IWSG November 2024

Time for our monthly meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Hosted as ever by Alex J. Cavanaugh, the aim of the group is to offer a safe space where writers can share doubts and insecurities without fear of being judged. This month's co-hosts are Deidre Knight, Lisa Buie Collard, Kim Lajevardi and JQ Rose.

First of all, I don't normally participate in any politics online, but I couldn't let today go by without asking if my American friends are OK. Whatever happens, I think you should all take it easy on yourselves!

With that out of the way, this month's optional IWSG question is: What creative activity do you engage in when you're not writing?

This is an interesting one because I used to have a lot more creative pursuits when I was younger that have fallen by the wayside as I've dedicated a laser focus to writing. As a child, I enjoyed acting, photography, and a little bit of drawing. But as I grew up, my time to do things just for me became more and more limited and I had to zero in on where my greatest passion lay. A familiar tale to many, I'm sure. However, if it counts, in recent years I've found some surprising enjoyment in making visual book-related content. I never saw myself as a particularly visual artist, but Canva is shockingly easy once I found my way around. I haven't made my own book covers - I've sourced images and entrusted them to a designer - but I've made things like book trailers and mood boards, and trying to strike a certain aesthetic that reflects my tone does have a certain satisfaction in it. Of course, my efforts are probably highly amateurish compared to some, but I thought I'd share a couple of things anyway. Here's a trailer I made in the runup to the release of my book The Becalmer: 

And a moodboard for the book I'm currently querying, Mirror Me. I was surprised to get a bunch of positive reactions to this when I took part in #questpit recently, because I always think others' are far better!

Speaking of visual things, the cover for The Becalmer was nominated in the Indieverse Awards for Unforgettable Cover Art, and voting is now open until November 10th! Here's the link. You have to go through all the categories in order to vote, but you can skip any category where you don't know the nominees, and I'm sure you'll find other awesome things to vote on anyway.

And as ever, you'll find all the other entrants for the IWSG right here. See you next month when we'll no doubt get festive - wow, how did that happen?

IWSG October 2024

Time for our monthly meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Hosted as ever by Alex J. Cavanaugh, the aim of the group is to offer a safe space where writers can share doubts and insecurities without fear of being judged. This month's co-hosts are Nancy Gideon, Jennifer Lane, Jacqui Murray and Natalie Aguirre.

This month's optional IWSG question is: Ghost stories fit right in during this month. What's your favorite classic ghostly tale? Tell us about it and why it sends chills up your spine.

This is a really good question for October and I don't claim to be as au fait with the horror genre as I'm sure many among us are. I've never really tried to write it and I respect how hard it is to create that suspense and dread. However, one story that sticks out for me since reading it is The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. It's a classic of the Gothic horror genre and really set the blueprint for that whole trope of the split personality. In fact the phrase "Jekyll and Hyde" has become ingrained within our lexicon to describe anyone displaying such traits. I suppose what endures about it is the quiet sense of mounting despair and the idea that we all potentially have evil within us that could totally take over in the right circumstances. It's not a long book with a rough count of around 27500 words, but it certainly accomplishes a lot. 

So what have I accomplished since we last met? Well, I've begun edits on my novel featuring an evil AI interface (hey, that could easily play under the horror umbrella now I think about it... a semi-autonomous force, supposedly beneficial but with the potential to go totally haywire). I'm only a couple of chapters in and the verdict is it's very messy but better than I remembered. Looking forward to getting stuck in properly. And I'm still continuing my querying journey on my completed novel on a cloning and gender identity theme. Just realised I'm a year into this, but I'm probably only just getting started, especially since I rebranded from YA to adult/crossover. I'm still waiting for a bite but I continue to be encouraged by the personalised rejections complimenting the "fantastic premise". Hopefully the universe will tip something in my favour soon.

Well, that's about it for another month. I'm sure all of you will have some wonderful spooky suggestions on this month's theme. Look forward to checking them out! As ever, all those posts can be found at the IWSG site here. See you next month.

IWSG September 2024

Time for our monthly meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Hosted as ever by Alex J. Cavanaugh, the aim of the group is to offer a safe space where writers can share doubts and insecurities without fear of being judged. This month's co-hosts are Beth Camp, Jean Davis, Yvonne Ventresca and PJ Colando.

