Gwen Gardner's Blog, page 5

#IWSG: Things Are Getting Drafty

 

It's Insecure Writer's Support Group Day! The first Wednesday of every month we blog about our thoughts and fears on writing, and offer encouragement to those who are struggling (hint: we all struggle). If you'd like to join, go HERE. 
Many thanks to our founder and host, Alex Cavanaugh, and this month's rotation of co-hosts: J Lenni Dorner, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre, Lee Lowery, and  Rachna Chhabria!
This month's optional question is:  For how long do you shelve your first draft, before reading it and re-drafting? Is this dependent on your writing experience and the number of stories/books under your belt?

Good question. I don't have a set amount of time between first and second drafts, but I have noticed that the longer it sits, the more errors/typos/plot issues become apparent. A good month or two gives plenty of distance. It helps to put the second draft aside to stew for a while as well. For me, this doesn't change with experience. 

I actually looked this phenomenon up because inquiring minds want to know *winks*. It's called "change blindness":

The New York Times defined it as “the frequent inability of our visual system to detect alterations to something staring us straight in the face." ~BigThink.com

Anyway, it doesn't affect just writers, it affects everyone. 

See? We're not so different after all! 

How long do you shelve your first draft? 

Does your "change blindness" get better with experience? 

#IWSG: Sorry, No Post Today

 

It's Insecure Writer's Support Group day! Thanks so much for stopping by. Sorry I can't post today, but I will be back for June's post. If you want to join, we'd love to have you. 
Go HERE to sign up. 

#IWSG #WhatTheFork #WritersBlock

 

It's time for the April 2021 Insecure Writer's Support Group post! You can sign up HERE. 
Thanks to our host Alex Cavanaugh, and the awesome co-hosts for this month: PK Hrezo, Pat Garcia, SE White, Lisa Buie Collard, and  Diane Burton!
April 7 optional question - Are you a risk-taker when writing? Do you try something radically different in style/POV/etc. or add controversial topics to your work?
I'm not a risk taker. Having said that, though, I did give up my career at one point and moved to the mountains to write for 3+ years. It cost me a lot, but they were good years, and I'm not sorry. But normally I'm a very careful person, even in my writing. Which can be really boring I guess. But I add some ghosties to cause a bit of havoc and some humor, and that makes me happy. 

But to be honest, I'm struggling. I have had a first draft of my next novel for quite some time (a year?) and I know it needs a lot of work and I'm sort of just paralyzed and can't move forward. My characters are static and not moving forward either. I'm even struggling with writing the blurb for which my illustrator has been waiting for for weeks now so that she can finish the back cover. 

What the fork, man?! 
(for The Good Place fans out there LOL)

Can this be writer's block? 

Any advice is welcome. 

#IWSG Give Me Something Good To Read

 

It's the first Wednesday of March and time for another posting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group event. If you'd like to join, please go HERE. 

Thank you Alex Cavanaugh for hosting this monthly event, and thanks so much to this month's co-hosts:  Sarah - The Faux Fountain Pen Jacqui Murray, Chemist Ken, Victoria Marie Lees, Natalie Aguirre, and JQ Rose!

This month's optional question is:

Everyone has a favorite genre or genres to write. But what about your reading preferences? Do you read widely or only within the genre(s) you create stories for? What motivates your reading choice?

I was a reader long before I became a writer. To me, a reader is a reader is a reader. Give me something good to read, whatever the genre, and I'll read it. Anything from inspirational and motivational to classic literature. 

But the mystery genre is my go-to. It's what I read to relax and escape.  

There are so many sub-genres to a mystery. I write in a sub genre called cozy mystery. But to go even further, I write in the sub-sub genre called paranormal cozy mystery. My paranormal cozies include ghosts, but other paranormal cozy mysteries might include witches and other paranormal creatures such as werewolves,  vampires, or even fairies and elves, which sort of crosses over into fantasy. 

