Insceure Writers Support Group, Excitement

Greetings one and all, welcome to the Oct. edition of the Insecure Writers Support Group. The brain child of Ninja Capt. Alex J. Cavanuagh. I picture him on top of a roof, sword in one hand, book in the next. He leaps with amazing agility and presents the crowd with the book declaring, "Read!"

Seriously though, up until I saw how many writers had signed up to  post on the First Wednesday of every month, either words of encouragement, or something about their insecurities, I thought I was the only writer who had issues with my own talent. Now I'm inspired.

Today I'm talking about Excitement. Why? Because unless you, the writer, are excited about your plot, and or characters, it is hard to sit down at the keyboard and crank out a story.

Those of you who know me, know that last year was very difficult. Between financial strains and a long term illness that nearly killed me I lost my excitement. My book sales had tanked. I figured I'd never have the strength to write again. I was depressed. And with good reason.

In May of this year we moved from a toxic apartment that the Doctor had determined was the cause of my illness, to a cleaner, quieter environment. Within a week I was feeling better, but it took much longer to get the excitement back.

How did I do it? For me the prospect of writing a 130,000 word sequel to my epic fantasy was daunting. Even though much of it was already written. I was unhappy with about a third of it. That meant major rewrites before I could sit down and tell the story. I simply couldn't face doing it.

What saved me are short stories. I already belonged to and have been participating in Romantic Friday Writers. Every post brought comments of encouragement, just what I needed. The stories were okay for me, but not always my best. Then I read a blog post, (not sure where, I tend to forget to write the references down,) and in this post the writer talked about short stories and how readers of e-books couldn't get enough. I told my daughter about this and she said she believed it because everyone at work was talking about how much they loved short stories. They can read them in a day.

Ding, the light bulb went off. I realized that one of my biggest problems was that readers hadn't found me yet. I have a children's fantasy book up for free, but that hasn't translated into sells for my epic fantasy. Plus we are really in a financial quad-mire. If I can write short stories and put them up as an e-book for 99 cents, then perhaps I can start to make a little money and readers will find me.

The excitement is back. Really back. I've already gotten five short stories started. I'm using the Romantic Friday Writers prompts plus my own imagination to come up with story ideas. Each short story is becoming more complex, more entertaining. I can hardly wait until I have a rhythm of writing that allows me to finish one story a month and publish it. Since I am a professional, this includes critique, corrections, a paid editor, more corrections and a  professional and original piece of artwork for the book cover.

If you are interested in my journey, join me this Friday, Oct. 5 for a short story titled, Birthday Madness and then follow that on Monday, Oct. 8, when I use the same short story to illustrate how to cut a story without losing substance. Then every Monday afterward I will share something about writing, publishing or being inspired to write short stories. Once I start e-publishing, I'll share updates on that as well.

I hope this  post inspired and excited you. Yes, I am still writing novel length fiction and novellas too.
Nancy

PS. I'm looking for critique partners, and/or Beta Readers. If you are interested leave you e-mail address in the comments or e-mail me at gillael@aol.com. I get a lot of spam so be sure you put a note in the heading about critique or beta read. Thanks.

For more Insecure Writers Support Group post go here.
To join or follow Romantic Friday Writers go here.