IWSG: November and Links!

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Insecure Writers Support Group

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! Co-Hosts: Tonja Drecker, Diane Burton,  MJ Fifield, and Rebecca Douglass!

To NaNo, or not to NaNo? That is the question.

I'll not make the Bard roll any longer, but the question still stands. Tons of writers will join in the writing orgy that is November and the National Novel Writing Month. I'll be cheering them on, but I'll only be participating from the side. See, I know myself. To get obsessed with numbers of words drafted is a sure want to shut my production down. I've leaned to participate unofficially. I'm actually in the midst of a drafting stage, so I'll be putting down words. Only, I will not total them up. The words will still be drafted, but I will never know how many were added. That way, I can join the push without losing my way into the counting of words at the expense of writing them. Back in 2010, I wrote 22,000 new words using this method. (I see your question...how do I know how many there were that year? As a member of a group who posted our raw words to threads, the counting was done for me. See, no counting on my part. ;-) 

Let the word flood begin! And good luck of all of us toiling with story stuff this month. 

Links!

• First up, a bit on editing--what to find and replace: "Words and Phrases to Cut from Your Writing Right Now: The Definitive Test"
• We all hope we need this info: "So You Received an OFFER OF REPRESENTATION"
• We all need this one: "Setting Self Doubt On Fire"
• And if you're thinking about a small publisher, read this one: "What to Look for in a Small Publisher"
• "How to Vary Your Sentence Structure" is another good one.
• Dear Diary has a great post about why "Some People Will Hate Your Book and That's Okay"
• When everything goes splat, try this from Oprah and find your "Next Right Move"

Next Post: Why a great big list of Mini Book Reviews, of course! What did you expect?