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Happy July to all
the IWSG members
making the rounds today!
It's the first Wednesday
of the month ~
the day when members of the
Insecure Writer's Support Group
share their writing struggles
and offer their encouragement
and support to other members.
To visit the IWSG website, click here.
To become a member of the IWSG, click here.
Our wonderful co-hosts who are stepping up to help IWSG founder Alex J. Cavanaugh are:
Yolanda Renee , Tyrean Martinson, Madeline Mora-Summonte,
L. K. Hill, Rachna Chhabria, and Jeffrey Scott .
I hope you have a chance to visit them and thank them for co-hosting.
I'm sure they would appreciate an encouraging comment!
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Share your struggles suggests the IWSG newsletter.
Okay.
I struggle.
I feel like a fake.
I wonder what the hell I'm doing trying to write a book.
Word by Word
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
I have to constantly beat back voices that shout:
"You're too old!""You're wasting your time!"
"Nothing will come of this!"
"What makes you think you're finally going to get it together
and complete this thing?"
"Look at all these amazing, productive writers everywhere!
What's wrong with you?"
My husband keeps asking:
"Are you having fun?
Is this really what you want to do?"
He's been retired for a a year now,
and out the door he runs almost every day,
lathered in suntan lotion and swinging his pickle ball paddle.
He's ready to play and can't fathom why I want to write.
It looks too much like work to him.
Terry Serves at Fort DeRussy
Waikiki, Oahu
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
So the IWSG Day's new, featured question came at a good time:
What's the best thing someone has ever said about your writing?
It made me stop and remember the encouraging things
people have said about my writing over the years:
Heartfelt. Passionate. A strong voice. Lucid. Vivid.
But the best thing, the one thing that keeps me going,
is what a composition professor told me:
"I think you have a book here."
I won't tell you how long ago I heard those words.
It's embarrassing.
But I grasp those words like a shield as I beat back the voices.
I am not a fake!
I know I'm a good writer.
I just haven't written a book before.
I've had a complicated and challenging life,
rich in experiences,
but I had to make choices that didn't include writing books.
Now is my time.
I can do this.
And yes, Honey, contrary to what the tears, fits of despondency,
and late nights fighting with my computer suggest,
I am having fun.
There's nothing I'd rather do.
Well, except travelsomeof the time.
Riding Down from the Top of Mount Solaro
Capri, Italy
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
Happy writing in July!