IWSG: School's (Almost) Out Forever!

Heh... Sorry I’m late on getting this post up. Four days late. That’s...probably what part of this post will be about, LOL.

School started up for me on August 20^th. Since then I’ve been hard-pressed to find time to write or do anything that relates to social media. It’s my senior year, the year I was disillusioned into thinking was the easiest year of all, but instead I’m swamped with stuff to do. I haven’t had time to tweet, check other blogs, my own blog, work with critique partners, or even deal with my e-mail. I’ve been using this weekend to prepare posts and I’m finally getting this one up.

The thing I hate most about not being able to contact others is that I just dread to think of how neglected or ignored they must feel. After I get out of school all I really want to do is go home and have some alone-time, but then I start guilt-tripping myself because I have other people who’ve been waiting for ages and ages and ages for me to get back to them. (This includes you, Danielle and Will. ): )

On the bright side of all this, one of my friends showed me a new writing program called Scrivener. Okay, it’s not new, but it is to me. And I waaaant iiiit. There are so many buttons and typing screens and windows... *Swoons*

Lately one of my friends has been trying to get into writing. She’s always been able to come up with ideas but she’s not the best at putting them down on paper. I’ve been telling her basic things—word counts she might try to aim for, ways to help the plot progress more smoothly. It makes me feel good to watch her write down ideas and ask me what I think. Of course I’m like “It doesn’t matter what I think!” but she seems to think it does. It’s a good feeling to help others.

Honestly, that’s about all I have to say. I’m sorry I’ve been so delayed in posting lately! I wish you all good luck in your writing and reading endeavors, and for those of you in school, I wish you happy school days. (:

P.S.: You should all come check on my blog on Wednesday. I'm putting up a post I've been planning for a while, and I'm super excited about it. WRITING WORLD WEDNESDAY: THE ART OF OUTLINING. Coming soon! (;

The Insecure Writer's Support Group: High on Insecurity

This is my first IWSG...yay! *Throws confetti, hangs streamers*Hosted by the wonderful Alex Cavanaugh, go take a look at his stuff if you haven’t before!

Now for the insecurities LOL.

Wow, uh, where to begin...

On a low note, I’ve always felt really inferior when I write. I always feel like I’m not as good as I like to think I am, that I’m kidding myself when I finish something and wonder how in the world something like this could ever get an agent’s interest. That this may be just a hobby and something that’s never going to make it farther than that. I also feel like I’m not good enough to tell others what I think too—when my critique partners send me their stuff sometimes I feel like I don’t have any right to tell them what’s right or wrong with their stuff. Really, what do I know? And then I feel really self-centered for asking people to help me with things after they've already done so much.

On another hand I also just feel really inexperienced. I’ve come SUCH a long way from when I began, but I still have so many things to learn. I expect that, but it seems like the amount of things there are to learn just keeps going on and on, ranging from horrifically simple things I feel like I should’ve known to things I haven’t even heard of. I love learning more and I love being able to continuously improve my manuscript, but I feel bad for the critique partners who are teaching me these things because ... lol read paragraph one.

Uhh... Oh. Here’s a DEFINITE one... My main series, the Flame Cycle, has been in a MAJOR first-drafting slump. I’m drafting book 3/4 but I haven’t done any decent writing for it since March, I think. It’s awful, but I don’t know what to write. My characters aren’t holding my interest like they used to but only in THAT book. I can work on the first one just fine, I can be revising the second one just fine, but at the third it’s like hitting a brick wall. I hate it.

I think those are the only big things that have been bothering me lately. I’ve been having a MAJOR inferiority complex lately. I’m really hoping I get over it soon enough because senior year is going to start soon and I can’t guarantee how much time for writing I’m going to have then. ._.

With that I’ll close...if you read through this entire thing, kudos to you! Have an imaginary cookie! *Offers*

I feel like this post needs something uplifting so here have a pretty and inspirational picture.