Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!
Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting!
Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.
The awesome co-hosts for the March 7 posting of the IWSG are Mary Aalgaard, Bish Denham, Jennifer Hawes, Diane Burton, and Gwen Gardner!
Click here to view everyone in the Blog Hop.
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Thank you for dropping in for this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group post from a member of the Pee Dee Writers! Today, we will hear once again from Amanda Groves.
The optional question for March: How do you celebrate when you achieve a writing goal/ finish a story?
Let's see what Amanda has to say...
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Progressing with Completion
The first words on the page. The first paragraph, the first chapter, the first major plot device finally revealed. All of these elicit a sense of pride and accomplishment in ourselves as we work on our manuscripts and tackle that first draft. There is nothing more exciting than seeing the story you’ve imagined coming to life on the page. The only thing better than that is writing that decisive “The End” at the bottom of the page. Beginning a new journey is great, and exciting, but breaking through the barriers of words that won’t come out, plots that need fixing, and extreme uneasiness about that novel even being worth all the work is the ultimate moment of pride for a novelist.
When I first started writing, finishing a novel came very easily to me. I was heavily inspired by a series by Brian Jacques, and wanted to write fantasy just like him. I rode off of his ideas and wrote story after story until I finally created my own world that I began to flesh out and develop. This series I wrote never saw a publisher’s table, and when I go back and reread them, I’m glad that they didn’t. They were rough, and written before I had a good grasp on grammar and story flow. I didn’t know anything about the proper way to write a book. I just wrote, and wrote, until I was satisfied.
In that time, I finished 13 – 15 full-length novels. They were all handwritten, before I ever owned a computer of my own, and I still have every single one of those notebooks. For me, these old notebooks full of childish but wonderful ideas are both my reward and my motivation. I know that what I write now is leagues better than those old handwritten pages, and I know that I learned from each of them in new and exciting ways. When I reach writing goals, whether it is the final “The End” or getting to a part in my plot that I have been dying to complete, I go back and reread the old series, because they show me what I was and what I can be.
I could celebrate with wine, I could celebrate by treating myself to takeout or to reading a novel I’ve been wanting to get my hands on, but instead I immediately jump into something new. Maybe not by physically writing, but always thinking up the next plot, the next scene, the next genre I want to pursue. There are days when I feel like all of the ideas I had in middle and high school were all I could come up with. But reading those old stories helps me to break through and come up with even more grandiose ideas.
Writing is not about completion. Sometimes it feels like it is. Meeting the deadline or finishing 50,000 words by the end of the month is an accomplishment, but it is not the end all for a writer. Writing is about progression, and pushing myself to always be better than what I was before. Just like playing an instrument or developing as a visual artist, writing is a process that I am always striving to reach new levels on. I celebrate when I reach my goals by creating more goals and more stepping stones to pass through.
And, maybe, I’ll drink a glass of wine while I do…just for the heck of it.
Amanda currently lives in Anderson SC, with her cat, Ghost. A lover of all things artsy, she does design freelancing and performs music in her free time. As of 2017, she is going into her tenth year of NaNoWriMo, and is currently working on her long-term project Other Beings. She enjoys writing fantasy, drama, and adventure, with a dash of all things fan fiction on the side!