It’s the beginning of October and time for another round of Insecure Writer’s Support Group. This bloghop allows writers to connect virtually to share their insecurities and find other voices hiding behind keyboards around the world. If you haven’t already checked out the talent that lurks behind the badge above, click the image and go hopping.
Now on to my comments for this lovely fall month. Once again I’m not really insecure per se, although I must always admit to a certain level of underlying anxiety, but I’m actually more curious than anything else. I was discussing writing with someone recently that I didn’t know had an interest in writing, and it reminded me of other such conversations that I’ve had as a result of people finding out that I’m a novelist.
My initial question of the writer I was talking to was if she had begun with short stories. It’s an assumption I make because of where I began, but I was wrong. And if I were to be honest, I’d say again. Turns out there are as many types of writers as there are anything else. People who are drawn to the emotional jogs of a well-written poem, folks who want the satisfaction of learning that comes from writing nonfiction, personal journeys experienced through memoir, the satisfaction of a complete character/story arc found in shorts, and on and on.
All of this made me wonder. Where did the writers of IWSG begin?
Weekly News
This week my computer news files spit out some especially fun tidbits that begged sharing. I hope you enjoy. 🙂
Inventive, yes. Am I willing in the slightest? Um… no.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/30/wearable-futons_n_5909238.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news
Face palm. Some people really need… um, something more than a roll of the eyes.
And to satisfy the science part of my heart, Happy Anniversary to CERN.
http://www.livescience.com/48052-cern-anniversary-big-discoveries.html
That wraps it up for another week. Same time again next week? 😉
kimlajevardi 
I started with poetry as a teen. I wrote a couple of short stories but moved pretty quickly to a novel once I got my courage. Or maybe I was just too dumb and naive to be scared!
It sounds like you’re not alone in jumping into a novel pretty quickly. Each of us has a different path, but that’s what gives us such a wealth of voices. Thanks for commenting!
I started with a novel, then realized I had so much to learn and started writing short stories:) Awesome question, Kim:)
I started with shorts and also came to the realization that I had so much to learn. 😉 Still do . Thanks for commenting, T.F.
It amazes me the number of writers who started straight with novels. But then it also amazes me how many never bother to work in a critique group, too. Wearable futons? No thanks. That guy’s not exactly a criminal mastermind, huh? And yay CERN! 🙂
I value a critique group as well. You guys are amazing! In the beginning, I wouldn’t have known where to start with a novel, but more power to those who do it.
I began by writing a novel that took me 7 years to compete. Then I wrote articles and 27 years later wrote a short vignette. Strange that I started backwards to what it seems most writers did.
That sounds like a challenging but interesting path. Thanks for commenting. 🙂
I wrote only a few short stories as a kid, but I wrote poetry as a child and adult. I dove into writing novels as soon as I graduated from high school.
Poetry can be very cathartic, can’t it?
Dove right into a 100K novel and then rewrote it about 20 times over the first few years. Cern still amazes me and scares me a little.
Wow! That was quite ambitious.
Poetry, journalling, shorts, and moving to longer pieces. Before that it started with a pen and paper—so long ago. 🙂
Anna from Shout with Emaginette
Me too. Times have changes a lot, haven’t they?
Hmm, where did I begin? I guess it started when I was younger (much younger) writing poems and short stories. But as an adult, I immediately gravitated toward writing novels. Sweet romance and Young Adult are my favorite.
What a great question! So nice to meet you through the IWSG! 🙂
http://swordsandstilettos.blogspot.com
I moved toward novel writing as I got more serious about my writing.