D: Dejection

Blogging from A to Z: D

Insecure Writer's Support Group 7

I could write a post much longer than you would want to read about dejection but, as it's the first Wednesday in the month, let's stick to it as it pertains to writing.

One of the simplest definitions of dejection is 'lowness of spirit'. I'm not talking about depression, that's something very different. Dejection is that feeling where everything seems grey. The words that seemed absolutely fantastic yesterday now appear less interesting than a telephone directory. Or, and this is the one that's plaguing me right now, the idea you had that you thought was so brilliant and innovative just seems ridiculous and implausible.

I've learned that when I feel like this I'm not a good judge of whether something is working or not. If you feel dejected, often everything seems wrong and it's hard to tell the good from the bad. The one thing that works for me is editing. If I focus on looking for grammar and punctuation mistakes, I can tell myself that the quality of the words aren't important right now, they're not my focus. When the mood passes, as it always does, I can more accurately judge what I've written.

How do you deal with dejection?

Insecure Writer's Support Group 6 - Rachel Morgan

Remember I told you that Rachel Morgan was visiting today? Well, as her visit co-incides with our monthly meeting of the IWSG, she very kindly agreed to talk about how her dream has changed. Hopefully, her words will be an inspiration for those of us who still have no clue what path we'll be taking :-)








Follow Your Dream -- Even If It Changes 

Two years ago I knew exactly what my writing dream was: get published by a major publishing house. Two years ago, when anyone asked me if I’d considered self-publishing, I politely said something along the lines of, “Uh, you know, that’s not really the way I want to go,” while inside I was thinking, Hell, no! I want to be a REAL writer! (Apparently, in my mind, you could only be a real writer if some big publisher said you could be. I didn’t actually know at that point that there were books I’d read and loved, like Eragon and The Shack, that were initially self-published.)

So what does this mean, two years down the line, now that I’m embarking on a self-published writing career? Does it mean I “failed”? Does it mean I gave up on my big dream?

No. It means my dream changed.

Seriously. I’m not just saying this! Yes, I may still query publishers in the future for as-yet-unwritten novels. Will I be excited if one gets accepted? Yes! Will I be excited if I can walk into a bookstore and see my own hardcover sitting on a shelf? Yes! But you know what else I’m super-duper excited about? Self-publishing the Creepy Hollow series. I am LOVING every step of this journey! (Okay, not the part where I had to apply for a US Tax ID number to blah blah blah boring story that has no end yet . . .) I love designing the covers, I love the formatting (yes, the formatting!) and interior design of ebooks, I loved organizing this blog tour, and researching marketing methods. Heck, even receiving an email attachment with a list of ISBN numbers was downright thrilling. You should have seen me: “I have ISBN numbers that belong to MEEE!!”

So what’s my bottom line here? Sometimes a dream grows and changes and transforms into something you never thought you’d be striving for. And that’s okay, because it doesn’t mean you failed your old dream. It just means you have new stars to reach for.

~  ~  ~

Rachel Morgan is the author of Guardian, the first novelette in the Creepy Hollow series. She was born in South Africa and spent a large portion of her childhood living in a fantasy land of her own making. These days, in between teaching mathematics to high school children, she writes fiction for young adults.

Buy Guardian from

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Smashwords

The Creepy Hollow Series

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Book Trailer

Author Info

Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Google+

Insecure Writer's Support Group 5

It's the first Wednesday in the month, which means it's time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group to come to order. So, what insecurities are plaguing me this month?

I think I might have made a mistake and over-estimated how good I actually am at this writing thing. Not the writing itself, I'm not amazing at it, but I can write stories that (usually) make sense, that have a beginning, a middle and an end. It's what comes afterwards that I'm having the problems with, the editing.

I know lots of people have difficulties with this, they read and they learn and they work through it. I've read, I'm learning, I'm taking advice and I still can't get it right. I had some brilliant feedback from someone about the story I'm working on but, no matter how I try, I can't seem to make the changes in a way that makes sense. I'm now at the point where I dread opening up the damn document. I just want to start the first draft of something new and forget this one exists. But I've done that, four times. I promised myself that 2012 would be the year I finally got something 'finished'.

I'm actually not as bothered by this as I was a few weeks ago. I'm beginning to resign myself to the fact that I might never finish something. Is it the end of the world if I just write story after story, first drafts, all of them? I never expected to make any money from my writing, so perhaps this is where it ends, a whole bunch of ideas sitting on my computer. I'll still be writing.

Insecure Writer's Support Group 4

 I can't believe that this month's meeting of The Insecure Writer's Group is here already. You know you're getting old when time flies, whether you're having fun or not! If I haven't read your post yet, I'll catch up with you this week.

