Whimsical Quests of a Curious Mind: Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Wordless Wednesday and Insecure Writer

This is a dual post. 1st my wordless Wednesday, followed by this month's Insecure Writers post.

The view of the sunset from the Michigan side of Lake Superior.

Sure months ago a dear friend tells me about Wordless Wednesday, knowing I love to take pictures, but failed to mention anything about a linky list. Grrr. That list can be found here.

Insecure Writers Support Group

I've heard about this but it was only recently that I decided the time had come to really check it out. Since it only posts once a month, I decided to give it a try.

I started a new project last weekend, and for the first time ever, I’m actually excited. Normally I can’t stop thinking about all the things I should be doing. But not this time. For some reason I’m relaxed about this project, and don’t mind taking time from other projects and working on it.

I’d like to believe my new attitude means I’m becoming a stronger writer and that fiction is getting easier, but I doubt it. I suspect the reason for the change is finally realizing the value of different types of writing projects. I think it’s finally sank in that taking a break from writing endless pages of web content and editing DWARFED, and working on a completely different project is good for my mental state, hopefully it will prevent me from the severe burnout I developed during the tail end of 2012.

I do wish my writing is stronger, or that I’m the kind of person who could ignore the flaws until the first draft is completed. I’m bugged by my tendency to use characters over and over again. In a single paragraph I mentioned the same character’s name five times, in a single paragraph. Ugh.

When it comes to DWARFED, I’m dealing with a lot of anxiety. More anxiety than I care to think about. I know I have a good concept, interesting characters, and the quality of writing keeps improving. When it comes to plot, I’m not so sure. I’m taking a month away from it, letting it age a little bit, and at the beginning of March I read through it again and start yet another round of edits.