Let's check out this month's IWSG question:

Since it's back to school time, let's talk English class. What's a writing rule you learned in school that messed you up as a writer?

This is a fun one, I'm sure I learned many things that haven't been applicable to my writing at all, but I do remember being told "Write what you know." Now this might be the single most overrated piece of advice of all time. I'm sure the intention behind it is well meaning, presumably to get you on your way, but it always seemed fishy to me because what I knew seemed very limited and I wanted to try and escape that. If I'd only written about what I knew, I don't think anyone would have wanted to read it. To me, it's always been more about writing what I didn't know but needed to find out, so it's a never ending learning process - and that encompasses the human condition, the whole nine yards. I'm not born with an innate knowledge bank that I can draw from ad infinitum, so the rule is fundamentally flawed to me. 

In fact, I didn't start taking writing seriously until about a decade after I left school, and I wouldn't go as far as to say that was their fault, but maybe it would have been nice if I'd been pushed a bit more, with more of an exploratory mindset. But it worked out somehow.

How have things been working out in the past month? Well, I got a second job outside of the house, which was really needed for monetary reasons. It doesn't bite into my writing time but I'm trying not to let the fatigue factor become a thing. I'm still circling around edits on my recently completed first draft, but that will start very soon. I did overhaul my letter for the project I'm querying and have rebranded as adult instead of YA based on a very constructive personalised rejection. I know you shouldn't let the opinion of one agent change your whole approach, but it makes sense in a lot of ways - my protagonist is eighteen, with a job, living with a flatmate and for the most part taking on a brutal grown-up world without too many typical YA issues for the most part. I suppose there is an argument for calling it "new adult", but I'm still kind of iffy on how widely that is used as a proposition. If an agent says they specialise in that, I can always lean into it.

I think that's about it for now - really intrigued to read more answers to this month's IWSG question! To find those entries, as always, check out the list here. See you next month!

IWSG August 2024

Time for our monthly meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Hosted as ever by Alex J. Cavanaugh, the aim of the group is to offer a safe space where writers can share doubts and insecurities without fear of being judged. This month's co-hosts are Feather Stone, Kim Lajevardi, Diedre Knight, C. Lee McKenzie and Sarah - The Faux Fountain Pen.

I'm going to skip this month's IWSG question because I feel like we had that discussion not too long ago. Just to say I have no intention of using AI for my writing, I haven't ruled it out for purposes of research etc., but yet to be convinced on that.

So I'll turn to my customary round-up on my activities for the past month. Since my last post, I did manage to type "the end" on my current WIP, which coincidentally deals with an AI program going haywire. (I don't totally hate all of it, I promise - just concerned about where it could end up.) At 72,908 words it's quite lengthy for me because I tend to write short. I'm sure that will be trimmed in edits, which will start very soon. 

I'm also nearly ready to jump back into the query trenches with my previously completed project. I retooled my opening scene and got some incredible feedback from my critique partners, so that is currently being fine tuned and I do feel it's much stronger than it was before.

I finally relaunched my newsletter! I was mugged by MailerLite's technical gremlins during their update at the start of the year. (Something to do with synching... coding... the exact details thankfully escape me.) Being resistant to change and busy with general life stuff meant it's taken until now to switch providers, but after seeing it recommended by a blogging buddy I'm now back up and running with HubSpot. It was fairly painless in the end. If you want to sign up to my list, you can do so here!

Finally, tomorrow marks the first anniversary of the release of my first traditionally published book! It's been a fun and exciting year, I'm grateful for everything that's happened and the brilliant response and I'm looking forward to what's next.

See you back here next month! As ever, you can check out other IWSG entries at the list here.

IWSG July 2024

Time for our monthly meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Hosted as ever by Alex J. Cavanaugh, the aim of the group is to offer a safe space where writers can share doubts and insecurities without fear of being judged. This month's co-hosts are J.S. Pailly, Rebecca Douglass, Pat Garcia, Louise-Fundy Blue and Natalie Aguirre.

This month's optional IWSG question is: What are your favorite writing processing (e.g. Word, Scrivener, yWriter, Dabble), writing apps, software, and tools? Why do you recommend them? And which one is your all time favorite that you cannot live without and use daily or at least whenever you write?

I'm very old school - just Word and a pen and paper for me. I can't imagine needing anything else. I don't write entire books in longhand, but it's invaluable for sketching outlines and hashing out ideas when I get stuck. The hard part is deciphering the scrawl afterwards!

