​Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!
Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officiallyInsecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting! Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post. And please be sure your avatar links back to your blog! If it links to Google+, be sure your blog is listed there. Otherwise, when you leave a comment, people can't find you to comment back.
Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG
Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. 

Remember, the question is optional! 

November 1 question - Win or not, do you usually finish your NaNo project? Have any of them gone on to be published?
The awesome co-hosts for the November 1 posting of the IWSG are Tonja Drecker, Diane Burton, MJ Fifield, andRebecca Douglass!

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!
Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officiallyInsecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting! Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post.
Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG

Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. 

Remember, the question is optional! 

February 1 Question: How has being a writer changed your experience as a reader?
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The awesome co-hosts for the February 1 posting of the IWSG will be Misha Gericke, LK Hill, Juneta Key, Christy and Joylene Buter!

I have never met a writer who was not first an avid reader. Can you imagine asking a writer who some of their favorite authors are and having them respond that they don't read much, except internet articles or magazines?  It would be very strange if they were to write very well.

I began reading like a writer when I first began teaching students to improve their literacy. Language Arts include both reading and writing, so combining the two is the most logical and expedient method of instruction. It's also the best way to teach students to write--by showing them how good writers write, which requires reading like a writer.  

Before learning about reading like a writer, people read like readers, or reading for enjoyment alone, which means they learn about and connect with the characters. When they learn to read like writers, they identify with the author and learn about what writing techniques the author used.

To learn to read like a writer, students choose a text that is an excellent example of the type of writing they wish to write. We call these mentor texts. The reason is obvious. No one mentors a writer like a wonderful writer. There is a great deal of research to support this method of instruction and as a writer I can offer personal testimony that it is the very best and most expedient way to make improvements in both reading and writing. 

A writer stops to observe writing strategies employed by the author. They examine  how the author created mood, how they developed characterization, how they invoked various emotional responses from the reader, etc.  When I want to work on a particular writing technique, I read an author who excels in that particular strategy. Anne Rice does mood like no other, Dean Koontz does wonderful characterization, and James Joyce writes prose that can make your heart sing, and...well, you get what I mean.

What do you like to read as a writer?

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!
Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting! Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post.

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG
And we’re revving up IWSG Day to make it more fun and interactive! Every month, we'll announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. 

December 7 Question: In terms of your writing career, where do you see yourself five years from now, and what’s your plan to get there?
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The awesome co-hosts for the December 7 posting of the IWSG will be Jennifer Hawes, Jen Chandler, Nick Wilford,Juneta Key, JH Moncrieff, Diane Burton, and MJ Fifield!

Five years from now I see myself walking in the dunes of an Egyptian movie set, watching them film my Illuminati series. Okay, well that may be a bit ambitious, but there's no reason one can't dream and to that end I have begun to try getting my work into the hands of film makers. I have a friend who has written the screenplay and novelization for movies, and another whose book rights have been purchased by Speilberg, though they have not yet announced plans to begin filming. So I do know it's possible, which is why I have been working diligently to increase my output and PR distribution. I have been trying to write every day, even it's just a paragraph or two. For me, that's a huge shift in my writing habits. NANO should spawn a MANO and a JUNO! 

NaNo sure helped me work toward my writing goals. I wonder how many writers have had their writing goals inspired by NaNo? Have you?

​Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!
Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting! Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post.
Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
Our Twitter hashtag is #IWSG
And we’re revving up IWSG Day to make it more fun and interactive! Every month, we'll announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. 

November 2 Question: What is your favorite aspect of being a writer?
The awesome co-hosts for the November 2 posting of the IWSG will be Joylene Nowell Butler, Jen Chandler, Mary Aalgaard, Lisa Buie Collard, Tamara Narayan, Tyrean Martinson, and Christine Rains!

It's simple for me to choose a favorite aspect of being a writer. I love creating new worlds, interesting characters and disatrous scenarious for said characters to overcome. It's like a vacation in my mind.  At a recent author event, one of the authors had the tagline "Acupuncture for the Soul," and I just loved that. To me, that's what writing is, acupuncture for the soul, or perhaps more accurately at least in my case, massage therapy for the soul.  I brainstorm scenes and plot lines while running because there's something about endorphin infused thought that's  magical.  Proof positive that writing, which is thought after all, is therapy for the soul. Massage away, says I! And if all else fails, once I get home my hubby is a massage therapist so I can relax any residual soreness in my muscles while I continue to mull over my plot ideas!

​Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officiallyInsecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting! Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post.

