IWSG April 2018

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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: Olga Godim, Chemist Ken, Renee Scattergood, and Tamara Narayan!

Question: When your writing life is a bit cloudy or filled with rain, what do you do to dig down and keep on writing?

Answer: How cloudy can it get? More than enough. Since last November, we've been working on my momma's Trans-Aortic Valve Replacement surgery. After scopes of her stomach and large intestine, dental surgery to make sure there are no pockets of decay, and tests upon tests, we have a date--April 10. 

Instead of writing, I've been filling the well that's been emptying quickly with reading, reading, and more reading. In times of stress, we sometimes have to step back and rest. Sit down and read. Search our whirring brains for peace. Thank my Lord and Savior, my family is all in to provide Momma with her choice to go for this surgery for an improvement in her quality of life. At eighty-eight, she 's due the support, love, and care we can lavish on her. Even though she has trouble accepting it. 

And that's where I am. Writing isn't on the agenda until we have all this done and Momma is on the road to recovery. 

Please keep us in your prayers.

Next Post: The Book Pusher has tons of good books for you!

IWSG: How has being a writer changed your experience as a reader?

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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!

Our Co-Sponsor's this month are:
Misha Gericke
LK Hill
Juneta Key
Joylene Buter



How has being a writer changed your experience as a reader?

Short Answer: It's changed how I read every word.

Long Answer: Truly, I look at all the word choices, the structure, the themes, the plotting, etc. But more than all of that, I have to say, the first and most important thing I read for is characterization. If the characters don't ring true, act like real people, I don't review the book. Learning how to create characters is key for writers.

Creating relatable characters is a key skill. What's your favorite tip?

Edited to add: Finally, I feel well enough to actually be back in the swing of IWSG and promoting our mutual blog hop. It's been a long winter already. Let's just say, I'm happy to be back among the community. Let's rock the words we need to write, y'all!

Might be John and I a few (a lot) of years and added pounds ago.

Source

Next Time: January's Mini Book Reviews

Happy Mother's Day!

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This is a repeat, but can't say "Thank You" enough to my darling Momma who taught me to love words. Everything else comes from that joyous sharing of story.

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Momma, me, my brother, and my sister--Lovers of Words and Reading

My Momma Had Words with Me

            I don’t know if it’s true anywhere else, but in the South, to “have words with” someone means to fuss, argue, or reprimand. My momma had another purpose for having words with me, for me, and around me. We didn’t discuss why people read or why it was important. My siblings and I just read. The power, magic, and glory of words surrounded us. No lectures were needed. No punishment was forthcoming to make us read. It was second nature to read. After all, our parents read in front of us every day. Momma focused on fiction while Daddy read the newspaper, biographies, and his professional journals.

So, it was all Momma’s fault that my father-in-law was shocked when my daddy built bookshelves that covered half the walls in our study from the floor to ten-foot ceiling. With wide eyes, he said, “No one has that many books!”

            My husband shrugged. “She does. Everyone in her family does.” He knew there would be no wasted space in our study.

            It was Momma’s fault that we take delight in words. She gave us no choice in the matter. From the time we were toddlers, we all had library cards and joined the summer reading program at the regional library branch in our home town. Every week, we checked out five books.

All the librarians knew us by name.

How do you feed a growing reading habit? Momma knew. She made sure there were books to read that challenged us. She made reading more books fun and expected. When our abilities to read outstripped our ages and we needed bigger, more complex books, Momma checked out adult books for us on her own library card. As the school librarian at my elementary school, she found harder and harder books for me to read when I had read everything at the lower levels. I clearly remember reading Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson in the fifth grade. It was my first adult novel and I’ll never forget holding the large book and being carried away into the Southwest by the words.

In time, my siblings and I found our own preferred genres. When given a list of three hundred books for college-bound students in the 1960’s, we attacked it from different angles. The fact that the complete works of Shakespeare and the great Greek historians were available in our home, made it easy to get started. My sister loves literature. My brother has a taste for biography, science, history, and true life adventure books. I read history, fiction of all types, and poetry.

