HIT ME- PLEASE

  This part of the monthy blog hop/therapy session known as the Insecure Writers Support Group, founded by the one and only,  Alex J. Cavanaugh. If you're a writer, insecure, or just supportive of writers—insecure or not—please join us. It happens the first Wednesday of each month. I encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words will be appreciated.

December's Optional Question: As you look back on 2017, with all its successes/failures, if you could backtrack, what would you do differently? 

The answer to this question is easy...

I’d hire a “hit” man...

Not to take someone out...

To keep someone in...

Me, specifically!

In my office...

In my chair...

And hit me every time my mind wondered...

Or checked emails or Facebook...

Or decided to clean...

Or let Netflix lure me to la la land...

Rather than focus on my manuscript.

Actually, I’m a lot farther along than last year...

But not far enough!

To figure out what's holding me from pushing forward...
I had to look backward...

When I started writing my first manuscript...

There was no such thing as self-publishing...

Oh, there were a few oddballs out there who did…

But nothing compared to like today’s influx...

In fact...

If any writer dared to self-pub...

Other writers would snicker...

"Must not be good if she can't snare an agent."

And me? I was ignorantly happy…

Believing that all I had to do was write...

And all the mundane things of getting published…

Would be left up to an agent, editor, and publisher.

When self-publishing became the newest craze…

I lifted up my haughty chin and sneered…

“Me? Self-pub? Never!”

Well, here I am...

More than a decade later...

(though I have written 3 other manuscripts)

With my haughty chin down...

And my humble pie up...

Ready to self-pub.

But lord the process is scary...

It's an emotional roller coaster...
Blindly flying around... 
All the downturns, upturns and curves...  
Ofthe newest marketing and social media skills.
What about you?

Are you self-pub'd?

What did your process feel like? 

Or did you find your way to traditional publishing? 

Always,

Em-Musing

P.S.

From my part of the world to yours - may your holidays be blessed and joyous! See you next year.

DAY OF THE DREAD

This post is part of the monthly blog hop/therapy session known as the Insecure Writers Support Group, founded by the one and only, Alex J. Cavanaugh. If you're a writer, insecure, or just supportive of writers—insecure or not—please join us. It happens the first Wednesday of each month.I encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words will be appreciated. 

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

Today is November 1st...

Known here in Mexico as...

The Day of the Dead! 

Me as a catrina with my jungle kitty, Indie

But if you're a writer...

You probably know it as...

The Day of the Dread!

The NaNoWriMo challenge!

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Me? Will I do NaNoWriMo?

No, not this year.

I did do NaNoWriMo several years ago.

It was exhilarating…

It was brutal…

It was also…

Never finished.

I wrote almost 30,000 words…

But just couldn’t find the oomph to go on.

I know, wimpy, wimpy, wimpy…

But in my defense…

I used to write copy-on-the-fly all the time…

When I worked at a radio station writing spots.

On a typical day…

A salespeople would fly into the creative department panicked…

“Client needs a :60 on the air in a few hours.”

Now mind you, I didn't write the average rip'n'read spots...

I wrote creative, well produced spots...

And because radio is 'theatre of the mind'...

I often incorporated SFX, music...

And sometimes character voices (I do over 30).

I had no option to say, “Eh, I don’t feel like writing today.”

Or...

“I’m busy with another project.”

I gotta say, as hectic as it often was...

I loved the challenge of writing fast and furious copy...

But unlike the NaNoWriMo challenge…

I had to finish...

And sometimes I got rewarded...

Winning many ADDY and Crystal awards. 

So each November 1st I ask myself...

Do I need a drill to force myself to write?

No.

So, it’s no, no, NaNoWriMo for me this year.

But what about you?

Will you do or not do NaNoWriMo?

Got any scary NaNoWriMo stories? 

Always,

Em-Musing

P.S. Hmm? Come to think about it - being part of thousands of writers  around the world racking their brains out for a month does sound kinda, sorta fun. So maybe next year I'll do NaNoWriMo. But before I even use one brain cell thinking about that challenge,  I'm going to concentrate on another upcoming challenge - the 2018 A-Z Challenge!

THE NEED TO NOT KNOW

This post is part of the monthly blog hop/therapy session known as the Insecure Writers Support Group, founded by the one and only, Alex J. Cavanaugh. If you're a writer, insecure, or just supportive of writers—insecure or not—please join us. It happens the first Wednesday of each month. I encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words will be appreciated.

OCTOBER QUESTION:

Have you ever slipped any of your personal information into your characters, either by accident or on purpose?

Hmm?

Let me see...

Have I ever slipped any of my personal information...

Into my characters?

Uh, yup **blush, blush**

In fact I wrote a whole 3-book series...

In the Humorous Women’s Fiction genre...

(not yet published at the moment)

About a time in my life...

(not that long ago)

When I was single for the first time in my life...

And imagined dating again...

And I gotta tell ya...

Some parts of the story were so personal...

I changed my author name...

To protect my daughters' eyes from burning in their sockets...

In case they ever read it...

Ya see...

It’s not that I did anything criminal in the story...

It’s that the story includes many, eh hem...

Fantasies.

OK!

I fess up!

Sexual fantasies!

That no daughter—or any relative for that matter...

Need ever know about me.

"Say whaaaat?!?!" I hear you exclaim.

But wait! 

Before you think weird of me... 

It’s was only for research...

Yup, uh huh, research. I swear!

Because all good writers research.A lot! 

Well...that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

So?

Ever put some, eh hem **research** into your stores?

Care to share?

Or any other kind of personal info?

Always,

Em-Musing