Hello and welcome to the monthly meeting of the
Insecure Writers Support Group(IWSG) blog hop!
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| Internet Writers Support Group Blog Hop First Wednesday of every month. |
What is IWSG? Founder of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group and author Alex J Cavanaugh explains the group's purpose is "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!" You're invited to become a member of this supportive group.
The group blogs the first Wednesday of every month. The list of bloggers is always available so you can hop around to the author blogs filled with humor, advice, and thought-provoking topics on writing and publishing. You can find the list of participants at Alex's IWSG page.
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| IWSG Question for the Month |
IWSG Question for October IWSG Blog Hop: When do you know your story is ready?
The truthful answer to that question is, "I never think my story is ready. Never even sure if it's ready for my writer's group to critique, beta readers to read, publisher to decide to accept."
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| Red rose--I love roses, hence my pen name J.Q. Rose |
But the more I write, the more comfortable I feel in submitting it. I remember when learning to be a floral designer, I never knew when the design was done. Too few flowers or too many? Tall enough, low enough? Big enough to make the customer happy with what she spent on the arrangement? Colors work together? But after working every day on designs, I developed an "eye" for it.
I think the more I write, the better I can judge if I have truly told the story in a clear, interesting, perhaps intriguing way. Then I'll know if it's ready to leave the safety of my word doc file and share it with a reader.
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| Just a reminder that YOU truly are AWESOME! Thanks for stopping by! |
27 comments:
I'm with you, J.Q. Rose! And thanks for the happy thoughts!
You've got something there saying that the more experience you have the more comfortable you are. I like the sound of that. :-)
Anna from elements of emaginette
I get caught up in the enthusiasm and always think mine is ready before it is. Hoping to learn a lesson from the current WIP. Whenever I think it's ready, best to give it another go-through!
Experience is a great teacher. We instinctively know when a project is done.
I'm not sure our stories are ever ready, JQ. There is always something else to tweak, but that defeats the goal of having it available for others to read. At some point I decide it's good enough. When I uploded my next book for Pre-Order, Amazon (or one of the sites) pointed out I had a typo. They were right. "family" had an extra i in it. After trying to fix it myself, I chose to let it go. Most people will never notice it. They eye will fly by. The alternative was sending it back to the formatter, and I felt it was more important to get it out there. I don't think I've ever seen a perfect book with no typos since I started writing. Before then, I never noticed them. LOL Good post. I shared.
Hi Elizabeth, glad you enjoyed the blog post. Thank you for stopping in!
Hi Anna, I think experience is a great teacher no matter what you do--writing, riding a bike, photography, and yes, even being a Grandma! Each book I've written has granted me more satisfaction with the story and my writing improved by leaps and bounds.
Oh Tess, I know exactly what you mean. So excited to share it with others. Wishing you all the best with your WIP!
Diane, you are right about instinctively knowing when it's done or when something is out of sync with a story. Good point! Thanks.
Thank you, Marsha. I agree there truly is no perfect book--unless maybe a robot or computer writes it!! Now that would be an interesting story--or NOT! Thank you for sharing!
I worry that mine or never ready all the time even after many published books. I guess that fear keeps us trying to improve all the time.
Great post, J.Q. The more we write, the better we get.
I do a number of revisions after the first draft. I look for different things in each revision. By the time I get to the 5th revision, I'm usually done.
I'm sure we could revise a book for the rest of our lives and find some change to make it better. :)
All the best to you!
It's really hard to be objective about when our manuscripts are ready for prime time. They're like eggs in a bird's nest. Eventually, we have to get 'em hatched and kicked out of the nest, but it's scary to let them go out into the world on their own.
But you're absolutely right. With experience and practice, we DO get better at it.
And then one day soon, if it hasn't happened already, you'll read a passage and think, "Wow, I wrote that." Confidence is there to grab, Janet. Grab yourself some. You deserve it.
Ooh, I love the awesome meme! We all thank you:)
I edit till I'm saturated. When I hit that point it goes out the door whether good, bad or ugly:)
The practice of writing and sending our work out into the big wide world really does help to make the process easier.
Experience is a huge help in knowing when a story is done. It definitely helps with the comfort level when hitting that submit button. Thanks for the Snoopy meme. Made me smile. :)
In many ways your advice hits me. It reminds me that security comes in part through practice. The more I write, continue with it, stick to it, the more I learn about myself. That gut feeling rises in me that says it is okay now. Now you can send it in. Thanks. I needed to read this.
By the way, I am a Snoopy fan. It feels good when Snoopy says, You're awesome.
Shalom aleichem,
Patricia
I think you're right. We start to figure it out over the course of many stories.
@Susan Kelly--It's so hard to stop tweaking and stop worrying after your story is published, and yet, we start a new WIP perhaps to soothe our worries? Thanks for stopping in.
@Susan Bernhardt--I love the idea that by the 5th read through you are usually done. I'm bad at thinking I'm done, then I go back and check a scene and want to re-do it. sheesh
@ Susan Swiderski--Yes we must allow our words to take wing. I like that!
Finally--not a Susan leaving a comment! LOL
@ Joylene--Thanks for your vote of confidence!
@Sandra--Saturated is the perfect word to describe the feeling.
@Lynda--Thank you and thanks for stopping by.
@ Pat--You make me so happy knowing that this blog post helped. I love Snoopy too. He can always make me smile.
@ L. Diane Wolfe-Thank you and thanks for stopping in.
Well said, JQ: the more we write and submit, the more comfortable we are with doing it. Great post and thanks for the 'awesome' meme. I needed to hear that message strong and clear today. Take care and have a great week.
Great post. Experience does help you get more comfortable with things,
Juneta @ Writer's Gambit
Nicola--I'm glad you enjoyed the awesome meme. So easy to forget this advice, so I reminded everyone including myself how awesome we are!
Thanks, Juneta. Looking forward to Oct. 27 and all those awesome stories!!
The IWSG Blog Hop provides a supportive space for writers to share doubts and seek encouragement. Your analogy of story readiness to floral design is insightful, showcasing the evolving confidence in your craft.
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