It’s time once again for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group first Wednesday posting. Haven’t seen it? What? Oh, you’re missing out. The anxiety, the nervousness, the spectacle–hundreds of slobbering, twitching writers curled up in fetal positions around a laptop and a cup of coffee. (Always coffee 🙂 )
Don’t wait any longer. Click on the magic picture above and you will immediately be transported a world where your own petty anxieties pale.
A huge thank you to this month’s co-hosts: Megan Morgan, Chris Votey, Viola Fury, Christine Rains, Madeline Mora-Summonte, L.G. Keltner, Rachna Chhabria, and Patricia Lynne!
My insecurity this month… revisions. It’s a well-worn anxiety. One that simply refuses to stay down no matter how many times I bat it away and curl up under my blankie. So I might as well talk about it.
As I’ve mentioned over the last few months, I’m deep in revisions on my first novel. Again. That bears repeating: Again. Deep breathe. Anyways, it’s actually going well (fingers crossed, several dashes of salt over my shoulder, and a little superstitious blanketless dance to protect my skittish muse). But I’m scared at how well. I’ve rewritten several chapters, put them through a couple of critiques and then rewritten them. Now? They’re singing.
Celebrations, right?
No.
Now I’m even more nervous. What if I can’t sustain it? And the ever-present anxiety of time: What if I don’t finish before my schedule ramps back up in the fall?
Am I the only one as unnerved by success as failure?
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On to the news. If I can’t control my anxiety, at least I can get lost in stories that are so much stranger than my own.
What’s even more unnerving than the doll and ad is the fact that this pales in comparison to what you find if you search for creepy dolls for sale. What the heck?
Big oops. Reykjavik and Rhode Island are only similar alphabetically. And that’s only the first letter. 🙂
Tolkien was right! Or close. Gotta love it when science and literature come out on the same side.
http://www.livescience.com/25415-hobbit-homo-floresiensis.html
That’ll do it for the first Wednesday in April. I hope to see you in seven.
kimlajevardi 
If you did it once, you’ll do it again. There is no limit to your magic!!
Some revisions seem endless while other manuscripts are so much easier. It’s worth the time, though. My issue is if I know something is missing and don’t quite know what. Time away from the manuscript and critiques always help.
Revisions are hard.. and I’m like you. Even when it feels like it’s done and polished, I still panic about it… must be an author thing:) you should be proud of how much your achieved for sure. No doubt you’ll carry it through the rest of the manuscript.
Thanks, T.F.!
I think revisions could go on forever, if we let them. I think I got to seventeen on my first novel attempt. The goal is to just spend as much time as it takes getting it as good as you can. If your schedule gets in the way…well, it’s even better to step away for a while. After that things you might have missed may become clear. Good luck!
I believe the idea that revisions can go forever. This is round gazillion for this ms. 😩 But I agree that it has to be right. Thanks for commenting.
Some of the dolls in the pics are definitely creepy! The doomed ad campaign for Rhode Island is just sad. Actually 120k is very little for a TV ad, so they were obviously trying to cut corners. They cut a corner all the way to Iceland! On the basis of one skeleton, I’m surprised they hypothesize a whole race of small people. Perhaps that was was just a mutation, like little people are now.
I know Big 5 pubbed authors who’re positive that their first book was a fluke and they’ll never write another successful one. But they try anyway. It’s easy to get pessimistic (I am atm), but you have to power through! You can do it, Kim!!!!
You’re absolutely correct about the amount of evidence, but it’s fun to imagine hobbits. 😉
Thank you for the encouragement! I hope you move from pessimism back to optimism. We both need to keep at it. 😉
I do get unnnerved by success. Right now, a lot of people are loving the first two books in the series. Which makes for nervous edits to the third…
Congrats on the good reception of your first two books. That’s awesome! You can do the third. It’s always a roller coaster, isn’t it? It’s okay as long as we stay on the ride. 😏
Hi Kim!
I found you thanks to Alex’s latest post in the A-Z Challenge. I’m an IWSG-er too but I didn’t post for this month because of the Challenge.
Revisions are scary. And don’t feel bad about the “again” part. I have a novel I’ve rewritten four times…and it’s still not there yet. What matters is that you keep writing, keep polishing and then, one day, you’ll get to that point where you KNOW you can’t do anything else to it. You can do this!
Nice to “meet” you!
Cheers!
Jen
Jen Chandler was Here
Thanks! You’re absolutely right about the keeping at it advice. I do already know I can’t do anything else, but that’s kind of the scary part.
Nice to “meet” you as well!
First draft is always easier when compared to the other drafts. I had 8 drafts of my book before I published it, and people still found issues with it. I had to go back and re-edit for the 9th time, just to get everything right. It’s a process that leaves you feeling that it is never done. There is always more to do. The key thing to do is having the courage to say that you’ve done all you can now and put it out there.
I’m definitely way past the first draft. Tenth, maybe. I actually came back to this one when I was working on the second draft of my second book because I hired an editor to help me take it to the next level. She did her job. Now, I have to do mine.
You can do it, breathe and believe!!
Thanks! Breathing and consuming huge quantities of coffee is all that’s keeping me in this chair. 😉
You’re definitely not the only one. Keep on going. You’re doing great! Revisions drive me batty, but they are necessary. Good luck!
Thanks! I actually like the results of revisions, but not the endless rounds of them I seem to need.
I understand revisions making you anxious–there’s the terrible fear that you’ll do all this work for nothing. But I think you’re doing the right thing and I wish you the best of luck!
Thanks! You’re absolutely right about the work to reward concern.
No, because success means more pressure to succeed. Just keep believing in yourself and keep writing.
Thanks, Alex! And thanks again for the shout out in your posting.