IWSG: Fear of Success

Happy IWSG Wednesday!!

For those of you who don't know- IWSG stands for Insecure Writer's Support Group.  http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/p/the-insecure-writers-support-group.html

Once a month, writers from all over shout their fears into the cyber void and hope for a little hand holding or at least a cup of tea in support.


Today I'm talking about one that I don't really have and don't really understand: fear of success. Now my educational background is psychology, so I understand it, it just isn't one of my many afflictions ;).

Fear of success often refers to a state of anxiety that can overwhelm a person just on the cusp of realizing their dreams.  They may appear to self-sabotage (or actually do it).  This can happen for a number of reasons including being found out to be a fraud, fear of loss of privacy, fear of the "other shoe dropping" (and bad things happening).

I think for me, my fear of failure is so overwhelming that the fear of success gets squished.  I will admit, the other shoe issue does pop up in my head when things go right sometimes.And I can see a loss of control if the success is defined as having a writing contract with a traditional publisher.  The author really losses control over what they write once they have a contract.  Plus, no control over when the book comes out, the title, or the cover.

But I don't know if that fear of loss of control is really a real fear for me and not sure if that counts as fear of success.  

So which are you- fear of success or fear of failure or a combo of the two?  How does it impact your writing?

Have a great IWSG Day and thanks for coming by!

The context of context

You know your characters.  Or, if you’re more of a pantster you will know your characters. They know who they are; they are the geek, or the brain, or the jock (broad strokes here folks).  But what happens when they are taken out of their normal environment?  A person may be the brain until she’s suddenly surrounded by a group from Mensa.  What affect would that have on who she is? On who she thinks she is?

We all have our sense of who we are.  This is directly related to the social group we are in and can fluctuate based on the grouping.  We might be the popular one with our nerd friends, the geeky one with our mundane friends, etc.  The same is true for our characters.

This all came to me at Comic Con last week.  I’m a geek.  A serious geek.  But I was sooooo out geeked by many folks it wasn’t even funny. But at the same time it was GREAT to be around my kind.  Folks who understand fandom, who understand all the cool geekiness that is Comic Con.  To not get “those” looks when I talk about my stuff.  It did change my sense of geeky self.

As writers, we need to do the same thing to our characters.  A story is based on what changed in our character’s life and how they took care of it, or completely re-vamped their life. We’re taking them out of their normal context, and setting them in a new one. 

So what about your characters?  How is their sense of self changed by the circumstance you put them in?

Variety is the spice of writing

It’s that time of year again- CONVENTION TIME!  Ok, yes, I know conventions and conferences happen year around, but my favorite big bad pile of insanity and creative energy is this week- aka Comic Con International, San Diego.  Also known as the giant monster convention to end all giant monster conventions.

Being an uber geek I’ll be attending Comic Con again this year (year 22 for me ;)).  Now even though the focus at this convention isn’t only about writing, it does have a growing number of writers, editors, agents, and publishers there.  Not to mention the extreme burst of creative mojo that slams into you when you first go in and surrounds you until you leave for good on Sunday.

The thing is this creative mojo doesn’t just come from all the folks in the book industry, but from the insanely huge amount of talented creative folks.  Art, collectables, film, TV, music, everything of a creative bent is there in some form.  And I just enjoy it all.

There are many recommendations for writers to go to writer’s conferences—and I totally agree.  There is a narrow focus that just helps get the writer brain moving at these. Things like RWA Nationals and dozens of smaller local writers conferences should be sought out- regardless of what you write.

Good writing is good writing—regardless of genre.

But I think folks should be exposed to as many different types of writing and creativity as possible.  In most cases, books are not JUST one genre.  Think about it.  I write SF/F with romantic elements- but in my books there’s almost always a mystery component (many times with a dead body or two).   By being around folks who write in other genres I’m able to steal…er borrow…their mojo.  Pick up tips that will make my writing stronger and the stories more interesting. 

Same with a huge general convention like Comic Con.  I don’t want to write screenplays, but hearing about them (or some wicked cool game designs) can influence my writing.

As writers we have to pull in as much variety as we can, to keep our work lively, interesting, and constantly moving forward.  If we just focus on our specific little niche of creativity, we’re shutting ourselves off from a ton of influences that could only make us better.

So look around—find a convention or conference to go to- then find a few more.  But make sure you have variety in your choices.

IWSG-Fear of dropping the balls

Welcome all to another episode of the Insecure Writers Support Group where writers from across the land join forces once a month to shout our fears into the abyss.

Today my fear is dropping the balls. Or losing them. Or forgetting which one went where. Now these aren’t just any type of balls, these are really plot points and red herrings from my current WIP. I call them balls because recently I’ve begun to hear circus music and feel like one of those clowns juggling a million balls and all are about to crash down.

