crazy thing about the house–I suspect this will involve finding out that half the vinyl is glued down and I’ll have trouble pulling it off of the floor.
Fit all of the old flooring in the trash bin
Make fewer than three trips to Lowe’s during the project
Get “help” from dogs–they tend to think they are supervisors.
Stop to dance when a good song comes on
Finish
Not break anything–damage is always a possibility. I broke a lamp moving the bookshelf to the dining room.
Question my sanity about starting such a project–I could check this box already, but the project hasn’t technically started yet, so I’ll wait.
Search the internet for help
Talk to myself about my shortcomings
Have enough flooring
Finish in three days or less
Work after midnight
Experience project rage–yell, cuss, etc.
It’s a mixture of things that will likely happen no matter what; things I will try to make happen; and things that I might not want to happen, but I won’t be too sad if they do since they will help me get to bingo.
Send good vibes. I’ll need them!
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UPDATE: Two weeks later
I intended to publish the above before I started the project, and then post the bingo results afterwards. But the writing was taking longer than I anticipated (no surprise) so I set it aside to get the floor finished before my vacation was over. Hey, at least you get the bingo results immediately!
Items in blue are the things that happened. Bingo! Yay!
Notes on results:
–I cut my finger. Nothing major, but it did bleed so it qualifies as an injury.
–While moving the books back, I decided I probably did have too many, so I added some to the donate pile.
–I had plenty of flooring—not because I’m efficient (I wasted about a box) but because I bought a lot. I’m fine with that. Queen Sort of Good knows her limitations.
–The surprise was a random piece of metal screwed into the floor. It was where a door used to be, so it might have been a threshold, though that seems odd for an interior door. Also, the metal strip was under wooden flooring, so it wasn’t helping keep the door closed. Maybe it was just part of the frame? Whatever it was, it took forever to remove it because the walls on either side had been built over it. I ended up cutting it with tin snips. The entire situation was insane, and it contributed significantly to project rage. A bingo two-fer!
–I got all the flooring down in two days, but the project isn’t finished because I still have to do the trim. That requires at least one trip to Lowes, so I left that box blank too, just in case.
Though I still have some work to do, I am happy with the results. The floor looks nice and I’m no longer paying to heat/cool the alternate dimension under the dining room. I even have space on my bookshelf for some new books! It’s an all-around win.
I recommend you make a bingo card for your next project around the house. It might help you feel less crazy!
Lori
* My kids are insisting it was a walk-in closet with a window. They have no explanation as to why there were no shelves and only one small clothes bar, but fine, whatever—I made my son live in a gigantic closet for a few months. Can’t wait for his Hogwarts letter to get here. Also, now I have to question the crazy person who took down all the shelves and clothes hanging bars.
**There was disagreement about the baseboards, so we used poster putty as a temporary fix, then moved away before remembering we had never attached them permanently.
***I like pencils, ok? And you have to attach those sharpeners to a wall stud, so the garage seemed like a perfect place.
My supervisor
Have you ever doubted the sanity of the person who lived in your place before you? Have you ever been the crazy one, leaving the results of questionable decisions behind when you moved? Let me know in the comments.
Purpose: 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! You can sign up here.
September 7 question – What genre would be the worst one for you to tackle and why?
Horror is the genre I’d have the most trouble with. I haven’t read a horror book since high school. It wasn’t required reading of course, but a group of us went through a phase of reading Stephen King and Dean Koontz. I guess some of those are classified as thrillers, but I wouldn’t be any good at writing thrillers either. I don’t remember how horror/thriller books work, and even if I did, I just don’t have the writing skills to maintain that level of suspense.
Supernatural is cool though—just not the “vengeful demon ripping out throats and entrails” type. I’m currently trying to write a ghost story, but the ghost is mainly annoyed and sarcastic. For some reason I don’t seem to have much trouble with sarcasm. ( __ <— This space for your shock.)
Purpose: 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 help and guidance. It’s a safe-haven for insecure writers of all kinds! Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day.
July 6 question – If you could live in any book world, which one would you choose?
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If you read by my previous blog posts, you’d probably guess I’d want to live in a country house in an Agatha Christie novel—cocktails on the lawn, walks around the estate (I still want to see a ha-ha), and entire rooms dedicated to books! I could say, “I’ll be in the library if anyone needs me,” and it would be an actual library! In my house! I’d definitely get some writing done there. (Ha!)
It does sound relaxing. Maybe I can spend my weekends there. But if I were looking for a good place to work I’d pick the world of the “Thursday Next” series by Jasper Fforde. Thursday Next technically lives in (a version of) Great Britain. But within that world is Book World, a sort of meta-book land where books are made and maintained. I could get a job in Jurisfiction and spend my time fighting the mispeling vyrus and the verbivores. There are mysteries, too—who sabotaged Miss Havisham’s hot rod?
Best.job.ever.
You could make an argument that this is sort of like wishing for more wishes, because in Book World you can travel to almost any book. (Jurisfiction agents lead group therapy in Wuthering Heights, for example.) But I’m making my own world here so I have approved it. Leisure time will be in Agatha Christie land and work will be in Book World with Thursday.
I will meet you for lunch (or cocktails!) in either one.
Purpose: 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!
May 4 question – It’s the best of times; it’s the worst of times. What are your writer highs (the good times)? And what are your writer lows (the crappy times)?
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One of the best parts of writing is when a piece I’ve been having trouble with suddenly makes sense. The perfect angle on an idea fights its way out of my brain, and I finally know how to rewrite and rearrange all the paragraphs I’ve been working on. Euphoria!
Some of the low parts are my usual “who will ever read this” thoughts and my feeble “end the story” skills. (I feel like I am not good at endings. Maybe I can take a seminar: “Endings: the complete how to guide for wrapping it up already.”)
A specific instance of “it was the best of times; it was the worst of times” was when I was first published. It was before the internet was the all-encompassing everything it is now. I submitted a silly column-type item to the local newspaper, but I didn’t tell anyone because, you know, insecure.
Weeks went by without a response. Then a friend called and asked, “Did you know that you are in the paper?”
No, I did not know! Woohoo! My writing was out in public for the first time—how exciting! People (unprompted!) congratulated me and told me they liked the column. I couldn’t believe it was happening.
I was so excited that I even mentioned it to a few people that lived elsewhere. “Check me out! I was published in the local paper!”
My poor first-time-published feelings were crushed when one of those people responded, “Big deal. Newspapers always publish letters to the editor.”
Cue a low part of writing. Sigh.
It did discourage me for a while. I gave myself mental pep talks, pointing out that even small weekly papers don’t publish every submission. I’d also remind myself that my piece was not a letter to the editor—I had a byline! I even said “A byline!” out loud a few times.
Eventually I recovered, but trying to ignore the killjoys (especially the ones in my own mind) is still difficult sometimes. I just try to remember the most important things about writing: it’s cool and I don’t 100% suck at it. A bit of both the high and the low there, but as philosophies go it’s pretty good.
Word Philosopher 