Our Twitter handleOur 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.
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 a 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: November is National Novel Writing Month. Have you ever participated? If not, why not?
MY ANWSER: Yes, since July 2013. I won last year for the first time in November, but only because I included all my writing, just my project. I don’t know that I will take part in “the push” for 50,000 this year, but I will BE writing and editing. Want to be my friend here is my profile info.
Sign Up And Become a Member 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.
I understood the world I was writing in, as I had created many shorts in it—world building is my thing. I always start with character and build from the inside out.
My trouble was finding my character’s long-term voice at first. I still struggle with my sidekick. I did not intend my story to be YA, but it is—again, story decisions.
So I am writing in a genre I am not totally comfortable in. However, I have been reading a lot of YA lately to get a better feel for it. I am very picky about my story, so had trouble finding great YA story that pulled me into the world, but I did.
Finding YA Book I like to read:
I found a few I am really enjoying that hooked me, but it was a search for me.
In my search, I came across Shade. I started reading and did not stop until chapter six, and only then because I had to do so. I read several before this one and was not impressed. So, I bought the whole series to read. This is a NY Times and USA Best-Selling author, which means she has experience capturing her audience.
I am also a pantser and linear writer. This story I have written, somewhat, out of order, not my natural writing style. Now I struggle a bit with transition scenes and the piecing together. Expansion, revision, and editing are a slow, painful process, but I will not give up.
Finding Character Voice:
The story decision to write this story always belonged to my characters. I write this story because my characters, though difficult, will not shut up. Especially Smoak, my sidekick. If you read my newsletter then you have been talking to Smoak as he has taken the newsletter writing over for now. He is insisting that I go back and rewrite my welcome letter in his voice. I may do that just have not had time yet.
So though I struggle with the long-term story voice, the voice in my head has no problem at all chatting my ear off.
In fact, in the last monthly newsletter, Smoak even shared his favorite movie.
Here is the excerpt from the newsletter:
Okay, on to the question, what is my favorite movie? My favorite movie is Avatar. The local inhabitants of the planet have tails. Tails are handy. Since I am a Fae Dragon Sprite, I have an awesome tail.
In fact, you could say, I am downright dangerous with it when I can stay in my natural form. All too often, I have to shift into whatever form is needed or promotes safety. The way life and the planet is all connected and symbiotic makes me think of me and Remi. We are elemental bondmates. Our element is FIRE. Avatar 2 is coming December 2022. I can’t wait!
Smoak even took a special place in the remake of my logo featured below.
My newsletterwith my gift story, The Boon. This story is not related to my current story, which for now I am calling Project Atlantis.
I enrolled in Tammi Labrecque, The Newsletter Ninja’s, Cookie Challenge. We will be creating short stories or other choices for reader targeted opt-in related to our reader audiences. It starts March 7th; I am excited about it.
IWSG Book Club Upgrade! The IWSG is getting an overhaul. We’re so excited about the changes, so let me just stop here and turn the explaining over to the fabulous Toi! (Toi’s msg taken from club newsletter.)
How to join IWSG and participate in the book club and the blog hop, and the many things for author’s sponsored and hosted through Insecure Writer’s Support Group. Find out here!
A MESSAGE FROM TOI
Hi there, I’m Toi.
Perhaps you’ve seen me around the IWSG community. I’m number 36 on the blogging list, and I’m kind of a ghost in the Facebook group, but I do pop in and out from time to time. I’ve been very active in the IWSG Book Club on Goodreads and have recently been asked to take it over. Fortunately, my wonderful co-mods (Juneta Key and Ronel Janse van Vurren) will be there for support the whole way.
We are so excited to announce the new direction the book club will be taking and hope that you will join us. Before we kick off our new traditions, we’ll have our final discussions about the craft of writing, featuring the titles: Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly by Gail Carson Levine and They Called Us Enemy by George Takei and Justin Eisinger. These final discussions, on August 25, 2021, are simply fun poll questions you can answer and then, if you so choose, share your thoughts and or review of the last books we read. Click here and here to join in.