For Christmas, as part of a lovely blogfest, (a sort of creative 'Secret Santa'), I wrote a story for someone. I tailored this story specifically to her and her blog. Most people taking part in the SantaFest didn't know who their gifts were from. My recipient did, as she was the organiser, delivering all the gifts, so there was no way for her not to know who had sent hers to her. I didn't have a problem with that. Although the story was a simple little thing, I was pleased with it, and it was a nice way of thanking her for her friendship.

A few days later my friend posted the story on her blog. I was really flattered, as I'm pretty sure that meant she liked it. She didn't say who had written it, but offered me a chance to 'out' myself in the comments. I couldn't do it. Nobody said anything mean about the story, the comments were good ones, but I just couldn't bring myself to admit that I was the writer. I thought after I had sent my first draft to another blogger before Christmas for a critique, that I was over this. It seems, however, that I have progressed only as far as letting one person see my work. I know every little helps, but I really need to get over this ridiculous fear of letting people see what I write, or I'm never going to get anywhere.

Did any of you have this problem in the beginning? What's the best way to get over it? I don't know what the problem is, it isn't even that I'm worried about criticism. The environment I'm in right now, us, is such that I know any criticism would be useful and kindly worded. Any advice would be gratefully received!

Insecure Writer's Support Group 3

It's time for this month's post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Thanks, as ever, to Alex Cavanaugh for putting this together. Here are the participants if you'd like to read more.

So, what am I thinking about this month? If you read my last post, you already know my feelings about editing. This is kind of an extension of that.

I'm not sure I actually have a full length novel in me.

Before I started my first novel, I assumed I would write long and have to delete thousands of words. At school, my stories were always longer than everyone else's. At uni, my essays were double the length they needed to be. I used to cut and paste them. I mean, literally. I would cut paragraphs up, move them around and stick them onto paper. My dissertation, which had a 16k limit, started life at 40k words. So I resigned myself to having to kill a lot of darlings.

I wish. I've written four stories, (I can't bring myself to call them novels), ranging from 36,000 to 55,000 words. I know there is stuff that needs to be added, but there's stuff that needs to be removed too. I think my problem is that, whilst I have good ideas for main plots, I don't have sub-plots. I tell myself to concentrate on the stories and not to worry about the length, but if I do that then I feel like I'm giving up on publication. Which isn't so bad, publication still seems like pie in the sky to me right now anyway, but then I feel like a fraud, being here with all of you, having this blog.

Perhaps these are just not the right stories, but I love them. In the right hands, I think they could be really good. If only they were longer.

Insecure Writer's Support Group 2

Remember last month when I wrote this post for Alex J. Cavanaugh's Insecure Writer's Group?

Well guys, things are kind of tough right now in a lot of ways. Ways that are having a knock -on effect on my writing. As in, I'm pretty sure I've taken a great idea and turned it into a boring story, and I don't quite know what to do about it.

So I'm asking you all for this:

In return, I promise you this:

Sorry it's not in my own words, but other people can say it better than me today.

Insecure Writer's Support Group 1

I know I just posted yesterday, but today is the first meeting of The Insecure Writers Support Group, brainchild of the rather awesome Alex J. Cavanaugh. Click on the link for more details, but it is what it says, a bunch of us insecure writers getting together to share those insecurities and give support to each other. If you'd like to read some of the other posts, click on the badge on the right and it will take you to the page where the other members are listed.

I'm probably the most insecure writer I know, just like many of you are probably the most insecure writers that you know. Most of us are, right?

Today though, I'm not going to write about my insecurities, I'm going to talk about this brilliant means of support. It's the one thing that's kept me going when nothing else has worked, not even chocolate.

Have you guessed what it is yet? Yep, it's you. Yes, you there, and you, and you, even you at the back, trying not to be noticed.

It might sound corny but this whole community is one big blanket of support. I'm not just talking about the people who read my blog, but also the ones who have no idea who I am, but still post stuff that resonates with me, that makes me feel like I'm not alone, others have felt like this; and that maybe it's not automatic that I'll be a big fat failure.

Of course, the people who read this blog are extra awesome. There's the published author that still leaves funny little messages that makes me think she likes what I wrote, there's the man who - unknowingly - gave me a lift right when I needed it and then, through emails, became someone I consider to be a friend. There's the woman who's now at the querying stage that seems to see something in me that I don't see in myself. There's the guy that made me rethink something I'd previously taken for granted and actually got me to start using my brain again. I could fill pages with what you guys have done for me, and how you've kept me going, even when you've never known it.

I now 'talk' to people that I once wouldn't have dared to approach, and we talk as equals. I'm not afraid to ask for advice and support when I need it.

If there's someone you admire, even if they don't know you yet, drop them a line and tell them. I don't care who they are, I bet they'll be thrilled. If you read a blog and someone seems a bit down and you've got a few minutes to spare, drop them an email, let them know you care. Someone did that for me once, I promise, it made a difference.

It's tough out there, thank God we've got each other.

If you missed yesterday's post, I'd appreciate your opinion of my flash fiction piece. Thanks.