I look at each book as a chance to learn something new—hopefully some day they will entertain the masses, but right now they entertain, and educate, me.

THE GIRL WITH THE IRON WING is something new for me. It’s an Urban Fantasy, except the world as we know it changed about the time of the Black Death. Unlike our timeline, humanity was on track to vanish from the planet completely. Until the elves saved us. And they haven’t really let the humans forget that. And some of them think saving us was a massive mistake.

This book has a bit police mystery as well as romance going on. And it’s lead to A LOT of balls up in the air for me. Now, you plotters are reading this with probably a bit of confusion—“What do you mean you can’t keep all of your twists and turns together? That’s what plots are for.”

Yeah, welcome to the joy and pain of pantsing (writing by the seat of one’s pants for folks not familiar with the term). The joy of panting is that you don’t know what’s coming around the corner. As Ray Bradbury would say let the characters go, and follow their footsteps. Sadly, that’s also the pain of pantsing…I don’t know a lot of what’s coming around the corner. Which makes it hard to make sure all my points, traps, twists, and dead-ends end up staying in the story. Aka, keeping all the balls in the air.

I’m fighting the good fight- at 100 pages I’ve started a spread sheet for them. But I’m still totally dreading the moment that a reader may say, “But what happened too…?”

Hmmm- that circus music in my head seems to be getting louder.

What about you? Ever afraid the balls will drop?

Happy IWSG Day!!

Channeling your inner character

Some folks say our characters come from within us. That every person we write has at least a tiny part of us in them.

I’m not sure about that, but since it’s damn near impossible to pry open an author’s head and see exactly all of the thought processes, influences, memories that go into making a character—I’ll let that ride.

But now I’m facing the flip side of that. Using my own characters to help myself get through some rough spots.

Our house was recently robbed—again. This is twice in one year. Both times it was a quick hit, they grabbed small electronics and fled. Both times they took advantage of a small window of time where no one was home in the middle of the day.

This time they even walked out the front door.

I was freaked.

Ok, not as much as the first time (once the initial fear, panic, anger settled down), but still freaked. But the first time I had serious anxiety issues for a few months. As in “don’t wanna leave the house” issues.

The night after the break in, I had a long talk with myself. I realized I could let the bastard (s) who did this make my life even more miserable for a few months—or I could mentally fight back.

As I was thinking about this, I thought of my characters. I write space opera, steampunk, assorted fantasy types, even geek romance—but all of my heroines are tough. Not all the same, probably the most dangerous one I’ve created so far (unbeknown to her even) is very unassuming.

But they are all resilient.

They get screwed up…a lot. But they bounce back. They don’t let things stop them (ok, eventually in some cases ;)).

So, thinking of these figments of my imagination, I started making myself more resilient. I looked at what my options were to fix the problem (alarm and outside cameras) but also looked inside to move past it.

This just happened a few days ago, but I’m doing ok. I still want to bash the thieves heads in with a baseball bat (I do have some rather violent heroines) but I’m going to be ok. Living in fear is pointless.

My characters, which may or may not be made up of parts of who I am (or as I think, who I want to be ;)) helped me regain my sense of self.

What about you? Your characters ever reach out from beyond the page and help you?

Damning the muse

Ok, before muse loving folks get your panties in a bunch about my title- hear me out. It’s not really the muses’ fault that they cause so much trouble for writers.

It’s the writers’ fault.

Yup—we have met the enemy and it is us.

Many writers (and other creative type folks) wait for the muse to speak to them, to tell them what they should create. No muse, no creation.

Sorry, I think that’s a bunch of horse pucky.

I should retract that statement a bit. If you are writing JUST for your own enjoyment, and never, never, NEVER, want anyone else beyond your family to read it- by all means sit around and wait for the muse to strike.

But if you even have the slightest feeling that you’d like to be published and read by total strangers—you have to kick that muse in the behind and get her/him to respond to your needs. Excuses such as: “I’m just not inspired today.” Or “My muse just won’t settle down.” Or even better, “My muse got so drunk, she/he can’t see straight and is now in lock up in some tiny foreign country.” Ain’t going to work if you want others, and yourself, to think of you and your work in a professional manner. If you don’t think of yourself as a professional (we’re not taking pay folks- mindset) then how can anyone else?

If I were to tell my boss at my 40 hour a week day job that I really just wasn’t up to working, because my muse was off playing beer bong, how do you think that would go over? I work, I get paid, I’m a professional at that job.

Now, I know some folks start crying, “But creativity is different! I have to follow my muse to create things!” Again we are back at the farm viewing the results of a stall cleaning adventure.