What am I up to this month? The usual, keeping on keeping on with writing and querying. I feel like I've nearly reached "the end" of the first draft of my WIP for the longest time, but other things keep piling up. In these next couple of weeks, I need to nail it.

My book, The Becalmer, is half price for all of July in the Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale. You can grab it here if you haven't read it! Here's the blurb as a quick reminder:

Harica is gifted with the ability to defuse conflicts using her mind. When she is recruited to assist in resolving a war via an arranged marriage, she discovers that the reluctant bride-to-be has similar powers. Princess Jasmila doesn't use her powers for good and when Harica arrives to help with the marriage arrangements, she fights back and sends Harica into a coma. It is through this comatose state that Harica discovers a mysterious liminal space populated by others who share her gift. In this new realm, she learns to do things she never believed possible, but soon things spiral out of control. In the face of a terrifying and seemingly unstoppable adversary, Harica wrestles with the decision to come to terms with the dark side of her gift. Will she take ownership of it or turn her back on it forever?

As ever you can check out more IWSG posts here! See you next month.

IWSG June 2024

Time for our monthly meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Hosted as ever by Alex J. Cavanaugh, the aim of the group is to offer a safe space where writers can share doubts and insecurities without fear of being judged. This month's co-hosts are Liza at Middle Passages, Shannon Lawrence, Melissa Maygrove and Olga Godim.

This month's IWSG question is: In this constantly evolving industry, what kind of offering/service do you think the IWSG should consider offering to members?

This is a great question and for me, it kind of answers itself - I think the clue is in "constantly evolving". In an industry of fleeting trends and new platforms popping up every other week, the IWSG should offer stability, continuity and above all, a warm hug to its members and it's already doing that in spades. It definitely feels like the last bastion of the old school blogging age and that's no bad thing, we can all gather once a month and arm ourselves with solid advice and support, get a laugh or two, before going out and continuing to plough our furrow in whatever way seems best at the time. That image of the beacon shining on the lighthouse is so well chosen. Something unchanging and reassuring. 

So what have I been up to? Well, I continue on my querying journey for my DNA transitioning story. No requests yet, but hopefully getting close! I was lucky enough to get a critique from an agent and I also got my query letter, synopsis and Chapter 1 looked over on QTcritique, the community offered on Query Tracker. The feedback was definitely a mixed bag - some reviews are very perfunctory, while others go into great detail - but it's good for showing up common threads where a majority of readers think something needs work. I've implemented a lot of changes and am hopeful going into round 2 of querying.

What do you think the IWSG should offer members? Have you tried QTcritique? As ever, check out more responses from other IWSGers here. See you next month!

IWSG May 2024

Time for our monthly meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Hosted as ever by Alex J. Cavanaugh, the aim of the group is to offer a safe space where writers can share doubts and insecurities without fear of being judged. This month's co-hosts are Victoria Marie Lees, Kim Lajevardi, Nancy Gideon and Cathrina Constantine.

Let's have a look at this month's IWSG question: 

May 1 question - How do you deal with distractions when you are writing? Do they derail you?

Hmm, I don't really get a lot of distractions because I've very deliberately engineered a writing time of between around 5 and 7 a.m. for the very purpose of avoiding distractions. I'm the kind of writer who needs a big block of time, I don't really do well with squeezing in five minutes here and there through the day. The only distraction I do get is my six lovely dogs who invariably start yelling for breakfast at some point (they hear me get up, so they now think it's time for them to get up too). Once they're fed and watered, I've got my furry friends around to keep me company while I finish what I was doing. We make it work!

To the writing itself, I should give a general update while we're here. My AI WIP (that's writing about AI, not with AI, natch) has hit 67,000 words, which is quite lengthy for me, but it feels like about the last 10,000 has been trying to nail the ending. The AI in my story really did take over and run amok, which I kind of thought would happen, and now I'm trying to work out how to put the rabbit back in the hat. Editing is going to be a serious hack job, but I also think it'll be fun, because this is one of the wildest things I've written.

As to my querying journey, I'm still waiting on that elusive request, but I have had some very helpful personalised rejections saying the concept is super intriguing, but something is not quite there with the pacing or where the story starts. I also signed up to qtCritique where I'm hearing a lot of the same thing, so I think I know what I need to work on, and I'm feeling inspired to refresh my query and get back out there. 

