IWSG: 2023 Words and Visions

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs. You can also join us on twitter using the hashtag #IWSG, or on the Facebook page.

Now, IWSG hosts have changed up the format in an effort to make it more fun and interactive. Every month, they will announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. 

Don’t forget to visit others that day to see their answers. Want to join, or learn more? Visit our - Sign-up List.

JANUARY QUESTION - Do you have a word of the year? Is there one word that sums up what you need to work on or change in the coming year? 

MY ANSWER - I have three. My words for the year are JOY, PEACE, and ACCOMPLISHMENT. 2022 was full of many major life changes for me - multiple family deaths, estranged and/or difficult friend and work relationships, and a lasting sense of being overwhelmed in work, relationships, and creativity. My goals for this year are to focus more on the positives, accept what I cannot control, and to be content with what I am able to accomplish.

How about you? Do you have one or more words for the year? How about a Vision Board? If you've never made one check out this link: Vision Board

IWSG: Twitter Pitch

It's Coming!! The next #IWSGPit  will be in January 15, 2020 8:00 am - 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time Create a Twitter-length pitch for your completed and polished manuscript and leave room for genre, age, and the hashtag. On January 15, Tweet your pitch. If your pitch receives a favorite/heart from a publisher/agent check their submission guidelines and send your requested query. If your new year's resolution is to see your book published, the IWSG is here to help! Many writers have seen their books published from a Twitter pitch - it’s a quick and easy way to put your manuscript in front of publishers and agents.  For more information, check out the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh.

Will you be pitching? Good luck!

Vision Board

New Year Resolutions have long been a habit. Individuals make a list of the goals, dreams, and habits they want to include in their fresh start on life. However, this "checklist" practice may only be setting some up for failure. It implies a specific rate at which these objectives must be obtained - whether that be before the next new year, by the end of the month, or on a weekly basis. If that timeline is not reached, individuals frequently become discouraged and give up altogether.

Instead, I'd like to suggest you attempt a vision board. I will be doing these with my own children, as well as with the students I teach. 

Thanks to social media our society has increasingly become image sensitive. We scroll through and save meaningful images. If we apply this same methodology to our targets, instead of the checklist, we may be more likely to remain vigilant. 

A Vision Board is a collage of images and words representing a person's wishes or goals, intended to serve as inspiration or motivation for a compelling life. They are meant to be fun to create and can serve as an invaluable tool to motivate and inspire you towards concrete daily action in pursuit of your biggest and most important life goals.

Benefits of a Vision Board:

1) Creates an emotional connection that motivates you.
2) Makes real the dream in your mind so you begin to believe it’s possible.
3) Helps you clarify what you want out of your life because it forces you to put something down.

Possible Supplies Needed:

1). Something to attach images to such as cork or poster board, or large sheets of paper.

2). Glue, clips, or pins.

3). Markers, pens, pencils, paint.

4). Colorful or plain paper for adding personal flair.

5). Magazines/books that can be cut up.

6). Scissors

7). Calculator

Obviously, you can adapt the following to just focus on your specific goals. Your board can be a general "happy life" type scenario on which you include multiple aspirations, or you can make it all about one specific dream such as your new home, or job. Of course, if you are design efficient, you could do all of this on the computer and avoid any mess. However, there is something to be said for the tactile version of production.

Here are a few suggestions:

Step 1 - Find a picture of yourself that you like, or at least don’t mind others seeing. This will become the center of your vision board.

Step 2 - list at least 10 jobs you might like (these can be end game, or stepping stones) and the average salary for them.
Step 3 - find pictures (online or magazines) and create collage of your dream house - This means images of what the outside and individual rooms might look like for you. 

Step 4 - Go online and find out what it might cost (Zillow.com is a good source of research). Think about location, square footage, acreage, etc. Use a simple mortgage calculator to research about interest and calculate monthly payments.
Step 5 - Find pictures or images to represent your dream vacation(s). Go online and research the total cost of travel, lodging, food, attractions, and souvenirs.

Step 6 - Giving - watch this video: https://youtu.be/JDOro6Ru0b8. Then write charities that you might want to support. Find images to represent those charities or foundations. Try to pick at least three and list the possible donation plan – one lump sum versus monthly, or seasonal donations - either as a dollar amount or percentage, or ways you can help a charity without money (volunteering).

Step 7 - Find words, or images that appeal to you and your personal lifestyle, health, and hobbies. If you can’t find the words you want in a magazine, use your pens or markers to create them.

Step 8 – Take a picture of your completed board with your cell phone before you display it. This way, you will always have access to your “vision”. While you enjoy the images, think about the habits you must create to obtain your ultimate goals.

If you create one, please tag me on social media because I'd love to see it. I'm on facebook, twitter, Instagram, and pinterest.


For more on the benefits of creating a vision board, check out this post.

5 Flash Fiction Goals

As I mentioned last week, diligence is one of my New Year’s resolutions. A part of my plan for this is to finish incomplete projects. In May of 2017 I set myself a goal of writing 20 flash fiction pieces in 20 days – a spin off the famous Ray Bradbury advice of writing 52 short stories in 52 days. I didn’t quite make it – you can see my results here.

I also never returned to those projects. I actually enjoyed writing these shorts since it forced me to tighten my writing. I’ve decided to revisit my existing flash fiction pieces, as well as write some new ones. In an effort to cut back on wasting time as I return to them, I’m setting five flash fiction goals I’d like to share.

1.      800 Words - Flash fiction can be anywhere from just a few words in length to 1000, but I’m aiming for approximately 800 in mine. One of my goals is to be published in Woman’s World. They publish 800 word romances and 700 word mysteries every week.

2.      Strong Beginning – The first one to three paragraphs has to establish a sympathetic character, interesting setting, and believable conflict. After all, we have less than 1,000 words to tell an entire story!

3.      Action – What a character wants, and what they need, are not always the same thing. Something tangible must stand in the way of their goals, or what they desire, and showing the actions taken by that character are essential to motivate the reader to continue through to the end.

4.      Tension – Just as with longer works, the tension should continue to increase until the resolution. Characters should earn their ending, and the best way for this to happen is by floundering and perhaps failing at least once.

5.      Satisfying Ending – The best way to ensure this is by eliminating flowery descriptions and excess wordiness, paring down characterization to just enough of a hint for the reader, and following steps two through four until finally revealing an ending with an emotional impact upon the reader.

Do you read or write flash fiction? Do you have and other tips you’d like to share?

IWSG: Writing Schedule

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs. You can also join us on twitter using the hashtag #IWSG, or on the Facebook page.

Now, IWSG hosts have changed up the format in an effort to make it more fun and interactive.Every month, they will announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. 

Don’t forget to visit others that day to see their answers. Want to join, or learn more? Visit our - Sign-up List.

JANUARY QUESTION: What steps have you taken to put a schedule in place for your writing and publishing?

MY ANSWER: Obviously, we all have little control over when we are published (unless we choose self-publishing). However, we can control our output. My resolutions this year include diligence both in my writing, and in my personal life. I want more of my decisions to be on purpose instead of just sort of letting things happen around me. I will chase my dreams and goals this year. I hope you will too!

Happy New Year everyone, and congratulations to the IWSG anthology contest winners!