            As voracious readers, we are the people who keep bookstores—large, small and online—in business. We are the people who always have up-to-date library cards. Our to-be-read lists of new books and old favorites are extensive. None of us is bored as long as there is something to read. And that isn’t likely to happen if we live a thousand years.

            It’s Momma’s fault that there is a longstanding family joke about the end of civilization. If an asteroid or other near extinction event occurred, our combined libraries would form the basis for restarting science, math, history, and literature. We could quickly raise man’s knowledge back to its former heights.

            The majesty and beauty of the words I grew up with created the desire to shape and form my own stories, to create new adventures, new people to meet, and new places to go. Momma encouraged me. She kept the poetry I wrote as an eight years old. Her simple acceptance made no obstacle insurmountable. Her faith that I could do anything I wanted allowed me to experiment and try different styles. She not only taught me to love words, but the persistence it takes to shape, order, and arrange them in coherent ways. When she gave me the love of words, she gave me the tools to accomplish what I desired to do. She gave me the ability to tell stories that soothe hurts, inspire challenges, and entertain. My mother gave me life—physically, mentally, and emotionally. She gave me dreams and encouraged me to strive to reach for them. My mother gave me words to share and the persistence to achieve the dream of being a writer. She still encourages me to write and inspires me with her own voracious reading.

            Thank you, Momma, for having words with me. I love you.

Where Do You Read?

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Knee Prop in Jamaica

Where do you read? Just asking. If I have a moment, I'm reading. What about you? Do you reserve reading for special times?
Seriously. What does it take to make you stop your endless round of to-do's and read? You might know my answer already. But if you don't, here's the straight truth. 

I read anywhere, everywhere, and all the time.

Otherwise, there would be no monthly mini book reviews, no identity as The Book Pusher, and no writing, either.

Reading Circle on the deck

A writer's first job is to read. Read widely, read critically, read in genre, read all genres. Without reading, you never discover how to tell Story on the printed page. I don't remember not knowing how to read at least the sight words my mother hand wrote on index cards and drilled me with as a four-year-old. Some would say that was torture, but I thought it was a game. A glorious game that unlocked my ability to read independently. My parents read constantly. My older sister did to. I wanted admission into the club. Little did I know that I'd catch the infectious desire to create my own stories. At eight, I began with simple poems, but then graduated to stories. In the fifth grade, I wrote, staged, and acted in a one-act play in my English class. 

Poodle Prop

Now, I've learned the craft of creating stories in a variety of form. I'm addicted to words, addicted to the creation of story in order to bring others into the worlds I see inside of my mind.

 So if you ever wonder what I'm doing--don't. I'm reading. And relishing every second of the time! 

Next Week: Pitching Report

The Garuanteed Worst Advice and Best Advice on Writing

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When I saw Charlotte Rains Dixon's prompt for January 16 in her new book, I was off to the races. Words flowed out and I saw that I needed to share my thoughts on the Worst Advice and the Best Advice I've been giving. For some reason, both centered on writing. Are you surprised? ;-)

Source

The Worst Advice I've received about writing is easy. Truly, how lame is "Write what you know"? As if research wasn't invented way back when the first scribe wrote out the first records in mud tablets with a sharpened stick? We've kept records, recorded stories, and shared them all ever since then.

And the advice wants to limit me to a finite number of things that I've been able to cram into my head through experience? Bah! I have far better things to learn yet. And, let's be honest, as long as I can learn, I can write about things I don't know--yet.

The Best Advice is easy too. It's Read, Read, Read; Write, Write, Write; Re-write, Re-write, Rewrite! All of this is one piece of advice really. That is Work With WORDS. Glorious words are the building blocks of every thought, every story, every invention, every discovery. Without words, our minds can't organize, can't create, can't fulfill its purpose.

Here's where I'll get very personal. We were created in God's image to create. And He gave us the building blocks for everything when He made us able to use words. 

So, go forth and multiply the words of the world. Read, read, read! Write, Write, Write! Re-write, Re-write, Rewrite!

Next Week: I'll post the February Tip!

Update: MOTHER'S DAY is complete! The story is ready to polish (re-write) and, hopefully, share soon.