IWSG: The Dinner Party Question Revamped

 HAPPY SEPTEMBER!

It's already about to be Fall, my favorite season, but it is also the first Wednesday of the month, which means it's time for another installment of the Insecure Writer's Support Group! As always, a big thank you to Alex J. Cavanaugh for all of the work he does. Visit his website to view the co-hosts for this month. You can also join us by visiting the IWSG website.

This month's optional question is: If you could choose one author, living or dead, to be your beta partner, who would it be and why?

Just one?? Eesh. Because she is still alive, and I have a small chance of meeting her one day, I won't say my favorite living author, N.K. Jemisin. I would be terrified to let her see a beta version of my work, even though I'm sure she would be really nice about it.

My official answer is my favorite author who is not living, and that is Octavia Butler. Her writing changed my life and my outlook on being a speculative fiction writer so much. She even had a similar experience with her mom about not writing "normal" fiction. I would love to pick her brain about my writing style and choices.

Though I'd still be terrified a little.

Let me hear your answers!

IWSG: I've Spent the Month Doing A Major Revision

Brought to us by Alex. J Cavanaugh and the Insecure Writer's Support Group

It is already another month. Happy Ash Wednesday to those who celebrate!

With the new month comes another Insecure Writer's Support Group blog meeting! Hello. :) This is a safe place for us writers to come together and vent our insecurities to others who are doing the same thing. Visit our Master Ninja, Alex Cavanaugh sensei, and the group's websites to join in with us!


Life update: I started a new blog that's more like a diary for my regular life. If you're interested in it, poke by to see me at Confessions of a Girlchild.

Writing update:
Way back in October when I got flooded with agent/editor likes during DVPit on Twitter, the amazing Jodi Meadows offered to look at my first few pages for me. We started talking, and I ended up being a sensitivity reader for her next book, Before She Ignites, and she also offered to look at my complete manuscript in the new year.

And boy, did she! For the first time, I received in depth, line-by-line feedback and an edit letter that laid out the plot points of where my manuscript was falling flat. If you have followed me, you know I've had a hard time getting CPs, and when I did, they didn't even stick long enough to finish reading the book for one reason or another. So with every revision, I've had to rely on myself, which was frustrating. I put my all into looking over the work of others, so when it's not reciprocated with the same dedication, I always feel like it's something I've done, or that my writing is just THAT bad that they can't even finish it. I also feel bad for being frustrated because at least 3 of the people whom I had handed my manuscript to had personal problems they had to deal with, and I don't want to judge their coping abilities based on my own (2016 was garbage), but I'm a "push through when you have responsibilities to other people" kind of person. So, it's been hard.

That said, I spent many hours looking at Jodi's notes, reading, revising, deleting, adding, just making Fractured Princess something that will hopefully make some agent finally send me an offer. I finally have pitches and queries worthy of "I want to see more," and now I hope the manuscript is also up to snuff. Wish me luck.

The question for the month:
Have you ever pulled out a really old story and reworked it? Did it work out?

Yes. I tried to revamp a story I wrote in my childhood, based on X-Men. I couldn't really develop a plot for it, and it was a lot of backstory, so I don't know if I'll pick it up again. It might get absorbed into another story idea I have. We'll see.


See you soon!