Insecure Writer's Support Group: Reaping the Rewards. Or Lack Thereof.

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: How do you celebrate when you achiever a writing goal / finish a story?

I think the sad answer to this question is that I don’t celebrate. I always mean to, and often use rewards as motivation when I’m trying to complete a writing challenge like NaNoWriMo, but when the month is over I tend not to follow through. Nowadays, I don't even give myself time off to relax. It's just straight on to the next project. 

            I guess I’m one of those people who is really good at delayed gratification. That or I am one of those insane people who lives for the chase rather than the kill (Sorry. Bad imagery. Have been writing too much shifter romance). 

             I know it isn't sustainable though. This kind of pace with no reward or down time will likely end in a breakdown. Maybe this is a timely reminder to be kinder to myself.

 

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Genre Love

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 Question: What do you love about the genre you write in most often?

If someone had asked me this question a few years ago I would have gone into a lengthy tirade about how great sci-fi/dystopia is. But as I sit here trying to formulate a plan for my publishing career this year, I realise that my growing WIP list now includes quite a lot of urban fantasy, contemporary YA romance and most recently some adult paranormal romance. Usually when I’m done writing a novel in one series I’ll jump straight into editing or writing the next book in another series. So right now it’s hard for me to pin down what genre I write in most often.

What my novels have in common across all these genres is strong female characters, lots of action and some sort of fantastical element. Even in my contemporary romances some far out things tend to happen (kidnappings, stolen identities, hacker culture etc).  This isn’t a huge surprise because these are the kinds of books I like to read. I can read any genre as long as it doesn’t have a shrinking violet heroine and a really slow plot.

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Resolutions Anyone?

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: What steps have you taken to put a schedule in place for your writing and publishing?  

Can I just state first of all that  I am loving these monthly questions? It really takes the hassle out of figuring out what I'm going to write about each month. And they always seems to be especially relevant to me. But I digress...

I've spent the past few days trying to decide what will be happening with this writing and publishing thing that I appear to have decided to do. I've mentioned previously that I published my first and only novel in September 2015. Since then I've allowed myself to go off on a tangent and write all kinds of other novels in other series. As an indie, I can tell you now, this is not good practice. Any traction that I had with my first novel is now gone. The few people on my mailing list probably don't even remember who I am anymore and the face of indie publishing has changed so much in the past 2 years that when I do publish again I'll have to essentially relearn everything from scratch. 

I guess what I'm saying is that I went into this whole publishing thing with my eyes tightly shut, hoping to just wing it on luck. I'd been writing the same novel for over 4 years and was thoroughly sick to death of it and just wanted it out so I could work on other things. Which was all well and good except that I had nothing to follow it up with. There's a saying that the best way to promote your novel is to write the next one. Well I broke that rule right off the bat. 

The other night someone on one of my FB groups shared this blog post about sustainability as an indie author. It's all about treating your writing as a business and setting long term goals so that you don't burn out. There's advice in there about how to sustain the business now that the indie market has matured and it got me thinking about where I eventually want to go with my writing career. How much I can write a year, every year, to sustain my love of writing. I haven't quite figured it out yet but what I do know is that I can't be one of those writers who chases trends and writes what the market demands. It's just not who I am. 

I guess I'm lucky in some ways because when I do write (Mostly during NaNoWriMo months), my word counts can be staggering. I could probably comfortably write 4-6 novels a year if I really needed to. I've realised too that the drafts I write are pretty clean so editing, though mentally tedious, isn't as awful as it once was. I think it's the marketing and self-doubt side of things that makes me pause and want to stick my head in the sand. That's the part that I need to focus on this year. I have about 9 novels in various stages of readiness to publish. If I don't do them soon, it's never going to happen. So I guess that's my rough plan for this year. Publish as many novels as I have ready and figure out what a sustainable number of novels I can write in year will be.

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!

 

Insecure Writer's Support Group: NaNoWriMo Edition

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 Question: Win or not, do you usually finish your NaNo project? Have any of them gone on to be published?