Though I write cozies, as a reader, in recent years my go-to mystery is a police procedural by classic authors such as Ian Rankin, or the late P.D. James. Or historical cozies by Jacqueline Winspear. I still love the classic cozies, as well, such as those by the late author M.C. Beaton. 

BUT, I'm always desperate for something inspirational and motivational, so please feel free to drop your recommendations in the comments!

Do you write in genres other than your reading preferences?

Do you read widely?

Have a go-to genre?

Have a motivational/inspirational recommendation?

#IWSG #BloggingBuddies #MayInvolveWine

It's the first Wednesday of the month and time for the Insecure Writers Support Group Hop. 

Thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for hosting this monthly event, and to this month's awesome co-hosts: Louise - Fundy Blue , Jennifer Lane, Mary Aalgaard, Patsy Collins at Womagwriter, and Nancy Gideon!

This month's optional question is: Blogging is often more than just sharing stories. It’s often the start of special friendships and relationships. Have you made any friends through the blogosphere?

I've met tons of friends through blogging. And through blogging, friendships pour over into other social media such as Facebook and Twitter. I've learned a lot about what these friends think and how they feel about things, and even share in their successes and failures, the highs and lows, birth, marriage, death, divorce and the loss of beloved pets. We've never met face to face.

Except for...

...my most special blogging-turned-real-friend, Angela Brown! She is sweet and kind, beautiful inside and out, and so, so talented! We met through the A - Z Blogging Challenge back in 2012, decided we were going to blog tour together with our new releases, and have never looked back. We've been critique partners for nine years and we have a system down that works for us. We schedule when our work is due to each other for critique, and when it's due back. Then we have our monthly Friday Night Zoom Meeting to discuss what we've written, where we're stuck, what we want to work on next, and bandy ideas around. 

We discuss everything under the sun. 

Sometimes our meetings last two hours. 

And may involve wine. 

What about you?

Have you met any lifelong blogging buddies? 

#IWSG: #HookMeFast #NoWhimperingFemales

Hello! It's the first post of the year for the Insecure Writer's Support Group and I'm co-hosting! Click on the link if you'd like to sign up!
Thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for hosting this monthly event, and thanks so much to the awesome co-hosts: Ronel Janse van Vuuren , J Lenni Dorner, Gwen Gardner Sandra Cox, and Louise - Fundy Blue!
This month's optional question: Being a writer, when you're reading someone else's work, what stops you from finishing a book/throws you out of the story/frustrates you the most about other people's books? 
I read for pleasure and entertainment, so I don't want to be bored. Hook me fast! Too much backstory, too much description, too long to get to the point of the story--and I'll put the book down. Give me unique characters and an original story--or at least a twist on an original story--and I'll stick with it. Tell me an interesting story and I'm yours forever! A bit of snark and humor is important. Make me smile or laugh. And NO whimpering or whiney females, please! Other than that, I'm easy to please.  How about you?
What causes you to put a book down?  What are your "must-haves" in a book or story? 

IWSG: Writing Encroachment and Staycation

It is the last post of the year for the Insecure Writers Support Group! 
If you'd like to join, or find out more about this group, GO HERE. 
Thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for hosting this monthly event. The awesome co-hosts for this posting of the IWSG are Pat Garcia, Sylvia Ney, Liesbet @ Roaming About Cathrina Constantine, and Natalie Aguirre!
This month's optional question: Are there months or times of the year that you are more productive with your writing than other months, and why?
Winter is best for me.  I work in swimming pool construction so summer is our busiest season. Long work hours makes writing tough. But I've carved out the hours between 6:00 - 7:00, before I start the day job, to write.  But there is encroachment going on!  *sigh*
On the weekends, I write from wake-up until 11:00 or 12:00--after that, it's nap time! Also, I'm worthless at night. I wish I could sit down and crank the words out, but at the end of the day my creativity and ability to think straight have both flown straight out the window. 
P.S. 
I just had a 3-week staycation in San Diego because I am a diehard social distancer. We've got the beaches and mountains--went to both. Watched hang gliders and surfers, searched the tidepools at low tide, found some cool shells, anemones and sand crabs. Picnicked in the mountains. Ate strawberry-rhubarb pie. Drank some wine and Irish Coffees. There are worse places I guess!
Did some writing, too, and got to add words to my word-count widgets up there in the sidebar--I love to see the colored bars move up! I'm a simple gal, LOL. 
Stay Safe Everyone! What are your best months and times?
Care to share any secrets for getting  more words on the page? 
Anyone else doing staycations and  what did you do to make it fun?

