Ow-pain

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group is Traditional

Happy Insecure Writer’s Group day! It’s a very good day to rest gently in the support of your fellow writers cause, believe me, it’s a hard landing everywhere else. It’s March and I’m querying, so there’s two strikes against a good mood right there. Liberal application of walks in the sunshine (when the sun deigns to favor us with an appearance), rampant cussing (mostly under my breath), and the support of a good group are getting me through. My very…

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The Insecure Writer’s Support Group Gets Artistic (While I Crash Into a Reef)

Welcome to another Insecure Writer’s Support Group day! To sign up for the Group yourself, join in on the fun and receive all the wonderful support, go here. The awesome co-hosts for the February 5 posting of the IWSG are Lee Lowery, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Jennifer Hawes, Cathrina Constantine, and Tyrean Martinson! Stop by their blogs and offer a thank-you for today. The optional question for today was: has a single photo or work of art ever inspired a story? What was it and did…

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No Filter in Your Author Toolbox

This old post has been brushed up for this month’s Author Toolbox Blog Hop, hosted and moderated by author Raimey Gallant. Authors at all stages of their writing/publishing journey are welcome to hop in and bring new ideas and tools. Did you know there are such things as “filter words” when writing? I did not as a smol writer but now, thanks to the Tunnel of Everlasting Rejection which was 2017, I do. In the course of a) submitting my…

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The Insecure Writer’s Group Wants to Speed Date Me

This is an Insecure Writer’s Support Group post. Let’s rock the neurotic writing world! Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG. The awesome co-hosts for the July 3 posting of the IWSG are Erika Beebe, Natalie Aguirre,Jennifer Lane, MJ Fifield, Lisa Buie-Collard, and Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor! July 3 question: What personal traits have you written into your character(s)? First of all, I like how the question assumes I’ve written personal traits into my characters. This is something I think we authors should…

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Author Toolbox: Tell Me How to Show

This post is part of the author toolbox blog hop, created and hosted by Raimey Gallant. Click on the link to join in with over thirty other authors and receive their pearls of wisdom on a monthly basis. Do you know how to tell, at a glance, that you’re dealing with a new, inexperienced author? Telling. When the writing is chock-a-block full of telling, it’s a gargantuan, neon clue blaring out: This author is still learning. This author is hacking…

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The Insecure Writer’s Group has Got the Power

It’s the first Wednesday of the month, which means it’s time for our writing insecurities to pop their little heads out, just in time to get whacked back down into the depths of our subconscious by multiple author-hammers. GET BACK IN YOUR PLACE, INSECURITIES! Ahem. Anyway. The optional question for May 1: What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? The co-hosts for the month of May are Lee Lowery, Juneta Key, Yvonne Ventresca, and T. Powell Coltrin! Thanks to all…

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Add Some Great First Lines to Your Author Toolbox

You know what’s the hardest part of writing a book? Besides the writing and the outlining and the scene construction and editing and . . . okay . . . every other part. This bit is really the most intimidating, I promise. The hardest part is making yourself start. Prevailing advice, endless online articles, and the image of the latest huge seller, hang over your head like a constant cloud. And the cloud isn’t merely decorative. As your mind goes…

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Review Sites for Your Author Toolbox

Getting reviews can be so difficult for small press/Indie authors. Believe me, I know the pain. As I’ve worked my way through the wild west Interweb I’ve been lucky enough to find & follow plenty of book bloggers, mostly for their fascinating reviews. A lot of these websites accept books for reviews, which makes them just about the most wonderful people on the web. The vast majority of bloggers do this completely unpaid. Just for the love of literature. Because this…

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Friday Favorites has a Disapproving Look at my TBR

March 1: TBR Books (we all have those books on our TBR that we know will be favorites, but just sit on our TBR forever) Ah, the beautiful Mount TBR, smoking gently in the light of my bedside lamp, just waiting patiently to explode. Foothills made of giftcard purchases and one-click Kindle freebies. Small, winding paths of bookstagram recommendations that end in the sheer drop known as “this series isn’t finished yet. Oops, haha!” And the relentless cliffs comprised of eighteen…

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Six First Aid Steps for Bad Feedback

It happened. The thing you’ve been dreading, avoiding, secretly praying will pass you by forever. Negative feedback. Maybe it’s kindhearted constructive criticism (OUCH) or maybe it’s a scathing one-star take down of your entire book (FUCKING OUCH OW PAIN). No  matter what form it takes this kind of feedback is hard on you. I know this, because I recently got my very own negative feedback. I enter every unfinished manuscript I write into RWA chapter contests for judging because apparently…

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