Wednesday 6 December 2017

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Ahh Hindsight


Insecure Writer's Support Group is a blog hop hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh where totally insecure writers can get together and share the things that are making us go argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IWSG Day Question: As you look back on 2017, with all its successes and failures, if you could backtrack, what would you do differently?

Isn’t hindsight just the greatest and worst thing at the same time? I have just come off a month of brutal NaNoing and can barely think so this post is going to be in list form:

-I ended up writing just a little over 162k this NaNo. That was on top of working full time and also dealing with a few real life issues. Though I’m proud of the amount I wrote, from a self-care perspective, I’ll never do that again. Over the course of the month I got so many headaches and migraines from the stress of trying to keep on top of everything that in the end it just wasn’t worth it. I’ll always participate in NaNo but I will be much better prepared and I won’t have such high expectations of myself next time.

-I can’t really say I’ve had much success in my writing career in 2017. Aside from having written a whole bunch of words, I have gone another year without publishing again. My first and only book was published in 2015 and for an indie the lag time has been too long to make it worthwhile. I've got plans to publish quicker from now on but I need to somehow stifle the insane perfectionist in me. One thing I would do very differently is not allow my focus to diverge so much. I could have published so much more if I didn't just allow myself to write whatever new story came to mind. Right now I have 6 unfinished series underway. All at various stages of completion. That has to stop. 

- I think I spent too much time this year stalking people and groups on social media to the detriment of my own writing. I read somewhere that if you want to be successful you need to focus on your own progress and not compare yourself to others. I found myself lamenting why someone else's writing career was going well when mine wasn't and then  came to the realisation that if I spent as much time writing as I did stalking, I would probably be much further ahead. 

So I guess to sums things up, 2017 was a year where I learned a great deal about myself and it will lay the foundation for 2018 which is looking to be a very busy year!
 

10 comments:

  1. You're turning into me not being able to finish anything! Stop! I hope I'm not rubbing off on you. Though, I do hope your being able to write 160k words in one month DOES rub off on me. ;)

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  2. You won NaNo four times over - whoa!
    Now you know the balance. Not too much stalking or too much writing. You're ready for 2018.

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  3. Sometimes we have to struggle through something to learn how not to struggle through it anymore. I hope you get another book out there in the world so I can consume it!

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  4. Congrats! I'm staggered by the amount you wrote. At least you've no shortage of stories to work on - now just need to focus on the right one!

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  5. Whoa! That's a lot of words in one month. I've been doing some self-care by not writing last month and this one. I, too, wish I focused more on one series than writing different ones. I did manage to publish a novella this year in my series, but I still only have the one novel out (May 2014) and book two won't come out until sometime next year. *sighs* But here's to a better 2018!

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  6. 162k words? How did you manage that? That is insane. lol

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  7. Maybe next year I will have time and energy for Nano. I'm ending my teaching career, which has report-writing and finishing off marking taking a huge chunk out of November. But if I do, I'm going to use it as a way to focus on something that I can actually do something with. Maybe finish a novel sitting on my computer! Do you have plans for that novel?

    An Interview With Deborah Abela

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  8. That is a mind-boggling number of words, Lan! Hope the headaches have settled down. Here's to a great 2018!

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  9. It's all about striking a balance between writing our stories and showing the world that we do. Hope in 2018 that you find more time for putting your words on the page.

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