So I do have some insecurities and stumbling blocks this month, but at the same time I feel like things are heading in the right direction. What about you? Do you have distractions from writing? Tried qtCritique yet? Don't forget to check out more amazing IWSG authors as ever at the list here. Till next month!

IWSG April 2024

Time for our monthly meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Hosted as ever by Alex J. Cavanaugh, the aim of the group is to offer a safe space where writers can share doubts and insecurities without fear of being judged. This month's co-hosts are Janet Alcorn, T. Powell Coltrin, Natalie Aguirre and Pat Garcia.

Let's turn to this month's IWSG question, which is leading us down memory lane: How long have you been blogging? (Or on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram?) What do you like about it and how has it changed?

I've been blogging since October 2011, so I guess that makes me some kind of veteran, I suppose? In those days, the received wisdom was that if you were a writer, you had to blog. I still think that's true, and I'd always recommend it as a good way to flex your writing muscles and establish a writing habit. Now, the overwhelming message is that a writer has to be on TikTok, Instagram, or any one of several newer contenders that seem to spring up all the time. (I've been trying BlueSky but have yet to really find a groove on there.) All of these have their merits as well as their drawbacks. But I have always been more comfortable with longer form text rather than snippets and videos. Blogging gave us endless opportunities to take part in blog hops, writing challenges, contests and get invaluable feedback from peers. It seemed like you could do a different challenge every month if you wanted. Now most of these have fallen by the wayside, leaving just the old warhorses such as our esteemed IWSG and the excellent A-Z Challenge to stand as sentinels. (Who is doing A-Z this year? I keep meaning to get back involved - maybe next time.) I'm glad these are still going because I still don't think there's another community that offers connections like blogging can. In terms of how it's changed, I think many newer authors still probably write posts as a section on their website but I'm not sure how involved they are with the community at large. It doesn't have the same importance attached. The other platforms are perhaps more reader-facing, but for the camaraderie and support of other writers (which we all need), blogging can't be beaten. I'm really glad IWSG is still here because it keeps my blog alive!

I really enjoyed last week's IWSGPit. Although I missed out on getting industry likes, I did get some brilliant responses and feedback on my pitches and made new connections, which is certainly a boost. Today I'm trying my hand at #QuestPit, which is new to me, but seems like a lot of fun. If you'd like to find out more and get involved, there are details to be found here.

How do you feel about the state of blogging today? Read more answers as always at the list here. Are you taking part in #QuestPit?

IWSG March 2024

Time for our monthly meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Hosted as ever by Alex J. Cavanaugh, the aim of the group is to offer a safe space where writers can share doubts and insecurities without fear of being judged. This month's co-hosts are Kristina Kelly, Miffie Seideman, Jean Davis and Liza @ Middle Passages.

This month's optional IWSG question is: Have you "played" with AI to write those nasty synopses, or do you refuse to go that route? How do you feel about AI's impact on creative writing?

These are great questions. I feel like we covered AI quite recently - though my grip of what is "recent" is quite hazy, so it could have been anywhere up to a year ago. I'm happy to dive back in though. I'll restate the answer I will have given for that other question - I would never let AI near any piece of writing that I put my name to. No shortcuts here! No matter how dreaded the synopsis might be (and I do have quite a lot of dread), I'd fear the program would misrepresent what my work is all about and I'd have to do it all again anyway. Even if it produced a word-perfect summary, I'd probably feel there was something missing because it can't capture those emotional nuances that the human writer can - one of the hardest parts of the synopsis is producing a pocket-sized recap of your narrative while also transmitting something about the characters' emotions, and I definitely wouldn't leave that to a machine.

Talking of synopses, that ties quite nicely to my current insecurity, which has been for the last few months - you guessed it, querying. My journey is ongoing and I'm still hopeful, but I'm reaching that point where it might be due a rethink to change things up (leaving AI out of it though!). Over five months, I've sent 50 queries to agents, receiving 20 rejections, and a further 12 were closed with no response. I think only a couple of these rejections were semi-personalised. Everyone's journey is different, of course, but if you've been in the trenches, how many queries/rejections would/did you go before refreshing things? I'm still hanging in there, and in a lot of ways I feel like I've just started. Interested to hear any advice.