Lack of inspiration, a dead muse, writer’s block, all are excuses to get out of something that is hard—aka writing.

I don’t think it’s a news flash to most of you that writing is a world class PITA (Pain In The Ass). It’s hard work. It’s working when we don’t want to. It’s sticking to a deadline or goal even when no one else but us cares.

We, as serious writers, need to find ways to bring our muse to us. To show up every dang day and write something. Work on something. Touch our writing to remind ourselves that that part of us exists. If you need things to get yourself to write- great. Some writers use the same music for a project. Some use the same scents. Whatever you need to get your muse to come play (if you are a muse driven person) do it. BUT if that muse is still off drunk in TJ, you need to go on without them. YOU are the writer.


Damn the muses, and full steam ahead!

Guest Blogger: Dawn Marie Hamilton

Today I'm welcoming a guest blogger- Dawn Marie Hamilton- Welcome! 

Dawn Marie Hamilton dares you to dream. She is a 2013 RWA® Golden Heart® Finalist who pens Scottish-inspired fantasy and paranormal romance. When not writing, she’s cooking, gardening, or paddling the local creeks with her husband. Today she’s talking about faeries and brownies—mostly a mischievous brownie.

Blog: http://dawnmariehamilton.blogspot.com/

Website: http://dawnmariehamilton.com/

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dawnm_hamilton





Faeries and Brownies and ‘Just Beyond the Garden Gate’



I believe in faeries and brownies and other fae creatures. My Highland Gardens novels are rife with such beings. Brownie is the term used by Lowland Scots. To those who speak the Scottish Gaelic, they are known as brùnaidh.



Brownies are less gregarious than faeries and tend to be loyal to one household or clan.



In ‘Just Beyond the Garden Gate’, Munn, the MacLachlan clan brownie, is sworn to thwart the matchmaking of Caitrina, a banished faerie princess.



Contradictory information is bantered about regarding the physical characteristics of brownies. Some say they look similar to elves, often described as old, shaggy, and short of stature. At other times, they are described as tall, handsome, and well-proportioned, like the elves in ‘Lord of the Rings’.



My brownies are of the short, shaggy, and gnarled kind.



Excerpt from ‘Just Beyond the Garden Gate’: 



Ignoring his cousin, Patrick took the narrow stairs two at a time, uncaring that his shoulders banged against stone as he went. He burst into the hall and stilled.



The Brùnaidh, whose duty it was to watch over Clan MacLachlan, sat on a stool near the fire, reciting rhymes for Elspeth. He waved his arms as he spoke. Dressed for foolery, the brownie wore baggy brown leather trews and a knee length leine of fine woolen cloth secured at the waist by a thick leather belt adorned with bronze. Around his shoulders, he wore a green brat held in place by a bronze brooch with a large clear crystal in the center. He tapped his feet in rhythm to the cadence of his voice. On those wee feet, he wore green boots with toes that pointed upward.



"Munn," Patrick bellowed.



The little man twisted around, his whisker-covered face scrunched up more than usual. Panic flashed in blue-green eyes, and he jumped to his full three-foot height. His bent nose twitched and he grabbed hold of the funny-looking pointed green cap he always wore.



Anticipating the brownie's attempt to escape, Patrick grabbed hold of him. "Not so fast, wee imp. What mischief have you been about this night?"



"Nae." Munn's whole body shook. "Not I."



"Then what caused a strange lass to appear to me in the Fir-wood and to vanish as quick?"



The brownie's eyes grew big and round, his surprise obvious. Patrick had the sense to put him down and step back. Just in time. In a blink, the little man disappeared.

Just Beyond the Garden Gate, a Highland Gardens Novel 

Blurb:



Determined to regain her royal status, a banished faerie princess accepts a challenge from the High-Queen of the Fae to unite an unlikely couple while the clan brownie attempts to thwart her.



Passion ignites when a faerie-shove propels burned-out business consultant Laurie Bernard through the garden gate, back through time, and into the embrace of Patrick MacLachlan. The arrogant clan chief doesn’t know what to make of the lass in his arms, especially when he recognizes the brooch she wears as the one his stepmother wore when she and his father disappeared.



With the fae interfering at every opportunity, the couple must learn to trust one another while they battle an enemy clan, expose a traitor within their midst and discover the true fate of the missing parents. Can they learn the most important truth—love transcends time?



Kindle Edition buy link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CVXMS04



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Giveaway:



Do you believe in faeries?

One commenter answering the above question will receive a PDF copy of ‘Just Beyond the Garden Gate’. Include email address with comment for consideration.

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Tags: Dawn Marie Hamilton, Just Beyond the Garden Gate, Highland Gardens, Scottish Highlands, Scottish historical romance, time travel, faeries, brownies, Brùnaidh