November: time writers disappear

I love October. It's filled with ghost and ghouls and monsters of all types. All the spooky movies and shows are played nearly all day, every day. But what I love most about October, is the month that follows it.

Blessed November! The time when about 90% of the writing community disappear into their writing caves to pound out words. Some are doing Nanonwrimo, a 50,000 word novel in a month, and some are just using the writing vibes and comradery of the Nano'ers to finish a WIP. What ever the reasons, November is a month for writing.

So this blog post is for my family and friends.

Don't expect to see me much this month. In fact, lower your expectations for me for the month of November. I hope to use the month of November to finish WF. To get all notes from critiques covered, to get all rewrites finished, and to get this book out to betas. I hope to get started on book two. I hope to take all that I have learned in the writing of book one to flourish with book two. I hope to send my books out into the world, where I can share my story with everyone.

I love you all, but November is the one month of the year where I have to be just a little bit selfish, and take some time for myself and my writing.

I'll see you at the end of the tunnel on December 1st

All my love.

I give you my heart

I have a hard time working with emotion, so when my Crit Partners came back saying my MS’s middle was lacking, I went on the hunt for the emotions I needed to amp up the scenes and keep the middle from sagging from lack of conflict. Normally I would hop over to The Bookshelf Muse or open up The Emotion Thesaurus for help with figuring out what my characters should be doing. I still stumbled through these chapters, unclear how to get the emotion to the page.

I didn't have to wait long before I was wammied with enough emotion I thought my head would explode.

I’m still recovering from the initial shock of what is happening within my family, but through this terrible turn of events, I was given exactly what I needed for my story. Rage, disappointment, heartache, shock, and so many other emotions are poring through me. What was to be a happy occasion has turned into what feels like a funeral.

So I turned to my writing.

The most fantastic thing about writer’s is that if you give us happiness, we can write happiness, and if you give us pain, we give you our hearts on a page. This is a blessing for me. If I didn't have an outlet for the darkness, I’m sure I would succumb to it. Instead, I torture my MC, to the point that I’m crying for her, then I wipe my tears, and continue on.

I’m thankful God gave me this gift. He must have known just what I needed to survive.

IWSG: Insecure Writers Support Group

This is the first time I've posted for the IWSG hosted byAlex J. Cavanaugh, and the first time I have posted on my blog in a long while, but I certainly could use the therapy.

My biggest insecurity, and that of any writer I would guess, is that I will finally get my book published, only to have it fail miserably. I’m terrified no one will like it. Perhaps this is the true reason when I sit down to work on my rewrites my brain shuts down. Is it my own fear that is getting in the way of me completing this book?

What if I send it out to betas and an editor and they hate it?

I love my book. I love the story and the characters so much I want to live in that world forever, but I fear I may be the only one.

The hardest thing I have done as a writer so far was to find a critique group and submit my writing. The women in my group are brilliant wonderful people with fabulous stories of their own, and I feel so blessed to be a part of their group. They have taught me so much! The advice in their critiques is crucial to my rewrites. Without it I would have no direction. I wouldn't know what to fix, what to cut, and what to add. It’s thanks to them I have made it this far.

But now I am looking at the end of the rewrite tunnel, and the light is blinding and scary as heck. I know what comes next. I have to send it out. I have to share.

I’ll do this. No matter how afraid I am. Even if there is the possibility no one will love it as I do. I will face my fear, because that is what we writers do. We throw ourselves out there. We pray that little piece of our soul will be loved, and welcomed into someone else’s heart. That is a prize that will make it all worthwhile.

What is your biggest fear as a writer? 

Ta!
A.McBay