I think I’ve mentioned before in previous posts that NaNo is just about the only time these days when  I get any writing done. I fact, I’m currently working to change that because I obsessively write for a month only to burn out and not write for months after. As a result, I always finish my NaNo projects. In fact, I got in to NaNo and Camp NaNo with the express intention of writing my next novel with a view of eventually publishing it.

This year I took leave of my senses and decided that on top of NaNo I would also join a yearly writing challenge called Get Your Words Out. This is a challenge done out of LiveJournal and Dreamwidth in which participants pledge the amount they’re going to write for the year. For some reason that I now cannot remember, I chose to pledge the insane amount of 500k. At the moment I’m sitting on about 300k words written. So I have another 200k to write before 31 December or I fail. Suffice to say, my anxiety level is through the roof right now. I know I should cut myself some slack but the thought of not winning really bugs me. Hence the reason for the word obsession in this blog name. I just hope I don’t burn out completely by doing this.

To all those participating in NaNo, good luck! See you all on the other side.

 

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Pet Peeves or This is my Life

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

August’s Question is: What are your pet peeves when reading/writing/editing?

This post is super late I know! Thanks to post Camp Nanowrimo madness I seem to have lost the ability to think about anything else writing related.
      This topic is probably a little too close to my heart. I'm one of those people who gets ticked off really easily by small things and because of my obsessive personality, those small things can then turn me off of something completely.
      When reading, stuff like love triangles and stupid characters are a death sentence for a book in my eyes.
      Writing is such a lonely pursuit sometimes that I think about giving it up for all the stress it causes me but that's not really a pet peeve. It's life.
      So then there's editing. If you know me at all or have read any of my past IWSG posts, you'll know that I despise editing with a fiery passion. I just write 175k words in July for Camp Nanowrimo. The thought of editing any of those words is almost physically painful. It doesn't feel productive to me (which is known is crazy). It feels like grinding the same axe all over again and that's tedious. In the time I'm editing I could be writing so many more words.
       Then today something occurred to me: I write  so quickly that I sometimes conjure up worlds, fall I love with characters and then before I have a chance to enjoy them, the story is over. Editing is my chance to slow down and remember why I loved the writing in the first place. It's a chance to revisit old friends I didn't know I was missing. I don't know if I'll feel the same way after re-reading my novels dozens of time before I press edit but anything is better than the no editing limbo I've been in for the last 5 years!

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Over the Edge

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

June’s Question is: Did you ever say “I quit”? If so, what happened to make you come back to writing?

I actually feel like I want to quit right now! It’s not the writing that gets me down as an indie, it’s the marketing and keeping up with everything that needs to be done in order to stay on top of my game. It doesn’t help that I’ve recently joined an indie FB group with over 10k members, a lot of whom are very experienced and make over six figures a year (some even make six figures a month!). It’s hard not to do the comparison thing when I see their posts and it makes me feel like no matter how much time and energy I put into this pursuit, I’m already so far behind and I’ll never catch up. On top of that is the fact that I despise technology. It’s a miracle that I even have a blog. So to think about all the things I need to do just to make sure I remain relevant makes me feel exhausted before I have even finished writing. The only thing that keeps me going is stubbornness. I refuse to be that person who gives up when there are so many out there making it work!

 

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Bane of My Existence

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

May's question is:  What is the weirdest/coolest thing you ever had to research for your story?

I think I’ve complained on here a number of times about how much I dislike research. It’s number two on my list of things I hate about being a writer after editing. Sadly, much like editing, research is unavoidable. Which is why I try and write what I know as much as I can! Most of my characters so far have been gardeners/florist/horticulturalists. For my novel Poison which has its base in genetically modified organisms, I watched a lot of documentaries just to get a bit of a big picture idea of who the key players are. If you haven’t seen Food Inc. I really recommend it. I don’t know if I would class it as cool but all the things Monsanto do to our food supply is eye opening.

I’m going to be starting an urban fantasy series soon that’s going to require a lot of research. Though I’m not exactly looking forward to it, I’m hoping the copious amounts of research that I do early on will mean writing will be a breeze. Only time will tell! 

Insecure Writer's Support Group: What's Old is New Again

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

February's question is: Have you ever pulled out a really old story and reworked it? Did it work out?