I'm also gearing up for #IWSGPit which is due to take place on March 27. Let me know if you're taking part, it would be great to see you there! Meanwhile, don't forget to check out other answers to this month's IWSG question here. See you next month!

IWSG February 2024

Time for our monthly meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Hosted as ever by Alex J. Cavanaugh, the aim of the group is to offer a safe space where writers can share doubts and insecurities without fear of being judged. This month's co-hosts are Janet Alcorn, SE White, Victoria Marie Lees and Cathrina Constantine.

This month's optional question is: What turns you off when visiting an author's website/blog? Lack of information? A drone of negativity? Little mention of author's books? Constant mention of books?

I hadn't really given much thought to this before - I usually just think how everyone's site looks so much better than mine! But on reflection, if I do find anything offputting it's when the front page is too busy, with links to multiple blog posts (often in apparently random order), mixed with book images, ads, newsletter pop-ups etc. Too much going on and hard to know where to start. I like to read about the author, and links to other pages like the bio may be too small or faint, hard to find etc. So, I guess I would prefer my sites to be kept pretty clean and neat. Funnily, that's the opposite of how I usually am in my physical space!

In other news, I'm inching towards 60000 words on my WIP set in a virtual reality AI universe that goes severely wrong. I feel like I'm still to iron out a really defined resolution and a brainstorm might be in order, but the end is certainly in sight. 

As I continue to query my first book following my traditionally published debut, I was pleased to see #IWSGPit will return next month and will be busily polishing my pitches to throw my hat in the ring. If you haven't taken part in this excellent event before, you simply (?) have to craft a tweet-length pitch for your work, including genre and age hashtags, which you can post once per hour over a ten-hour timespan in the hope that browsing agents and publishers will take a nibble. If they like your pitch, you check their submission guidelines and send your requested query. It's taking place on March 27, 2024 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time. More details here!

I think that's it. See you next month, and as ever, more IWSG entries can be found here.

IWSG January 2024

Time for our monthly meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group and the first one of 2024! Hosted as ever by Alex J. Cavanaugh, the aim of the group is to offer a safe space where writers can share doubts and insecurities without fear of being judged. This month's co-hosts are Joylene Nowell Butler, Olga Godim, Deidre Knight and Natalie Aguirre.

It's a brand new year, so there should be a lot to talk about. Chief among these is that I'm not going to miss any more IWSG postings if possible after skipping the last two. Life intervenes and all that, but I'm lucky not to get kicked off the list! 

First, let's look at this month's IWSG question. I was a bit caught unawares by this one:

Do you follow back your readers on BookBub or do you only follow back other authors?

BookBub is one of the many things that I'm on, but I need to do more with. I hadn't even thought about it for some time, which I know is bad. Upon realising I did actually have an account, I found I had a grand total of ten followers and was only following one back. I quickly put that right and followed everyone else. Now, I just need to see what BookBub can do for me. I have always inferred that it's hard to get listed in promotions and such, but I need to have a poke around. But yes, I would always follow back readers as well as authors, as I would on any platform. Authors are great sources of support and will often read your book and shout about it too, but I want my book to reach as many people as possible and not just readers.

So, turning to thoughts of the new year... apart from cracking BookBub, what do I have in store? Well, I decided that this is the year I finally put myself out there in the form of real, live author events.  Something that I've always shied away from or found an excuse not to do. But I do believe that a one-on-one connection between an author and audience is increasingly important in a world that's being digitised to death. I have recorded several podcasts and Facebook live events, so have dabbled in public speaking to an extent, but it's a different ball game when the people are right there in front of you. I'm going to have to do a lot of practice so I don't fall on my face, but I'm up for the challenge. I'll be starting off with a reading at Cymera SFF festival in Edinburgh in the summer, and then there's an indie book festival in the autumn that I hope to confirm this week. 

Apart from that daunting prospect, I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing, but more consistently... writing, marketing, newsletter, whatever else. I don't believe in making grand resolutions out of leftfield that will probably only last a couple of weeks. Instead, it's better to refine and improve what you already do. That said, I do want to get fitter this year. I'm also continuing with querying and of course will give updates on any positive news on that front if it comes.

I hope 2024 is a wonderful success for you whatever you have planned! To read other IWSG entries, as ever, check out the list here.