Dan M. Klinefelter's Blog, page 2

Insecurities Exchange

Alex J. Cavanaugh, author of CassaStar started this wonderful thing called the Insecure Writers' Support Group.  The idea is that we all need someone to lean on from time to time.  Some of us are lucky enough to be surrounded by fellow writers, be it in college, a literary-related job, or just the bookworm-stuffed coffee house downtown.  For the rest of us, though, this group is pretty much all we’ve got.

My main problem, I suppose, is not so much my ability to write, but my ability to stand by it.  In other words, I think my writing’s pretty good.  Difficulties arise, though, when it comes time for me to defend my work, or worse, “sell” it.  Giving out my work is the hardest thing to do, and when my prospective beta-readers blow it off, or forget about it, or otherwise ignore it, I can’t help but feel that my writing is crap.  No one’s come out and said point blank that it sucks, and I know most people just don’t read these days, and for every “blow-off” I usually three or four positive responses.  Still, I can’t shake the negative feelings I get when faced with less-than-enthusiasm.

Ultimately, I just have to learn that words are what’s important, not the approval of others.  Obviously, writers write to read, and without readers, what’s the point of us?  More important than even reader, though, are the words themselves, and if I let my insecurities psych me into not writing in the first place, then I’ve truly lost.

Hitting the Campaign Trail

She’s at it again.  Rachel Harrie at Rach Writes the Third Annual Writer’s Platform Building Campaign.  Signup is through the end of the month.  What’s a Third Annual Writer’s Platform Building Campaign, you ask?  Remember the Crusaders?  No, not those.  More recent.  Anyway, it’s a way to increase traffic on the web by combining forces with like-minded bloggers.  It’s also a great way to discover new blogs and meet new people.  Who knows, you might even make a friend or seventeen in the process.

This comes at the perfect time for me.  I just went two months without a post.  Hopefully this will get me off my butt and prevent that from happening again.

Anyway, that’s all I have, so here’s a video of a cat doing something.