Take a chance...

  

Guest post by Kat Sheridan for the Insecure Writers Support Group (IWSG).

I published my Victorian romance novel, Echoes in Stone, on a dare.

I finished it five years ago, but never published it. Maybe I thought it wasn’t good enough. Maybe I was afraid of failure. Or success. I picked at it, passed it through beta readers and a really good editor, and made it as strong, as compelling as I knew how.

But still, I couldn’t bring myself to make that leap. To share “my baby” with the world. What if I made a total fool of myself? I was terrified of promotion. Of bad reviews. Of being found out as a fraud. Not a writer.

I belong to a group of historical romance writers who meets every three weeks for coffee, pastries, and goal setting. Every meeting I dutifully set new goals for my work-in-progress, and wrote new pages, but was never really finishing anything. Then one member of the group decided that instead of allowing me to set my own goals, she would set one for me.

Publish something. Anything. She challenged me. She dared me.

So I closed my eyes, screwed up my courage, called in favors from every friend I knew…

…and jumped.

One friend gave me a final edit. Another pointed me to a great cover artist. Another offered to upload the book for free as a thank you for past help I’d given her. Sia had me as a guest on her blog and lined up others for me. Friends tweeted and shared and banged the drum for me.

Sales aren’t spectacular. It’s a debut novel by an unknown author. But I’ve made sales. That very first, tiny little royalty check? It was like winning the Golden Ticket to the Wonka factory.

Many years ago, Hubs talked me into going on one of those 3D virtual rides in Las Vegas. I was utterly terrified and queasy even before getting on the ride. My fears were echoed by a little boy in the same waiting line, who kept chanting “Scary, scary, scary…” When the lights came up after the ride, he jumped out of his seat and yelled “Do it again!” And I turned to Hubs and yelled the same thing.

And that’s how I feel about the book I’m working on now. That giddy feeling that comes only from putting your work out into the world, no matter how much you want to throw up? Do it again!

So tell me, if you’re not published yet, what’s holding you back? And if you are published, what made you take a chance?

Coming up Friday: Judi Fennell and her fun new series Manly Maids. You don’t want to miss this one!

Kat Sheridan is a former project manager whose very serious exterior hides a secret romantic. She is fond of books, bourbon, big words, coffee, and shiny things. Kat splits her time between the Midwest in the summer and the South in the winter, sharing her home with the love of her life and an exceedingly dignified Shih Tzu. She loves to hear from readers, and can be contacted at www.KatSheridan.com.

Insecure Writers—In Search Of Discipline

Discipline: prescribed conduct or pattern of behavior

Prescribed: to lay down as a guide, direction, or rule of action

I’m in dire need of a new prescription for discipline.

Unfortunately, this is not the sort of prescription I can go to the pharmacy to get. It’s something I have to pull out of myself and follow. I used to be so disciplined with my writing. I had a schedule that worked for me. Somewhere along the line, I lost it.

There have been some major changes in my life that have altered my time. A time intensive blog, home schooling my son, and dealing with a serious illness have all made inroads on writing. Dealing with one and two were doable, add three and poof, writing? What’s writing?

I still have to deal with the blog (which I enjoy) and home schooling (which is done in two months), but the illness knocked me down below the speed bump and it’s a bitch to crawl back up from that one.

NaNo helped. It tapped back into my imagination and reassured me it’s still working—trust me, I had some serious doubts on that score for a while. It was hard to think beyond basics. I didn’t have the energy or inclination (not to mention enthusiasm) to write when it was all I could do teach the kid and do the blog. In between I took my meds and slept—a lot. 

I’m not totally well but I’m getting there and now I’m desperately in search of disciple. Part of it is finding the motivation (and energy) to write intensively again. That’s a hard one. Then there are all the things in the house I had to let slide when I was so sick. Now it’s learning to pace myself. Balance is so important for me. I don’t do well without it but it takes patience to get life balanced when it’s been out of sync for so long and your focus is on the necessities.

