Insecure Writer's Support Group Post Day and Second Facebook Group!

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. I encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs.

The awesome co-hosts for the November 5 posting of the IWSG are LG Keltner, Donna Hole, Lisa Buie-Collard and SL Hennessy!

The IWSG Facebook group continues to grow, with over 1,500 members now.

And we’ve expanded with a second group on Facebook – the IWSG Critique Circle!

The aim of that group is to put writers who want to exchange critiques and find beta readers in touch with each other. And of course, there's the support and encouragement with the manuscripts. Many writers have already connected, so check it out!

We are just a month away from releasing the IWSG Guide to Publishing and Beyond. After working on organizing and editing, we can tell you right now – this book is going to rock!

Finding the Confidence to Write what You Want

Confidence is one of those key features successful authors seem to have. They exude confidence from every pore, and their writing shines out in a unique way. So how does a writer find that confidence when they’re starting out, getting knocked back, struggling to break into the industry?

Confidence through writing a lot. This can’t be sidestepped, avoided, or half done. By writing lots, you’ll discover confidence grows in the way you string words together and form a cohesive story that speaks to the reader. By writing a lot, you’ll gain the courage to write those stories begging to be let out. Often quality is far more important than quantity, but in the case of building confidence to write those special stories only you can write, then quantity is just as important. When we strive for only quality, sitting on one paragraph to rework it a billion times in the hope of perfection, we blinker ourselves. We stop our vision and narrow it into a focus that’s far too tight to see the story as a whole. Often it will cause us to delay the completion of the manuscript. This is why writing fast first drafts works. Once the manuscript is complete, with a strong story to build on, we can then polish the words. Write and keep writing.

Confidence through knowing the rules. This doesn’t mean you need to stick to the rules, but rather, know the most effective way of breaking those rules. By knowing what you can and can’t do, means you have the skill and confidence to write the best story you can.

Confidence through passion for your work. Find the passion for your story. If you are writing something you believe others will like, rather than the story that’s whispering deep inside, then you’ve compromised the integrity of what the story could be. If instead you hold onto a powerful passion for the story you want to write, then you won’t help but feel confident in it, even if the story heads in an unexpected direction. The confidence to travel that unknown route will make your story stand out.

Confidence through support. Every confident person has a great network of support behind them. Writers need this network more than most since writing—and anything creative--can be such an up and down pastime.

Confidence through sharing your work. Don’t write in complete isolation. You’ll grow in confidence when you let others read your work. The more you do this, the more you’ll realize your work isn’t all bad and those inevitable rough patches are fixable. When you step out from your safety zone and let people critique your work, you’ll learn more than you could at first imagine. Not only will you gain confidence sharing your work, but the learning experience is a huge confidence booster too.

There are many ways of gaining confidence. How do you find the confidence to write those stories only you can write?

Lynda R. Young
@LyndaRYoung

DRESSING—AND UNDRESSING—YOUR CHARACTERS by Best Selling Author, Ruth Harris

Clothes, said Mark Twain, make the man. And the woman, as any woman in her right mind knows—whether she’s shopping at Saks, at the mall or on her iPad.

As any writer knows, clothes also make (and define) the character. Think about it: Who's Mark Zuckerberg without his hoodie? Or Steve Jobs without his black turtleneck, jeans and New Balance?

Whether you’re writing about a fashionista or a stay-at-home-Mom, a tomboy, a 1920’s flapper, a surfer, an East Village artist or a Queen, modern or otherwise, the characters will be different and their clothes will be different.
An Annie Hall look projects one kind of heroine; a little black dress and sunglasses à la Audrey Hepburn another. Whether you’re writing about Madonna or Lady Gaga, Michelle Bachman or Michelle Obama, about Catherine the Great or the girl next door, their clothes are your secret weapon and a crucial part of the author’s tool kit, an essential way to bring your characters into focus for yourself—and for your readers.