Starting in September, the book club will now serve as a spotlight of member talent. That’s right. We will be reading, sharing, and supporting the works of IWSG members and hope you will join in the fun. While spotlighting writers, we hope to take the book club in a direction that appeals to readers as well. Even if you don’t have time to read the books we choose to spotlight, you can still participate and spread the love. And just remember, your turn will eventually come around.
We have decided to honor the IWSG and its members in the month of September by featuring two of the group’s anthologies: Tick Tock: A Stitch in Crime and Parallels: Felix Was Here. These anthologies are themselves a showcase of the talent present within the IWSG community. Since many members of the community are only published in the anthologies, this gives those members a chance to be featured.
Each month, we will feature two books from IWSG members, and whether a long-time veteran or a newcomer, your time to shine will come. The co-mods and I will be picking titles from members based on the blogging list. We’ve divided the list into three parts: 1-50, 51-100, and 100+. We will alternate each month which part we choose from, that way we’re not just showing attention to members in one portion of the list.
As the new admin of the book club, each month I will share tips on ways for members to help their books become more searchable, increasing their odds of being featured. The co-mods and I have also come up with some fun ways for the IWSG community to get involved, even if they are not ready to join the Goodreads book club. After the spotlighted books are announced in the IWSG newsletter, we encourage interested members to share which of the books they are excited to try out, the first Wednesday of the month, in their IWSG day post.
The second Thursday of the month will be when we post our group polls. We are even taking suggestions from members about poll topics to feature. The third Thursday of the month will be our #iwsgbookclub check-in, where we head to social media to share which book(s) we are reading and our thoughts at the moment. Finally, the fourth Thursday of the month will be our discussion day. We’ve decided to help connect readers with the IWSG authors by hosting micro discussions- 3 questions dedicated to each book featured; plus, I’ll be sharing additional questions on social media to indulge the avid readers. Even if you don’t have a chance to read the books, we encourage you to join the discussions. We all know how much writers thrive on feedback.
Wow. There are so many new and exciting things coming your way from the book club and I hope you’ll join the current book club members on this new journey. Personally, I am excited to be part of a community that provides so much support and so many opportunities. I can’t wait to see the IWSG Book Club on Goodreads thrive even more as we continue in the spirit of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.
IWSG September: What Is Your Idea Of A Successful Writer?
Insecure Writer’s Support Group—A database resource site and support group for writers and authors. Featuring weekly guests and tips, a monthly blogfest gathering, a Facebook group, a book club, and thousands of links–all to benefit writers! #IWSG Website / Facebook Group / Twitter / Book Club Reedsy Discount / Past Issues
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 help 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. And please be sure your avatar links back to your blog! Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.
You ready? Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
IWSG September: What Is Your Idea Of A Successful Writer? IWSG Co-hosts
From the newsletter–Show off your writer insecurities! Buy some IWSG swag and wear/use it with pride! Buy Here!
IWSG September: What Is Your Idea Of A Successful Writer?
Optional Question
SEPTEMBER 1ST OPTIONAL QUESTION How do you define success as a writer? Is it holding your book in your hand? Having a short story published? Making a certain amount of income from your writing?
MY ANSWER:
It is surviving (making a living) with income streams from writing or in the industry. I am so grateful because as of May 2020, when I started building my income streams; I am doing just that. Now my goal is to have a full series published and working on my next series.
I am co-owner of Stormdance Publications which is still a work in progress since 2018, but we have 4 themed-anthologies published, one to be published TBA (one more in wait), and one call for submission, Grumpy Old Fairy Tales, and getting ready to put out a second call for submission, Grumpy Old Pandemic Gods.
As of May 2021, I work full time for Ninja Writers LLC.Today is last day Sept 1st, but you can get Ninja Writers Guild for a month for $10 today Sept 1st, and after that $50 a month. The Guild is a place you can find classes to help you figure out how to build income streams, and that fits you personally. It is for the more serious writer looking for a way to earn income, publish their first novel, memoir, or start writing articles. (Note: The Guild includes all that is in the Club too.)
