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.

 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?

The awesome co-hosts for the January 4 posting of the IWSG are Jemima Pett, Debs Carey, Kim Lajevardi, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre, and T. Powell Coltrin!

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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.

Thanks for the great question!

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.

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

The awesome co-hosts for the November 2 posting of the IWSG are Diedre Knight, Douglas Thomas Greening, Nick Wilford, and Diane Burton!

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 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.

You can join here

Thanks to our awesome co-hosts for this month:

 J Lenni Dorner, Janet Alcorn, PJ Colando, Jenni Enzor, and Diane Burton!

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.

It’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group Day!

Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. 

Check it out here!

Remember, the question is optional!

April 6 question – Have any of your books been made into audio books? If so, what is the main challenge in producing an audiobook?

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My brother law is never going to read the books I write. He’s not anti-book. He’s not even anti-me. He’s anti-reading. Hold a book? Turn pages? Not for him. He plays audiobooks on the car radio while driving back and forth to work. “Reading is for losers,” he says. “Put that in your blog.”

While I commend the word play, I obviously would never say that reading is for losers. Reading is cool!

In conversation, I think listening to a book and reading a book would be considered the same thing, but my brother-in-law got me thinking; if you say listening to a book is not reading, what would you call it instead? (What can I say? This is what my brain does for fun.)

I considered “consume books” for a while because it played into my “30 day, buy only consumables” goal. (I can buy books! Yay!) I decided against consume* because it reminds me of fires, and who wants to think about burning books? No one! Burning books really is for losers.

Apprehend books? Seems like part of a criminal enterprise. Take in books? Sounds vaguely digestive. (So does consume, really.) Hear books? I mean yeah, people are hearing the books, but it doesn’t work, does it? For comparison, consider that people who read don’t say “I stayed up late seeing a book.”

 In the end, I wasn’t able to come up with a phrase better than “listening to audiobooks.” It’s doesn’t have much literary flair, but it does have the advantage of being clear. Boring, but effective.

So, for lack of a more fun term, “listening to audiobooks” is how I’d describe my brother-in-law’s choice for enjoying literature.

I know that he’s a fan of audiobooks, so you’d think I would have thought about the possibility of audio versions of my books. Of course, none of my drafts have been made into actual books yet, so maybe it’s not that surprising that the audio option hadn’t occurred to me. Once I get the books published, I will have to look into audio versions, especially if I want my brother-in-law’s opinion of my writing. (He doesn’t read blogs either. If he asks, tell him that he is the hero of this month’s post.)

Let me know if you have any fun ideas for what to call “listening to audiobooks.”

Peace and love!

*Though I didn’t classify books as consumable, I did exempt them from the spending goal. Goals are supposed to be realistic, right?

November 3 question – What’s harder to do, coming up with your book title or writing the blurb?

I think it is harder to come up with a title than a blurb.

I have a jar full of slips of paper that, in theory anyway, are ideas for future projects. Some of the slips have the bare minimum of information, such as “The war with the squirrels.”  But others have what amounts to at least the essence of a blurb, “Nervous woman applies for passport, but doesn’t realize what she’s getting herself into.” It shouldn’t be too hard to create a blurb from that.

I do not have a jar full of titles. Not even one of those tiny jars that people use for gifts of homemade jelly. 

One year, the declared title of my NaNoWriMo project was “Book.” That is also what it is called on my computer. Other projects have working titles, (being a bit of a geek, I am always tempted to call one Blue Harvest), but I rarely end up using those titles.

While writing this blog entry, I realized that I don’t even create a title for a post until I am finished with it and ready to publish it. For some reason, I don’t want to officially name things until they are almost complete. It could be a wish for grand final flourish, or it could be due to some weird superstition. Who knows?

Whatever the reason for waiting, I’m not usually overjoyed with the choice anyway and end up wanting to change it. Hey, that could be why I have trouble choosing—fear of committing to something so concrete. I should add “psychological issue” as a possible third reason for my lack of titles!

Can’t wait to see what others say. Maybe I’ll finally get inspired to name something!

You can join the Insecure Writer’s Support Group here: https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

Hope to see you there!

Lori