Since I do my best writing in the mornings, I’m going to have to schedule time for just writing and then tackle my to do list, find time to nap (which is still very necessary), check the kid’s school work, and work on the blog. It’s getting there. Kinda.

Bottom line for me, if I don’t make the time, then my time gets squandered away and nothing is accomplished.  I don’t like that feeling.  I also need to be consistent.  Most successful writers have to be.

• How do you carve out time to write?  Some work full time.  Some can’t write at home but have a favorite place they can write.  Some can only write on weekends, or early morning before the day starts, or late at night when the house is quiet.  The point is they have to make the time. 

• So, what works for you?

 

   

MONDAY MUSINGS: Insecure Writers And Lessons Learned

"...the inability to fight self-doubts is one of the biggest things that prevent a writer from becoming published.  And it’s probably one of the reasons published writers stop writing." Christie Craig, How To Ward Off A Gremlin

I think anyone who creates has insecurities. It’s the nature of the beast. Creative works come from within the artist and are highly subjective because it’s our interpretation of what we see or feel. This is true whether we be actor, musician, artist, or writer. We create from our inner landscape and present it to others for their enjoyment, perhaps education, and for sure entertainment.

When we put our work on display we’re putting a piece of our inner self out there. It’s hard to detach your feelings from this labor of love and yet we must if we’re also to be objective enough to recognize whether something we’ve created is good, mediocre, or just plain sucks.

I’ve written for sometime. I’ve always told and written stories. Most of them sit in the hell no drawer. They satisfied what I wanted to say or do at the time. When I started writing for publication it was a whole different playing field. I know I tell a good story. I also know I’m a good writer. However, those two things don’t always coalesce into a viable story as I discovered with my first critiques—which happened to be from a contest.

I didn’t belong to a writing group then—in fact I had no contact with any other writers, and while I read voraciously but still didn’t *get it* as far as what was good writing in today’s market and what wasn’t. I’d never analyzed it. I should have.

The first public eyes that saw my story were judges in a contest. Oh. My. God. This was a first chapters contest. Other writers entered—something like fifteen hundred—and there were rounds of voting from fellow writers and professional judges. I thought what I wrote was good or I wouldn’t have entered it. I edited the manuscript several times, cut thirty thousand words, and then had a friend who was an award winning journalist proof it.

And then I started reading other entries and the critiques/comments attached to those entries.

Holy shitake mushrooms. What an education. Brutal even.

I knew the first day my story wouldn’t place in the top five (I finished in the top twenty-five percent and didn’t make it to the round three). Not that my two chapters were bad—it wasn’t, but based on what I was reading I knew the manuscript wasn’t good enough and I didn’t have the social network to succeed even had it been.

I knew I had a lot to learn before I would be published. I’m not one to back away from a challenge—and believe me, it was a major challenge.

Lessons learned on my writing journey:

• Writing is a business. You have to learn and apply the most current information. As with any business, you have to be constantly perfecting your basic skill set to get ahead.

• You need objective critiques of your work and that excludes your mother who thinks anything you create is wonderful. You need constructive critiques from someone who knows the business and writing.

• When receiving a critique, you need to be willing to listen and learn.
  The first one I received from a friend, who is also a traditionally published writer, I thought it was bleeding to death from all the red marks—but that’s a story I'll tell another time.

• You really do need to associate with other writers. You need a good support system in place. After the above-mentioned contest, I—who has never been much of a joiner—became part of a wonderful group (my Writing Wombats). I get support, current info, and a good kick in the ass when I need it.

• You need a social network and name recognition long before you query your first book.

• You need tough Rhino skin and a strong will to succeed.

It hurts like hell when you fall off one of these horses. If you never get back on you'll never get hurt like that again but you'll never win the coveted prize, either. Only you can decide if the pain is worth the gain.

• Believe in yourself. If this is what you want to do—don’t give up. If you get knocked down get back up and fight off the self-doubts.