When I saw this question in the IWSG newsletter, I couldn't help wondering if the universe was trying to give me a sign. When I was 16, I started writing a YA story about teenagers with telepathic powers. Twelve years later I dusted off the idea and wrote my very first novel. It wasn't the greatest thing ever written but I thought it was good enough to query to agents. It wasn't. After a couple of rejections, I put the manuscript aside and started working on something else.
        Then, in 2013 I was struggling to come up with an idea for camp NaNoWriMo when two days before the start it hit me. I suddenly came up with an idea for a novella based on my old story idea and lo and behold it only took me eight days to complete the 30k needed to win. Since then the reworked story has spawned two additional novels and a villain origin story. I worked on the second novel during last NaNo and plan to continue writing the series until the whole thing is done before I even think about publishing.
          The story as it currently stands is more nuanced in every way than the original. The voice is stronger. The characters are better. The world building is far and away the biggest difference. I know a part of it is probably that I'm slowly becoming a better writer. But there's a part of me almost thinks that I needed to take such a long break in order to see the story more clearly. It makes me wonder if writers who have already published sometimes look at their novels and wish they'd waited because they've come up with a better way to tell the story!

Insecure Writer's Support Group: The Evolution of a Reader through Writing

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

February's question is: How has being a writer changed your experience as a reader?

I think I actually considered a similar question a while back. It had to do with whether as writers we should continue to review books. At the time I was coming at it from the standpoint of someone who didn't want to lose credibility as an objective reader simply because I also happen to write. I didn't want to become one of those writers who has to tiptoe around book reviews for fear of it coming back to bite me. I thought nothing could ever change the way I read if I just refused to let it.
           And then a few months ago I realised that the number of one star reviews I gave got fewer and further between. I stopped caring about forcing myself to read the popular books no matter how much I was hating it along the way. I began to see the effort that would have gone into a book regardless of whether it was one that I was enjoying reading. I began to be less finicky about small things like typos (unless they were rampant!). I wasn't fixated on coming up with snarky one liners for book reviews. If anything, my reading became less about the technicality of writing and more about the storytelling. It's made me see that there's always more than one way a arc can go and a character can act.
         In short, I find that I have begun to give authors the benefit of the doubt. I might still not enjoy the novel but I'm less inclined to be disparaging of anything but the most glaring diversion from my own values.

Insecure Writer's Support Group: The Curse of Unpopularity

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
      A while ago , I wrote about not having the natural writing skill that some others are just born, this month I want to address the other thing that I have always lacked: popularity. Or rather my ideas have never been popular. I’ve always been somewhat of an outlier but it’s never really bothered me until recently when I’ve come to the realisation that the way I see things, my plots and characters, just don’t have mainstream appeal. As much as some writers and some readers will pretend that certain popular tropes don’t exist, they do, and they’re not the kind of thing I enjoy reading or writing.
       None of my novels have love triangles, not all of my characters are attractive, often my heroines aren’t “nice,” and I don’t prescribe to competitive female behaviour which is so prevalent in the YA genre. For a long time now I’ve thought of myself as a writer in the way that Michael Bay is a director. I like all the flashy, action stuff without much emotional substance behind it. I don’t care that it makes sense as long as things are blowing up.
       In an attempt to  break out of my comfort zone I tried to write one of these tropey novels. I've written all of two lines in two weeks. Clearly this isn't working out and I am now trying to make peace with the fact that what I write will never be wildly popular but maybe I can find my small niche of readers one day if I JUST KEEP WRITING.

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Many Years From Now

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

December’s question: In terms of your writing career, where do you see yourself five years from now, and what’s your plan to get there?

I really want to do the unrealistic thing and write where I want to be five years from now and not where I actually see myself. But I’m going to be really pragmatic and not waste the opportunity talking about Hollywood movie deals. Given that I’ve managed to publish one novel in the last five years with the second novel still in production, I think productivity is a bit of an issue for me. Not so much the writing part because I write quickly. It’s the editing and publishing that makes me cringe. Sadly, it doesn’t look like that’s ever going to change. So I’m going to give myself a bit of leeway and say that five years from now I would hope to have my three novel series completed and published and to be working on something new. I also want to try and write something in a genre that  I’m not comfortable with like romance or historical fiction.

