IWSG: Cloudy With A Chance of Writing

It's Insecure Writer's Support Group Day. The first Wednesday of every month our members post about the writing life with all its hopes and fears. If you want to join, go HERE. 

Thanks to our host Alex Cavanaugh and this month's co-hosts: Olga Godim, Chemist Ken, Renee Scattergood, and Tamara Narayan!

The optional question of the month is: When your writing life is a bit cloudy or filled with rain, what do you do to dig down and keep on writing? 

Every Saturday there is a 95% chance of writing. That number clouds the horizon drastically during the week due to the day job. Setting a word count goal helps. I try for 500 words per day, then make up the shortage on the weekend.

Most importantly:

1. I give myself permission to write a bad first draft, otherwise, no words would be written. Good writing comes with editing. 
2. I don't beat myself up over the word count shortfall because that's a given. 
3. I remind myself that I'm doing what I can. I'm learning to be kinder to myself. 

What's your go-to strategy to keep on writing?

IWSG: Pet Peeves and Procrastination

It's hard to believe we're more than halfway through this year's Insecure Writer's Support Group posts. If you want to join, go HERE. Thank you to Alex Cavanaugh, and this month's co-hosts, Christine Rains, Dolarah @ Book Lover, Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor, Yvonne Ventresca, and LG Keltner!

This month's optional question is: What are your pet peeves when reading/writing/editing?

I really don't have writing/editing pet peeves--unless it's frustration with the stupid mistakes I make. I guess that's to be expected though. It comes with the territory and is part of the process and I'm still figuring it all out. Because apparently just because I've written a few books doesn't mean I'm past all that.

But when I'm reading a book for pleasure (i.e., not editing or proofreading for someone else), I do get irritated with typos and misspellings. In fact, I will stop reading a book if I come across more than one or two in the first couple of chapters. To me, it means the book isn't ready to be read yet.

This month's insecurity is:

I'm nearly done (only about 4 chapters to go!) with the first draft of my current WiP and I've sort of lost my way. After letting it sit for three months (or should I call it procrastinating?), I'm having difficulty finding my way back. I do enjoy looking at the word meter up in the right hand corner of the blog to see how far I've come with it, though.

I know it needs some major editing and rewriting, and I guess right now the task seems daunting. Could that be what's holding me back from finishing the last few chapters?

What is your reading/writing/editing pet peeve?

Any other insecurities this month?

IWSG: Memory Malfunction

 

 

Today is the monthly posting date for the Insecure Writer's Support Group, where writers post their worries, concerns and insecurities about their writing endeavors. You can sign up Here or Here. Thank you to Alex Cavanaugh and this month's minions, Krista McLaughlin - Kim VanSickler -

HeatherGardner - Hart Johnson for all your hard work.

 

Since I returned to work a year ago, I've struggled a lot with finding time to write. A couple of months ago I decided to use the word count method to at least get words to screen (500/day or 2500/week). I will say that it works as far as getting the words down. It's still hard to make my weekly goal and so I use a lot of my weekend off writing in order to meet my goal. That's okay, because it works.

 

The problem I didn't foresee is that since I'm writing in such small chunks spread out over time,  I tend to forget what I've written before! And I use an outline!

 

I really, really, really miss my younger brain that use to remember every detail!

 

Now...what did I just say?

 

Anyone else have this problem?

 

What do you do about it?

 

How's your writing life?