It’s the first Wednesday of the month, which means it’s Insecure Writers Support Group day. The purpose is to share and encourage, express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak, as well as offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! Make sure to check out other writers’ posts here.
Can you believe it’s already December? How did that happen? Soon 2015 will be over!
How was November? Did you participate in NaNoWriMo? If you did do NaNo, there are several ways you could be feeling – elated it’s over and you won, disappointed you didn’t write 50k words, burnt out, or somewhere in between.
I spent November working on my second draft, which I will continue working on until completion. I hope that’ll be end of December/early January.
November has been a month full of lessons for me, the biggest being managing expectations. I thought I could go at nearly NaNo speed with this draft, but quickly learned that that’s not going to happen. I thought I had the story and characters figured out, and then I kept stumbling and realized I need to do some more background work.
“That was the thing about the world: it wasn’t that things were harder than you thought they were going to be, it was that they were hard in ways that you didn’t expect.”
― Lev Grossman, The Magician King
The first draft is like gathering all your materials and supplies. This second draft is teaching me that the gathering doesn’t stop, but it also shouldn’t stop my writing. I’ve been slowly but steadily making progress. I know more and more about my story and the characters. The second draft is not as fun as the first, but I still enjoy it immensely.
My take away from the month is this: whatever you did or did not accomplish pat yourself on the back, forgive yourself if necessary, and keep going. Oh, and have a cupcake. Life is always better with cupcakes.
Have a wonderful month!
“Oh, Marilla, looking forward to things is half the pleasure of them,” exclaimed Anne. “You mayn’t get the things themselves; but nothing can prevent you from having the fun of looking forward to them. Mrs. Lynde says, ‘Blessed are they who expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed.’ But I think it would be worse to expect nothing than to be disappointed.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
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Confessions of a broccoli addict 