IWSG will be up soon…

Just a quick note here to let you know that I will be posting for IWSG soon, but the evening got away from me and I need to crash.

Insecurity and Support

Starting my rounds for the Campaign, I happened upon something interesting just in time to join in – Alex Cavanaugh is now running The Insecure Writer’s Support Group.

I wouldn’t say that I’m a terribly insecure writer, but I’m not that secure in my success either, and there’s a lot of stuff that’s been going on in my creative life the last little while to make me more uncertain of things that I’d trusted in before. More than that, though, I’ve been a big believer, for months, in the value of writers supporting other writers, and it’s really hard to get powerful support if you’re not in a space where it’s safe to let your insecurities out.

So, I guess that’s what I should be doing here. I feel like going to Kansas this summer, for all that I learned, was a big one-two punch to my self-confidence and showed everybody there that I don’t really know how to put a short story together. And then there was the Storywonk class, in which I dissected one of my favorite novella manuscripts and realized that it had too little conflict running through its veins, and a somewhat misshapen skeleton.

But I do know that none of this is a reason to stop trying, to stop engaging with my stories. I’ve resolved to go back to the short story side for September, to keep working on editing all the shorts in my portfolio that I don’t feel completely hopeless on, and to kick ass critiquing stories for other people, on critters.org, in the Kansas online alumni circle and for the Toronto convention writers triangle.

And I will always remember, if not the exact words, the sense of the message at the bottom of the congratulatory certificate that my local Hamilton ML’s, Gale and Rhonda, gave me at the National Novel Writing Month TGIO party last winter:

“We who are about to write, salute you.
We who have written, envy you.
We who will write, will support you in all your writing endeavours.”

Elizabeth Twist

E is for… (A-Z Challenge Directory)

Elizabeth has a great blog of her own, and she’s participating in the Crusade and the A-Z challenge, but this post isn’t a blogger spotlight. It’s about the Elizabeth that I know in real life – or as close to real as it gets for writers who talk about writing together.

I’m not perfectly clear on the circumstances, but I think that I first met Elizabeth late in October or early in November of 2008, at an event for the Hamilton National Novel Writing Month region. And it seems likely to me that she stepped into the room, noticed the other writers gathering, and hurried over with a big wave.

That’s the impression that I always have of Elizabeth, though I know that there’s been times when she hasn’t been able to keep up that kind of enthusiasm, but I still associate her with creative energy and optimism.

Since December of 2009 or so, we’ve continued to meet at coffee shops in Hamilton on the weekend whenever we can schedule it, to type away or scribble longhand on paper, (in her case – I can’t read my own writing on paper anymore,) chat about our recent projects, and procrastinate by discussing work, books, television, movies, or anything else we can think of. I’ve heard all about her stories involving fem-angst vampires, zombies, poisoners, and less likely suspects, and told her about my unlikely angels, space parents, wizard detectives, spellcasting princesses, and homesick aliens.

More than anything, though, I’d like to thank Elizabeth for supporting me in my creative goals through the times when it seemed like a lot of other writer friends I’d made were busy on adventures of their own. I hope that I’ve been as good a source of support for her too.

So, here’s to you, Elizabeth. It’s your day, as far as I’m concerned. And good luck with that crazy Story-a-Day thing that you’ve signed up for in May!