IWSG April 2023

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 Jemima Pett, Nancy Gideon and Natalie Aguirre.

There's a great question this month. It's: Do you remember writing your first book? What were your thoughts about a career path on writing? Where are you now and how is it working out for you? If you're at the start of the journey, what are your goals?

I do remember writing my first book. It was around this time sixteen years ago that I started writing it. It was meant to be some sort of psychological thriller because I was reading a lot of that sort of thing at the time. Mistaken identity and amnesia were involved, but I don't remember much more of the finer detail. I do recall it took me two years to write it and then a year seeking an agent, during which time I did no further writing. That was my first mistake because I've since learned you should always keep moving forward in your work while waiting to hear from any gatekeepers. Thankfully, it was not long after that I started a blog and joined IWSG and started up soaking up wisdom from legions of wonderful authors. That means you - I'm amazed that I've known some of you reading for over a decade now and I'm so grateful for that connection. I suppose when I started writing my first book I had naive ideas of doing packed book tours to adoring crowds and topping best seller lists. Through IWSG, I learned that writing is more about grafting and getting the next sentence down. After my first couple of books, I put my agent hunt on the back burner and pivoted to self-publishing, which taught me a lot about marketing and probably about what not to do as well. It was a lot of fun organising blog tours, cover design, ARCs. I was still interested in the traditional path and becoming a hybrid author and I started seeking a small press for the book I started writing during the first COVID lockdown. I thought it was the strongest thing I'd done and I wanted to seek other avenues for it and see where they could go. I believe the reason I was able to write a stronger book that a fantastic publisher was willing to take a chance on was because I'd picked up so much great advice from all of you over the years, not just about the writing itself but about ways to keep motivation going, as well as reading so many superb books you wrote as well. That's the best way to learn!

Whew! That got more emotional than I expected. Thanks for this question because it's definitely good to look back and see how far you've come sometimes. It keeps you putting one foot in front of the other. 

In terms of where I am right now on my journey, I just had my cover reveal for The Becalmer and preorders start in a few days, on April 10. Trying not to get too freaked out...

To read others' answers - and I'm sure there'll be some awesome ones - check out the IWSG list here.