I make plans all the time that I often don’t follow for one reason or another. This coming year I’m going to work on breaking down goals into smaller tasks so that it’s not so overwhelming. I’m hoping this will mean my productivity will be constant instead of huge spikes of writing during NaNo months and then nothing in between. I guess five years from now we’ll see if this plan has worked!

 

Insecure Writer's Support Group: The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
         
This month’s question is: What is your favourite aspect of being a writer?

There are many things that I enjoy about being a writer. I’d like to think that all the altruistic stuff like creativity and love of the craft is what’s more important but if I’m honest, my favourite aspect is the sense of control I have over the worlds I create.

        I’ve spoken often and quite flippantly about the fact that I suffer from OCD, but in reality, it’s not that fun to live with. My triggers often stem from the lack of control over any situation I’m faced with and the unfairness of the world at large.  

        If you know me at all you’ll know that I’m a huge superhero fan. Part of that has to do with the fact that the hero more often than not gets the bad guy in the end and justice prevails. This doesn’t happen in the real world and sometimes it makes me really angry. At times like these I turn to my writing to make sense of it all. I have complete control over everything that happens in my stories and though I often put my characters through hell, it’s a hell of my own making. So there you have it, a bit of a messed up answer but an honest one at least.

NaNoWriMo 2016!

It's that time of year again! I looked at my author info and it says I've been participating in NaNo since 2011. That year getting through the 50k was hell. The stress of writing so much made me physically sick and I had to stop for almost two weeks in the middle. I only won that year thanks to my OCD and stubbornness not allowing me to give up on something I had set out to do.
       Fast forward five years and it's a whole different story. My writing group did our own NaNo in September. I wrote 85k in two weeks. A full novel in two weeks. I'm still amazed just thinking about it. Don't get me wrong, it's nothing pretty. Thanks to poor planning the characters completely flipped a quarter of the way through the story and every second word is a typo. But it's a framework that I can build upon with edits.
       Now that I know I can write insane amounts I've set myself a goal of writing a full novel this November. Since I can't for the life of me seem to be succinct, the novel will probably end up being about 100k. On top of this, I want to edit the novel I wrote in September and get out a few pieces of fic that I've had in my head for months that just don't seem to want to cooperate.
       Having checked my buddy list, only about a quarter seem to have created novels and are participating. It would be nice to have people to chat to during the month when I'm stressing out about everything. So if you're participating this year, my username is Write_Obsession.
       See you on the other side! 

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Ready or Not

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
         

This month’s question is: When do you know your story is ready?

This is a difficult one to answer and it depends on so many factors such as world building, length, genre and the dreaded perfectionism. I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that my first novel took three years and eleven drafts before I even considered it ready to publish. I was new to self-publishing and just couldn’t let go of the fear that there was a massive plot hole or the story was boring. I pored over every draft to make sure the world building made sense and because I know I tend to be verbose, I tried to tighten the narrative as much as I could to keep word count down. With each of the initial drafts, I saw a vast improvement in the quality of my story, which was partially why it took so long for me to come to a decision that it was ready to be published. Eventually, the later drafts only had minor improvements and  any more tweaks were just me moving parts around to stall the inevitable. That's when I knew it was ready.
 

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Stealing Time

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
            I am such a bad newsletter reader that I hadn't cottoned on to the fact that there are monthly questions that we're supposed to answer for IWSG! I had another post ready but instead I'm frantically trying to answer this month's question, which is one I've been wrestling with for the past few months anyway: "How do you find the time to write in your busy day?"
           The answer to this is that I usually don't. Which has become a bit of a problem because unless I take time off work it can mean months on end with no writing done at all. Lately, the thought of not writing has been bugging me a lot more and I've taken the drastic measure of forgoing seeing friends during lunch at work to either read or work on my writing. Needless to say I'm not very popular at the moment. Since doing this, I've realised that while most people are supportive of my writing, they don't actually understand the sacrifices that have to be made in order for me to sustain my writing as well as hold down a full time job and have some kind of life outside of either of these things.
          So this morning I tried something new, I woke up half an hour earlier before work and am using that time to get some writing done. Eventually I'm hoping that I can wake up a little earlier each day so that my morning writing sessions, along with my cloistered lunch times, will turn into a habit. Fingers crossed!