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Our Twitter hashtag is #IWSG

And we’re revving up IWSG Day to make it more fun and interactive! Every month, we'll announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. 

September 7 Question: How do you find the time to write in your busy day?
The awesome co-hosts for the September 7 posting of the IWSG will be C. Lee McKenzie, Rachel Pattison,Elizabeth Seckman, Stephanie Faris, Lori L MacLaughlin,and Elsie Amata! 

We're also announcing the details of the annual IWSG Anthology Contest on September 7!

Wow, how does a writer find time to write? A tough question and therefore a good one! Sometimes I think writer's block is often a  result of a too tightly wound writer's clock--the one that tic-tocks with loud and often disruptive staccato notes when forced to write if, when, where and how time in a busy, hectic schedule allows or demands.  

Personally, I am incredibly busy and when you add ADHD to that, I have to add "pressure" or "obligation" or "deadline" to force myself to FOCUS on a writing project to completion, though I always have more than one project in the works in order to keep my restless right/left brain mind juggle satisfied. 

To be more specific, I belong to Weekend Writing Warriors, an online weekly fb and Twitter group that posts 8-10 sentences of a WIP for feedback and comments every week.  It 'forces' me to write at least that much in a current WIP, right? And, if you're in there writing a paragraph or so, then you might as well write....  

I feel really guilty that I have missed two of those in the last couple of months, because I have been too overwhelmed with other writing obligations. But, that falls under the category of setting priorities and making professional decisions. For example, I had a publication deadline and I have a short story coming out in an October Horror Anthology, so edits had to take priority.  I could have "posted" something, but I don't like to do that if I don't have time to read anyone else's work. 

For those of you who like to write short stories, Tell-Tale Publishing (the Horror Anthology I have a story coming out with in October) is having its annual Halloween Horror Party and Scariest Story, Vincent Price Award, Contest in October. Get Ready! The winner will have their story in next year's anthology and get their story on the cover, like last year's winner, The Keeper's Secret....(see cover below) Our own Alex C. was a judge last year!

​Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officiallyInsecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time. Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post.

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Our Twitter hashtag is #IWSG

And we’re revving up IWSG Day to make it more fun and interactive! Every month, we'll announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. 

AUGUST 3RD QUESTION: What was your very first piece of writing as an aspiring writer? Where is it now? Collecting dust or has it been published?

The awesome co-hosts for the August 3 posting of the IWSG will be Tamara Narayan, Tonja Drecker, Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor, Lauren @ Pensuasion, Stephen Tremp, and Julie Flanders! ​

The first thing I ever wrote as an aspiring adult writer was an historical vampire romance, set at the court of Peter the Great. I wrote it decades ago. I researched it, and wrote the entire thing first on a typewriter and then on my first computer, that actually crashed because the hard drive couldn't take the amount of  "data" I had input during a 16-hour writing session. Oh, times and technology they sure have changed.

I was speaking to a young sales girl the other day in a store and she didn't know what a dot matrix printer was and didn't understand how there ever could have been a single computer so large when I first studied computer science that it took up a whole room that had to be air conditioned year round in Michigan to keep it cooled off. And they wonder why updating our websites drive us  old "geezers" who know nothing about computer technology crazy? Perhaps young people forget that we've learned a whole lot "more" technology in our lifetimes than has yet to be invented in theirs....

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officiallyInsecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time. Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post.
Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
Our Twitter hashtag is #IWSG
​
And we’re revving up IWSG Day to make it more fun and interactive! Every month, we'll announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. 

JULY 6 QUESTION: What's the best thing someone has ever said about your writing?
The awesome co-hosts for the July 6 posting of the IWSG will be Yolanda Renee, Tyrean Martinson, Madeline Mora-Summonte , LK Hill, Rachna Chhabria, and JA Scott! 

Wow, today's question really hit me. As an editor I spend a lot of time saying things about a lot of people's writing, and I often wonder if writers know just how difficult and often lonely it can be on the other side of the red pen.

As an author, and fellow critique partner who tries to openly discuss observations, I know how it feels to have your favorite scene, phrase or description cut or ignored.

​What is the best thing anyone has ever said to me? I wish I had written that! of course. That's why I try to note it in a manuscript margin, no matter how busy I am, from time to time.  A simple, "Well said,  great scene, love that!, nice!" goes so far toward building back up the writing confidence of an author whose manuscript has been redlined or marked up with a dozen notations of revisions to be made.  

How do I know? I'm an author, and as an editor I'm probably even more insecure as an author wondering if  people critique me with unfair (however secret) overinflated expectations.  As an author I sometimes need to have a sloppy, rough draft with brainstormed freewriting and choppy ideas.

