IWSG APRIL 2019

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 happensthe first Wednesday of each month. It would be sweet of you to visit at least a dozen or so new blogs and leave a comment. Your words will be appreciated.

April3 question: if you could use a wish to help you write just ONE scene/chapter of your book, which one would it be? Example: fight scene? First kiss scene? Middle chapter? End chapter, etc.

The awesome co-hosts for the April 3 posting of the IWSG are J.H. Moncrieff, Natalie Aguirre, Patsy Collins, and Chemist Ken! 

First up today—my answer to this month’s question:

If I could use a wish to help me write just one scene/chapter of my book, 

which one would it be?

Chapter 1 hands down...

Because isn’t that’s what draws the reader into the book?

And an agent?

And a publisher?

And with Chapter 1 hooking them in...

I’d then find a way to make another wish to finish the book.

But then—where’s the fun and angst of that?

Now on to another thought for the day:

We all like to make fun of people who hoard, don’t we?

Oh, please don’t tell me I’m being sloppy insensitive...

Isn’t that the point of the TV show, Hoarders?

Just so we can go, "Eeeuuu! Yuck! Disgusting!!!"

And after seeing what these people hoard...

Don’t we feel good about ourselves?

Believing we’d never be a hoarder?

But hmmm?

Maybe, just maybe you are a hoarder and don’t know it?

Why don’t we take a look inside your refrigerator.

Ah ha! I knew it!

Condiments!

In tiny tubs and pee wee packets!

Every refrigerator I go into, whether a friend’s or family’shas them...

Ketchup, soy sauce, mustard, BBQ sauce, salad... dressing, jelly, mayo, mustard, and more!

And these little tubs and pee wee packets...

Are always taking up more than their fair share of shelf space.

Do we ever use them? Doubt it!

And really why would we even need pee wee packets of ketchup...

When we have a whole big bottle of it in the frig?

So now maybe you’re curious about me?

Am I a hoarder? What things do I hoard?

‘Versions!’

I hoard ‘Versions’ of everything I’ve ever written.

And I mean everything!

Like 189 versions of a query letter.

And just like pee wee packets of ketchup...

Stuffed on refrigerator shelves...

That after so many months are unusable...

My edited ‘versions’ of ‘anything’...

Are now unusable too.

Thankfully I don’t have to strain my back...

Or have men in a truck take my ‘versions’ to the dumpster...

And no one's is going,"Eeeuuu! Yuck! Disgusting!!!"

 I just hit the ‘trash’ icon with one finger and voila la! Gone!

So? What about you?

Do you hoard ‘versions’ of things in your computer?

Or, what other things do you hoard?

Oh, come on...

Everyone hoards something.

Always,

Em-Musing

P.S. I also hoard lipsticks. If I don’t like a color after buying it and trying it on at home – I don’t get rid of it; I keep it because I feel guilty that a little tube of lip color cost more than a weeks worth of Starbucks Frozen Chai Frappuccinos. But after a year in the drawer here in the humid jungle it has evolved into a stinky, fuzzy creature. 

Now it’s time to throw it away! My conscience is clear.