Or if you are a less focus writer or just not ready to jump in, The Aspiring Writer, there is the Ninja Writers Club, which you can get for two weeks free and then $25 a month, which includes access to Shaunta Grimes course, A Novel Idea, on how to write a novel and structure a novel with a lot of other insights.I highly recommend this course, as that is what inspired me to join the Ninja Writers Club back in 2015. I have never looked back.
Or if not ready to commit to yet you can try Ninja Writers Club free courses on How To Test & Develop a Story Idea and The Plotting Workshop at ninjawriters.org. Ninja Writers have a lot of live calls for club and the guild both, and a few frees from time to time. Shaunta is currently doing the $10 Workshop calls every Monday, which means if you don’t want to join but want to own that call and come to live, you can.
Another income stream for me is that I started my service page in May 2020 with one-on-one service via zoom. My page contains testimonials from my clients and list of services.
I write on Medium. I joined the Medium Partnership Program in 2018, which means I make a few pennies there too.
I also have seven books, 6 anthologies and one short collection on my Amazon Page.
What I am currently working on: I am currently writing an Origin Story novella or novel connected to the short collection, plus my first novel in my Space Opera Trilogy, Ghost Pirate.
Looking forward—I plan to develop a couple of email courses. This is still in the idea stage, but I am always adding to my income stream list as my schedule allows and what I can handle and manage. I am in this writing thing for the long haul. It is a curvy road. I build and change as I go. There is always something else to learn or to adapt to with every step. Getting closer to the dream, don’t believe me, read my bio. Or maybe I am already living shades of it. “Stuffs just getting better every day.” ~Movie The Postman starring Kevin Costner.
IWSG Book Club Upgrade! The IWSG is getting an overhaul. We’re so excited about the changes, so let me just stop here and turn the explaining over to the fabulous Toi! (Toi’s msg taken from club newsletter.)
A MESSAGE FROM TOI
Hi there, I’m Toi.
Perhaps you’ve seen me around the IWSG community. I’m number 36 on the blogging list, and I’m kind of a ghost in the Facebook group, but I do pop in and out from time to time. I’ve been very active in the IWSG Book Club on Goodreads and have recently been asked to take it over. Fortunately, my wonderful co-mods (Juneta Key and Ronel Janse van Vurren) will be there for support the whole way.
We are so excited to announce the new direction the book club will be taking and hope that you will join us. Before we kick off our new traditions, we’ll have our final discussions about the craft of writing, featuring the titles: Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly by Gail Carson Levine and They Called Us Enemy by George Takei and Justin Eisinger. These final discussions, on August 25, 2021, are simply fun poll questions you can answer and then, if you so choose, share your thoughts and or review of the last books we read. Click here and here to join in.
Starting in September, the book club will now serve as a spotlight of member talent. That’s right. We will be reading, sharing, and supporting the works of IWSG members and hope you will join in the fun. While spotlighting writers, we hope to take the book club in a direction that appeals to readers as well. Even if you don’t have time to read the books we choose to spotlight, you can still participate and spread the love. And just remember, your turn will eventually come around.
We have decided to honor the IWSG and its members in the month of September by featuring two of the group’s anthologies: Tick Tock: A Stitch in Crime and Parallels: Felix Was Here. These anthologies are themselves a showcase of the talent present within the IWSG community. Since many members of the community are only published in the anthologies, this gives those members a chance to be featured.
Each month, we will feature two books from IWSG members, and whether a long-time veteran or a newcomer, your time to shine will come. The co-mods and I will be picking titles from members based on the blogging list. We’ve divided the list into three parts: 1-50, 51-100, and 100+. We will alternate each month which part we choose from, that way we’re not just showing attention to members in one portion of the list.
As the new admin of the book club, each month I will share tips on ways for members to help their books become more searchable, increasing their odds of being featured. The co-mods and I have also come up with some fun ways for the IWSG community to get involved, even if they are not ready to join the Goodreads book club. After the spotlighted books are announced in the IWSG newsletter, we encourage interested members to share which of the books they are excited to try out, the first Wednesday of the month, in their IWSG day post.
