IWSG May 2025

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, Janet Alcorn, Rebecca Douglass, Jemima Pett and Pat Garcia.

This month's optional IWSG question is: Some common fears writers share are rejection, failure, success, and lack of talent or ability. What are your greatest fears as a writer? How do you manage them?

This is a great question and you might have to forgive me if my answer gets a bit heavy. I don't worry too much about rejection, failure or success. Those things are very fickle and largely out of your control. But after what I've been through it's really been hammered home how important the basic ability is. For me, losing the ability to write is terrifying. It would basically mean reconstructing how I process things and how I relate to the world. I was incredibly lucky after suffering two strokes as part of the infection that landed me in hospital. Since I came out, I've more or less been able to carry on doing what I was doing before and have written 5000 words of a new book, which I didn't necessarily foresee being possible. (We'll leave aside whether they might be any good or not.) And I did get some confirmation that I had a lucky escape when I saw a brain consultant recently and scored 100% on their cognitive test. Apparently I was the only patient they'd seen who'd suffered a similar affliction to have done so. I was weirdly embarrassed because I'd rather keep going with my usual activities without being singled out as special, especially because the term "high functioning" was mentioned. But it was definitely the best news I could have received and I feel like I've received a new lease of life. I do think the brain is a muscle and like the rest of the body it's got to be kept in top form with constant exercise.

Whew, sorry to get somewhat intense there. Moving on, as for today, I'm taking part in the next edition of the #QuestPit event, which garnered me my first agent like back in February, followed by my first agent request, then my first rejection on such a request just yesterday - but that's the way it goes and the rejection was certainly kind and positive. I'll see how I fare on today's occasion.

Really interested to see how today's question will get answered. As ever all participants can be found at one handy place here. See you next time!

IWSG April 2025

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 Jennifer Lane, L Diane Wolfe, Jenni Enzor and Natalie Aguirre.

This month's optional IWSG question looks like a fun one: What fantasy character would you like to fight, go on a quest with, or have a beer/glass of wine with?

I won't go on at length with this one, or this will turn into another Pratchett love fest following last month. But there are a plethora of choices to be had from his canon. Overall, I'd say Captain Carrot would be a solid and stand-up guy to go on a quest or have a drink with. I wouldn't fight him though (described as "two metres tall and bulging with muscles"). 

With the clocks having gone forward in the UK, things are feeling a lot more springlike, and I'm determined to keep moving on. With my most recently finished book sent to critique partners, I'm getting started on my next project, and this one seems like it might be another genre mashup (a bit of horror mixed with sci-fi I'm thinking). Hopefully, it will be quite different to what I've done before. A limited outline, and we'll see how the rest pans out.

How is spring looking for you (or autumn, for southern hemisphere friends)? I have a goal of finishing returning visits sooner than one day before the next meeting this time. As ever, the circle of IWSP participators can be found here.

IWSG March 2025

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 Ronel Janse Van Vuuren, Pat Garcia and Liza @ Middle Passages.

I'm glad to say I'm feeling a lot better after my unexpected stay in hospital. Not quite all there yet, but I'm enjoying edits on my WIP. It seems to make reasonable sense, so that's something.

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

If for one day you could be anyone or *thing* in the world, what would it be? Describe, tell why, and any themes, goals, or values they/it inspire in you.

I guess this question could go all sorts of ways, but without thinking about it too long, I would have to say my literary hero, Terry Pratchett. Just to have that boundless imagination and take what is ostensibly a fantasy world and use it to smuggle in a whole range of genres - thrillers, mystery, satire, sci-fi - with a deft humorous touch and a grasp of what it means to be human even when the characters are werewolves, trolls, Death, or an orang-utan. His books seemed to have it all and that genre-blending approach has definitely inspired me in my own work.

Looking forward to what others have to say on this one. As ever, the list of IWSG entrants can be found here. What would be your answer to this question?

IWSG February 2025

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 Joylene Nowell Butler, Louise Barbour and Tyrean Martinson.

First of all, I'd better offer an explanation for my absence over the last couple of months, which some of you might have already caught up on Facebook. If not, I'll repost it below. It's a sorry tale, but I'm doing a lot better now.

I got out from hospital a couple of weeks ago after having been admitted on the 4th of December with what I thought was a bad dose of a bug including sickness and diarrhoea. It turned out I had suffered an infection that had gone to my heart, giving me a leaky valve, as well as into my brain, causing a mini stroke. This caused me to describe in a way that my daughter Emma best summed up as “doolally” and led my wife to call an ambulance.

I got my own room for the first ten days and initially I was very disorientated as to why I was in hospital. My vision was bad, causing me to see scrawls on the wall that I thought had been left by a child, and the TV was a mere blur. After a battery of tests I was started on a six-week course of IV antibiotics with the aim of heading for surgery to fix my valve. I was moved to the cardiology ward on 14th December where I shared a room with four other men. At first I found this daunting, but everyone was friendly and welcoming. After I while I found myself the longest serving patient in the room over that time as others started to come and go and were sent to other hospitals or home. Not all patients made for good roommates and sometimes there was too much noise to sleep. It was certainly a full range of humanity but by the time I left the room had become much more relaxing and had been christened the “Brian ward” due to the arrival of four Brians in the space of three days.

Ultimately I didn’t have to go for surgery because it was deemed the antibiotic had done a good enough job of repairing the valve on its own. Not before I had a tooth pulled out in a gruelling procedure because infection had been found there and you can’t have any area of infection when you go for the surgery. It came out with a piece of bone attached and I kept it to proudly display as a souvenir.

When I got out it was one day earlier than planned, which we pushed for because of the red weather storm warning for the next day in Scotland which could have potentially seen me stuck in hospital for another whole weekend. Since then I’ve been taking it easy, getting back to work slowly. I’ll still have some rehab to do cognitively speaking but I'm playing a lot of word games as I was throughout my whole stay. Of course I've got to give huge thanks to my family - Heather, Hannah, Emma and Eve - for coming to see me day after day, as well as keeping things ticking over at home so well while dealing with the sad loss of one of our six pups, Tobi.

In terms of writing, I'll get back to that in due course, but I've had a look at my most recent WIP which was undergoing a first pass before this whole saga. I found that pass is nearly finished, so that's definitely something I could manage over the next few weeks. It will probably need fresh eyes from a couple of new CPs, so if a YA sci-fi adventure where the MC becomes trapped in a VR reproduction of her favourite TV show when the AI engine behind it goes haywire, let me know!

I'm off to catch on all of your exciting doings now. Hoping you're all in good health.

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!