Insecure Writer's Day #1

So I was browsing some blogs over December, and stumbled across something called "The Insecure Writer's Support Group." 

I cannot express how much I love this idea.

Every first Wednesday of the month, writers across the globe blog about their insecurities. It's the opportunity to announce your insecurity, and hopefully, get rid of it as you realize other writers have the same ones (or used to).

So this is my first time joining up in Insecure Writer's Day, and it's sadly too easy to come up with a big insecurity for me.


My insecurity is:

People don't like my plot.

My biggest hurdle in sharing my work is not in thinking that the writing isn't any good, or even in whether I've got a modicum of talent. No, it's a bigger issue than that. 

Bad grammar can be forgiven, and poor sentence structure can be overlooked--if the plot is absolutely amazing.

The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, neither of those series have perfect grammar or perfect sentences. They probably could have been written better, to be honest. And really, The Hunger Games doesn't have a particularly new plot, nor does Harry Potter. So why are they so great?

I think the plot resonates with many readers on many levels. Classic tales of good versus evil, of children growing up and doing the best they can to overcome the odds. Stories where, despite the differences of the characters' lives and yours, you can connect with them.

So maybe it's not that my plot isn't any good, but maybe it's that the way I'm telling the story could be done better. Maybe the characters I've chosen aren't compelling enough. Maybe there aren't enough twists and turns in the plot. Maybe my desire to give an ambiguous/literary ending angers my reader so they never come back.

I could go on and on. Really, it's endless. All because of plot. 

I could read a million books on plot, and I'd probably still struggle. Because really, the best way to learn plotting is to plot. 

So I'll head off to my work-in-progress now and begin plotting once again. In the hopes that someone will want to devour this book until the final page.

Aspirations for 2013 (WEverb#12)

It's 2013! Here's hoping that 2013 is a more peaceful, restorative, and inspiring year than 2012.

Without further ado, I'll finish up my #WEverb12 today. December got much busier than I anticipated, so I had to pick and choose which prompts to answer. Travel, holidays and other things just got in the way of my irregular blogging. 

So, Day 31's prompt:

31: aspire [GROW]
What is your biggest aspiration for 2013?

This one is superbly easy for me. Obviously, I want to write and I would love to be a published author. Therefore, my biggest aspiration would be to find myself an agent and get going on the road to publication.

Of course, every time I look at my novel-in-progress, I throw up my hands in despair and just want to walk away. Honest-to-goodness, I love it, but it's a scourge upon my existence.

How can I feel that way? Well, I've been working on this particular novel off and on since 2008.

Yikes. It's really been that long. Of course, only the past three years have I been seriously embarking on quality writing and revisions. Prior to that, it was a story that I began as an act of escapism. One of those novels which I wrote during college classes when I should have been taking notes.

Funny, but that's how I always used to write. Now that I'm out of college, I've become more serious about my writing, and this includes thinking about plot and plot holes, characters and characterization, as well as general readability and, lately, outlining. I suppose if I want to be published, someone other than myself needs to want to read what I wrote.

So, by far, my biggest, most looming, absolutely most frightening goal for 2013 is to finish my novel in progress. And I mean really finish it--so that I'm happy with it.