It’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group post to boost my confidence and encourage myself to engage with the writing community. The IWSG post on the first Wednesday of every month and this month’s topic is writing rituals.
These month’s awesome co-hosts are: Pat Garcia, J.Q. Rose, and Natalie Aguirre!
I hope all my writer and reader friends are safe and well. I’ve been sickened by the recent news and my heart is with those fighting for justice across the pond and elsewhere. Black lives matter.
Writing News
I did very little writing last month, but I did do a lot of “housekeeping” on my WiP that I couldn’t put off any longer. After figuring out my plot problems, I rewrote my outline and then started reorganising all my documents.
I’ve been collecting ideas in various computer files and notebooks for years, and it was all a jumbled mess. Many of my old charts and scene notes had old character names in so I’ve been updating everything and uploading it to OneDrive. I also made a tracker in Excel that outlines what I’m supposed to write each week and my goal word counts for each chapter and scene. I now think I’m ready to dive in and rewrite the first draft that I started.
My Writing Secrets
Writers have secrets! What are one or two of yours, something readers would never know from your work?
This is an incredibly difficult question for me to answer as I’m a very private person. I have many secrets, all of which I’m taking to the grave! However, whether I intend it or not, my private thoughts and feelings inevitably do come out in my writing, and I’ve definitely noticed patterns in themes and symbols that reveal things about me.
How are you doing amidst these difficult times? Have you been able to keep writing? Do you have any news to share?
What a formidable array of tools you used to reorganize your current wip. I’m impressed! My current wip badly needed reorganization as well, but my system is much simpler. I put 3×5 cards up on my corkboard (always present) to highlight the hero’s journey, and I have two Word files — one for the story and one for the research (I’m just in the beginning). The 3×5 cards keep me focused on the overall story, and the two files are where I fall into that detail, at least organized by headings/subheadings/subsubheadings. So far, having fun. The outer landscape, just now, of pandemic and protest, is grim. Yet we can hope for a positive outcome, yes? Even as George Floyd is memorialized, new conversations about how to bring about change are beginning at every level. Thank you for your thoughtful comments. I do agree that our writing reflects our deepest held feelings (secrets?), and yes, this was a very difficult question this month from IWSG.
I’m impressed by anyone who manages to organise their writing (There is no hope for me! Lol.)