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Ideas vs Execution

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
        In 2009 I wrote my first ever novel. I finished it in 20011 and started querying. Needless to say with my total lack of experience I got a lot of rejections. In 2014, I took the idea for this novel and turned it completely on it's head. In a way I lamented all the work I'd put into the first draft (and its sequel) but mostly, the new idea was by far the superior version.
        It got me thinking about how much I have developed as a storyteller in the few years that I've been writing. Then of course all the insecurities set in and I started to wonder whether I'm using up all of my good ideas now while I'm not that great a writer when  I should be saving them up for when I'm matured a little and can do them justice. I'm terrified that by the time I can write a good enough narrative all my ideas will have been used up. Which of course has made me look at the works in progress I have going on and how I can completely overhaul them. Which of course means I'm not producing enough. And the cycle goes on and on.....

Insecure Writer's Support Group: When Good Isn't Good Enough

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
       

I picked up the paperback of my novel the other day and started reading through it. By the time I’d finished a paragraph I think I might have cringed at least five times. The scary things is that the novel was only finished less than a year ago. I don’t think it’s even a case of my writing skills improving, but more of one of comparison.

             Recently, I’ve been dabbling in fanfic and have come across some really amazing writers. It’s got me thinking that if these writers are able to craft their stories so well at something they’re not wanting to publish professionally, then what hope do I have of capturing a reader’s attention with my meagre skills? I know I’m not terrible and I’ve come a long way from when I first started, but it also feels like there’s a limit to how much I will ever be able to improve. Writing is stylistic and some people are just born with the ability to wield words in a more pleasing style. I also know that very few writers get by on talent alone and I should just keep going regardless. Which is what I will definitely do. It’s just hard is all.

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Writer vs Reader

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
        For all intents and purposes, this is meant to be a book review blog as well as my author blog. I can’t remember the last time I read a book with the express purpose of reviewing it. My review policy is up and I’m still taking requests but I have a sneaking suspicion that most people who submit are just ignoring the guidelines and trying their luck. This is why I delete 99% of the requests I get. Most of them don’t even refer to me by name but just called me “Blogger.” A lot of the novels I’ve been asked to read aren’t in a genre that I enjoy. 

         The thing is, the more I write the more critical I have become. I feel like I’m treating every novel I read as though I’m doing edits on it for a friend and often this is what makes me not want to read a book or stop reading it altogether.

        To date I’ve started at least four requested novels and at best I’ve read them to the ten per cent mark and then put them down and have never picked them up again. Once upon a time I used to be one of those people who would finish a book no matter what. Now the slightest thing can make me stop reading. If the plot is slow, I lose interest. If the romance is cheesy or if there’s any hint of a love triangle, I lose interest. I find myself making notes not in an attempt to write a review but with the aim of providing the author with constructive editing advice.

        I long for the days when I used to be able to read just for pleasure. But I’m starting to worry that because my mind is so geared towards writing, that those days are over. 

 

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Failing in Epic Proportions

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   

          My debut novel POISON is a young adult dystopian. It involves quite a lot of action of epic proportions and took me a number of years to write and rewrite and then edit. The second novel in the series is mostly written and just needs a touch up before it goes to a professional editor. I worked on book three for Camp NaNoWriMo and am having the hardest time advancing the plot. Due to all the earlier epicness in the first two books, I feel like whatever happens in book three needs to be bigger and badder. I’ve already pulled out the big guns for the previous books and am left with what I can only describe as plot exhaustion. So much has happened to the main character that it’s a wonder she’s still functioning. With each new chapter I have to try and find ways to increase the tension but everything that could happen has happened and now I’m delving into territory that is just plain unbelievable in order to keep from stalling. So this month I’m having  a hard time completing the novel and it makes me regret not having a more solid outline when I began writing.

                I guess if I get nothing else from this experience I will have learned that I should pace my novels better so that I have something left for the grand finale! What about you guys? What’s making you insecure this month?