By the way, speaking of writing about a Queen, did you know that Queen Elizabeth’s skirts are weighted so that no errant gust of wind can blow her skirt up? Never a photo of with the Queen’s underpinnings hanging out. ;-) Interesting tid-bit and just the kind of info that can give a scene or a character another and very intriguing dimension.

Shoes rule.
Some actors say that finding the “right” shoes for the character they’re about to play is key. Shoes on chick lit covers have edged into cliché territory. Cliché—but effective! Jennifer Weiner went even further and acknowledged the importance of footwear in a title: In Her Shoes.
The fashionista will be hobbling around in stilettos, the surfer in flip-flops, the tomboy in Nikes, the artist in Doc Martens, the Lauren Hutton type in jeans and Topsiders. They look different, they walk different, they talk different.

Diction and dialogue.
What your characters say and the way they say it helps define them: a bit of faux French for the fashionista? Chat about pediatrician recommendations for the Mom? NFL scandals and World Series stats for the tomboy? References to Renoir and Warhol for the artist? Safari tips from Lauren Hutton?

Menus matter.
Everyone loves food and reading about it. Think of all the “cupcake” covers or James Bond’s haute cuisine choices.

The fashionista will lunch at the latest, trendy bistro, Mom will eat whatever the kids don’t, the tomboy will scarf down a hot dog at the baseball game, the artist will go organic or maybe vegan. Where they go, who they meet, who they fall in love with—in essence your plot—will all derive from your characters as revealed by their wardrobes.

Twists and surprises.
Take the fashionista out of the trendy bistro, put her into vegan lunch counter and you have the beginnings of a plot. What will she think of the bearded video artist who, apparently needing to make a little money, serves her the organic sprout sandwich? What will he think of her? Intrigue? Disdain? Conflict maybe? Leading to sparks?

Then the twist: the “starving” artist working in an organic luncheonette turns out to be a good-guy Department of Health Inspector and the fashionista turns out to be the devil in (knock-off) Prada. Looks can speak honestly or looks can deceive. The twists and turns are up to the writer but clothes, well-described, can launch an engaging, twisty plot.

Tighty whities and Victoria’s Secret.
Whatever your character wears—or doesn’t wear—underneath his/her clothes counts. Come on, we’re writing fiction—romance, adventure, horror, mystery, erotica. We’ve got to get them undressed, too, don’t we?
The unexpected shock of Fruit-of-the Loom white cotton under the fashionista’s haute couture? Does Mom flaunt lacy, silky undies from Paris? A sequined thong for the tomboy? Or is super sexy Victoria’s Secret the secret our surfer is hiding? And what about the rule-breaking downtown artist? A bullet bra maybe?

If you’re writing historicals, don’t forget that corsets were abandoned in the 1920’s, that underwire bras became popular in the 1950’s and that recently a bra dating from the Middle Ages was found in Austria.

Briefs or Boxers.
Let’s not forget our heroes, either, the bad boys and the good ones. After, all, athletes aren’t called jocks for nothing!

Does the powerful executive in his custom-tailored Saville Road duds indulge in a silk g-string underneath? The electro-punk musician in tightie whities? What is that superhero wearing under his tights and cape? What, if anything, comes between that cool and clever assassin and his Calvins?

Is that honest politician (this is fiction we’re talking about, right?) wearing Spanx under his drab off-the-rack suit?

To finish where we started, I’m about to make a confession. MTwain’s entire quote reads: “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”

Much as we love, respect, and admire you, Mr. Twain, we beg to differ. After all, we’re writers and we know better!


Ruth Harris, million-copy NYTimes bestselling author
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Decades - 2014 edition revised by the author for today's reader.

THREE WOMEN. THREE DECADES. Spanning the years from the optimistic post-War 1940s to the Mad Men 1950s and rule-breaking "Make Love, Not War" 1960s, DECADES is about three generations of women who must confront the radical changes and upended expectations of the turbulent decades in which they lived.

"The songs we sang, the clothes we wore, the way we made love. Absolutely perfect!" --Publisher's Weekly