The second Thursday of the month will be when we post our group polls. We are even taking suggestions from members about poll topics to feature. The third Thursday of the month will be our #iwsgbookclub check-in, where we head to social media to share which book(s) we are reading and our thoughts at the moment. Finally, the fourth Thursday of the month will be our discussion day. We’ve decided to help connect readers with the IWSG authors by hosting micro discussions- 3 questions dedicated to each book featured; plus, I’ll be sharing additional questions on social media to indulge the avid readers. Even if you don’t have a chance to read the books, we encourage you to join the discussions. We all know how much writers thrive on feedback.
Wow. There are so many new and exciting things coming your way from the book club and I hope you’ll join the current book club members on this new journey. Personally, I am excited to be part of a community that provides so much support and so many opportunities. I can’t wait to see the IWSG Book Club on Goodreads thrive even more as we continue in the spirit of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.
See you on post day.
Thanks, Toi Thomas Author at #thetoiboxofwords etoithomas.com Founder of Lit Carnivale. For more info, click here.
IWSG September: What Is Your Idea Of A Successful Writer?
Do You Believe In Magic? — Smoak is Magic.
I am a Fae spirit entity. My element is fire. My name is Smoak. I’ve been mistaken for an angel. As a spirit entity, I have many forms — I shape-shift, but my core form is Dragon.
I am a master at using shadow magic for illusion, but I can’t live alone. To survive, spirit entities must bond with another whose element is the same as theirs.
Elemental fire magic connected me to Remi at her birth. But, our magic was never used.
To keep her safe, her mother suppressed Remi’s magic at age three to hide them from the monster that chased them. On Remi’s sixteenth birthday, the spell will break and reunite us.
Let’s hope everything doesn’t burn down around us.
You can view this brief story on Medium too. I wrote it as short form fiction–150 words or fewer for a friend’s Short Form Publication on Medium The Daily Cuppa.
The IWSG 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 help and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! SIGN UP AND JOIN & FIND OUT MORE HERE!
Let’s rock the neurotic writing world! Our Twitter is @TheIWSG and hashtag #IWSG.
Every month, we 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.
“Although I have written a short story collection, the form found me and not the other way around. Don’t write short stories, novels or poems. Just write your truth and your stories will mold into the shapes they need to be.”
Have you ever written a piece that became a form, or even a genre, you hadn’t planned on writing in? Or do you choose a form/genre in advance?
MY ANSWER: Yes, my muse handed me a middle-grade story twice fully laid out in beats. It is a genre I don’t read a lot, and have never written in.
IWSG August 5th
IWSG 2020 Anthology Contest Announcement May 6th-September 2nd.
Guidelines and rules: Word count: 4500-6000 Genre: Science Fiction Theme: Dark Matter Submissions accepted: May 6 – September 2, 2020
How to enter: Send your polished, formatted (double-spaced, no footers or headers), previously unpublished story to admin @ insecurewriterssupportgroup.com before the deadline passes. Please include your full contact details, your social links, and if you are part of the Blogging, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter IWSG group.
Judging: The IWSG admins will create a shortlist of the best stories. The shortlist will then be sent to our official judges.
The Insecure Writer’s Support Group Book Club is for writers to read/learn about the writing craft. We will swap back and forth between craft books and fiction books that demonstrate aspects of storytelling.
We will read one book every two months.
There will be polls, free-gifts, and a lot of Discussion Day fun.
No promo. Just writers reading books and discussing those books with other writers.
Journey into the past. Will the third ghost be found before fires take more lives? Can everyone be warned before Pompeii is buried again? What happens if a blizzard traps a family in East Germany? Will the Firebird help Soviet sisters outwit evil during WWII? And sneaking off to see the first aeroplane – what could go wrong? Ten authors explore the past, sending their young protagonists on harrowing adventures. Featuring the talents of Yvonne Ventresca, Katharina Gerlach, Roland Clarke, Sherry Ellis, Rebecca M. Douglass, Bish Denham, Charles Kowalski, Louise MacBeath Barbour, Beth Anderson Schuck, and L.T. Ward. Hand-picked by a panel of agents, authors, and editors, these ten tales will take readers on a voyage of wonder into history. Get ready for an exciting ride!
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