IWSG September 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 Kim Lajevardi, Natalie Aguirre, Nancy Gideon, and Diedre Knight.

Apologies for missing last month, I haven't been the most organised lately!

I'm going to skip the IWSG question this month because I feel like I've already given my thoughts on this topic. Instead, I'm going to lean into this topic of organisation and how this might pertain to writing a book (the oldfashioned, human way - no outside artificial assistance!). Since leaving hospital at the beginning of the year, I've wanted to start writing a story, which is currently standing at around 35,000 words - doesn't seem like great progress, but it took a while before I was up to do anything. I would also like to dive into edits on my previously completed work, but working on two books at the same time has proven tricky, even when they're at very different stages. Lately I decided to set a goal of finishing 5,000 words of new writing per week, which would have taken me to my word count goal of 70,000 by October 10th (which also happens to me daughter's birthday). This went well for a couple of weeks, even taking time on the weekend to meet my goals. This week, though, I've struggled to get just 250 words down. Why? I'm not sure why my inspiration has taken a dip. Maybe the change in season, although I usually find autumn inspiring. Maybe it's just that dreaded midpoint sag. There are several ways the stories could go, so maybe it's a paralysis of choice, although that's better than being at a total dead end.

Maybe, overall, although organisation and goals are good for a writer, we need to accept there are days it's not happening - and even if you only get 250 words down that move the story forward, that's more productive than 1,000 that end up in the trash bin. Writing 1,000 words isn't a menial task such as delivering a certain number of parcels per day, to invoke a job I dabbled in before getting ill. Of course it's a balance because I don't want a book to drag on forever, but I think if I spend every day moving forward, even just thinking about where I could go next, that's more important than mechanically hitting a word count.

What's your thoughts on organisation as a writer? Must you be inspired to write? Is a daily word goal important to you?

Look forward to hearing your thoughts, and as ever, you can find other entrants to the IWSG bloghop here!