IWSG: Writing is a Dog's Life

 
I'm on vacation this month so no post and comments have been disabled. 
But in the spirit of this month's optional question, I'll leave you with this: 
“Writing is a dog’s life, but the only life worth living.”  ~Flaubert
#TuffyGardner#DogsLife
***
It's Insecure Writers Support Group Day! We post on the first Wednesday of every month. If you'd like to join, go HERE.
The awesome co-hosts for the November 4 posting of the IWSG are Jemi Fraser, Kim Lajevardi, L.G Keltner, Tyrean Martinson, and Rachna Chhabria!

#IWSG: Working Writer and Plodder: Nap Required

 

It's Insecure Writer's Support Group Day! 

Thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for hosting this event every month, as well as this month's awesome co-hosts, Jemima Pett, Beth Camp, Beverly Stowe McClure, and Gwen Gardner (Me!). 

Here is this month's optional question - When you think of the term working writer, what does that look like to you? What do you think it is supposed to look like? Do you see yourself as a working writer or aspiring or hobbyist, and if latter two, what does that look like?
Hello, my name is Gwen  and I am a working writer. 

With Covid, I work from home and this is what my "working writer" routine looks like: 
Get up at 5:00 a.m., walk on my treadmill for half an hour. Get to my desk by 6:00 and write until 7:00 (and I use this term loosely, because this can mean outlining, editing, researching, critiquing, and sometimes--often?--I don't get a lot done because I've fallen down the rabbit hole). 
At 7:00 (and often before) I start my day job, and usually finish up by 5:00, sometimes 6:00 (with the random after-hours call or text thrown in just to stir things up). Rarely does a weekend go by that I'm not putting out some kind of fire, real or perceived. (Because swimming pool construction is that important... *eyeroll*)
I also write on weekends, but by noon, a nap is required. 
Trust me, I've never been a high energy person. But I am a plodder and I just keep going. Didn't the turtle beat the hare? Every little step is still a step forward. Perseverance is the name of the game!

What keeps me going is that I'm retiring in 1.5 years!  

I feel like that is when my writing career can really begin.

I can do this!

What does your working  writing life look like?
Are you a high energy person? Or a plodder like me?
Are you the Turtle or the Hare? 

 

#IWSG: Dickens vs Rowling

 

Another month has passed since my last posting! It's the first Wednesday of the month and so it's Insecure Writers Support Group day. If you'd like to join, go HERE. 

Thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for hosting and to this month's co-hosts: The awesome co-hosts for the September 2 posting of the IWSG are PJ Colando, J Lenni Dorner, Deniz Bevan, Kim Lajevardi, Natalie Aguirre, and Louise - Fundy Blue!

This month's optional question is: If you could choose one author, living or dead, to be your beta partner, who would it be and why?
I'm going to choose two, for different reasons: 
Living, I would choose J.K. Rowling. Her world-building skills in the Harry Potter books made me, as an adult, want to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I wanted my Hogwarts letter to come via owl inviting me to attend. I wanted a wand. I wanted all sorts of magical things. I want to world-build like Rowling. 
Dead, I would choose Charles Dickens. His grasp on social issues in the Victorian era was remarkable. Take a look at A Christmas Carol: "Marley was dead to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the undertaker, and the chief mourner...Old Marley was as dead as a doornail." And, A Tale of Two Cities--"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness..." His mastery of the opening line and his ability to get his point across through his stories is unparalleled. He knows how to use his words. I want to learn how to use my words like Charles Dickens. 
What about you?
Who would you choose as a beta  partner and why?