IWSG - January, 2014

In my experience, the only thing that's more difficult than writing historical fiction is writing historical fiction with multiple points of view.  I have the choice of writing anything I want, and yet this most difficult thing is what I must write.  It's my compulsion, my obsession, the thing I think about every day.  It's my white whale.

I wrote the first draft of this novel about a year ago in third person with minimal description of things related to the time period (since I hadn't finished doing the research).  I figured that would be easy enough to add in later.  Last spring I did a huge amount of research and began rewriting the story in first person.  If told in first person, this story has to be told with multiple points of view because no one is present for all parts of it.  To complicate things further, the story cannot be told from the main character's point of view because of what happens to her in the story.

This morning (it's actually Monday that I'm writing this), after getting feedback from my teen (who would make a brilliant editor some day if she didn't loathe the idea of it so much), I figured out precisely how to execute it. 

Insecurities to me means things we doubt about ourselves or our abilities.  I never thought this was something I couldn't do; I just hadn't figured out exactly how I was going to do it until this morning. Part of the job we have as writers is to experiment with different ways to tell a story until we find the one that's just right.  So instead of feeling insecure this morning, I feel incredibly excited to resume work on this very challenging novel. 

I'm very grateful for the brutally cold weather this morning (-1 with -30 wind chills) to keep me and my kids inside.  I'm declaring it a writing day punctuated with lots of fun (puzzles, animated movies, and Nerf gun wars in the living room).

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This post is part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group, founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh.  If you aren't already a member, it's never too late to sign up. 

IWSG - October 2013

When this group started a little more than two years ago, I was definitely insecure about my writing.  Insecurity was quite likely the one recurring theme in my otherwise random blog posts. 

Now I don't think of myself as being insecure about my writing - and that is because of you. 

All of the kind comments, good advice, great posts about writing challenges and successes, and general support have added up over time to make me feel secure about my writing.  I hope you feel that way too. 

To those of you that have followed me here from my other blog, thank you so much. :)

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Check out Alex J Cavanaugh's site for the list of other Insecure Writer's Support Group members.  We post on the first Wednesday of the month.  Please join us.