I wear a lot of hats. Sometimes they get baggy and slip a bit, from being changed too often. But the more I wear them, the more comfortable they are, and the more they become an integral part of my eclectic personality...

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!
Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time. Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post.
Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
The awesome co-hosts for the May 4 posting of the IWSG will be Stephen Tremp, Fundy Blue, MJ Fifield, Loni Townsend, Bish Denham, Susan Gourley, and Stephanie Faris! 

So I took a chance, and attended the Saguaro Chapter of the  RWA (The Tucson branch of the National Romance Writers Association) meeting, my first gathering of writers since moving from Michigan to Arizona four years ago.  As luck, fate, timing, the spin of the wheel would have it, I ended up seated next to a fellow paranormal writer and a table full of writers who didn't spit or bite or throw things at me (at least not at this first meeting-though I hold out hope they may learn to be less restrained later on).  

A very review-savvy author (who wisely never reads her own) discussed getting out there and just doing it, review-wise, and two dare-devil-card-may-care authors demonstrated using various tarot decks to build plot bridges. This long-time reviewer and tarot reader found both sessions interesting and the writing gab provided well-needed savory bits for this writer's soul. 

I also discovered one of the members is a nutso extreme running/obstacle course enthusiast, like many of my buddies back in MI! And, some of the paranormal writers are forming a new paranormal critique group, like the one I left behind in MI! The Tucson group is a very large, active group, but their seating is small, round tables, so intimate groupings that lend themselves to quiet conversations during lunch. Not everyone at my table bothered to speak to me or introduce themselves, excited to see their friends and catch up with them at this once a month meeting, but most did, and most were kind enough to even introduce me to others in the extended group who wrote in the same genre, or shared some same interest,  during the break.

I just may find a niche with this group. I have received some emails and offers to join a new critique group. I feel that I can take another chance and it won't require me to get "out there" in an uncomfortable way until I become used to getting to know a few people from the group better first. Starting over really does mean you can keep old friends and make new ones too! I feel much encouraged for having taken a chance. It's a good thing I had an old friend to push me into making new ones!

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officiallyInsecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time. Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post.

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Our Twitter hashtag is #IWSG

The awesome co-hosts for the April 6 posting of the IWSG will be Megan Morgan, Chris Votey, Viola Fury,Christine Rains, Madeline Mora-Summonte, L.G. Keltner,Rachna Chhabria, and Patricia Lynne! 

I write quite a few reviews, and edit other people’s manuscripts every single week, but there are only a few blogs that I write just because I want to with any regularity. Yes, I can see your eyes rolling, those that wonder what I dare define as regular. Hey, just remember that everyone has problems you know nothing about.

Two groups I try to push myself to blog in are groups in which writers must post excerpts of their WIP. Why? To force me to create an excerpt so that I work on my WIP instead of someone else’s. And I swear I wonder sometimes why I bother posting in one of them because all they seem to care about is how many sentences you write, not what you write. And all I care about is that I DID write. I regress.

Don’t get me wrong, I love to read other author’s works. Isn’t that what they say all great writers must do? Read. Read. Read. Of course, but at what point does it become an excuse to avoid facing critique on one’s own work? Or perhaps even the lack of critique?

Since moving across the country, one of the things I miss most is the fun, eclectic group of 8 POTL women who made up my critique group. We used to meet once a month for plot brainstorming, critiquing, laughing and whatever else was happening, be it book signings, guild meetings, wine tasting tours, or tarot card reading character development sessions--or just life, such as personal events or problems that came up. Oh, how I miss that food for the writer’s soul.

It’s been so long since I wrote anything substantive that my writing “buddies” don’t even know I’m writing again, and don’t even know to “follow” my writing fb pages or blogs or comment on them, or…sigh. Who can blame them? I have no one to blame but myself. The writer in me has forgotten to send out invites to my friends letting them know the right side of my brain is alive and well, though it may be living in AZ rather than MI.
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My writing has suffered for many reasons since I moved here, but I have not finished a novel since I arrived, and I can’t help but admit the lack of writing comradery is probably a major reason. So today I  sliced a juicy organic tomato, some smoky gouda cheese, and layered them on thin slices of feta/spinach/onion bread from Beyond Bread, opened a bottle of my favorite Late Harvest Riesling and wrote an entire chapter in my WIP—and all that before I painted a modern abstract acrylic on canvas “Sunflowers Swim in Lilacs”. How’s that for right-brain regeneration?