Insecure Writer's Support Group #10

October's IWSG is upon us. Sign up here.

This month has been another good one. Outside In Trusts No One is published in a week and I took part in a panel at a convention about it, albeit virtually. I also publish another batch of seven articles on Medium, but it's become readily apparent that I can't keep up a daily habit for the site, nor that my stock in trade is setting it alight.

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? 

This month's optional answer:

I am a writer and I get paid for it, but I still see myself as working toward being a working writer. I see it as being able to devote your time to writing whether it is to a single larger project or balancing a number of freelance jobs into a patchwork that pays the rent.

Insecure Writer's Support Group #9

Summer is gone and autumn is here. Here's another Insecure Writer's Support Group. You can sign up here.

This month I learned that a book about The X-Files that I contributed to is at the printers and being published some time next month.

This month's optional question:

If you could choose one author, living or dead, to be your beta partner, who would it be and why?

Phillip J. Reed, all day, every day.

Insecure Writer's Support Group #8

It's time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group again. You can sign up here. This time it's co-hosted by Susan Baury Rouchard, Nancy Gideon, Jennifer Lane, Jennifer Hawes, Chemist Ken and Chrys Fey.

This been a good month.

I started putting articles on Medium, the documentary I was working on was released, I wrote an article about Aliens comics, another about the pilot episodes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe TV series and I'm halfway through a novel pitch I'm really enjoying writing.

Time is still a pressure, but as lockdown has eased, I have been able to gain some writing time.

This month's (optional) question:
Quote: "Although I have written a short story collection, the form found me and not the other way around. Don't write short stories, novels or poems. Just write your truth and your stories will mold into the shapes they need to be."

Have you ever written a piece that became a form, or even a genre, you hadn't planned on writing in? Or do you choose a form/genre in advance?

I have set out to write a comedy sketch and written something far more serious. That sounds like I wrote something and it just wasn't funny so I tried to pass it off as tragedy instead, which isn't true, but might account for a lot of the scripts I've read.

I've tried to write first person and accidentally slipped into third. I love reading things in the first person, but writing them doesn't come naturally to me. It should be easy, but the best examples of the style use subtext in a way to tell the reader what other characters beside our protagonist are thinking and feeling without telling us what other characters beside our protagonist are thinking and feeling. It sounds so much easier than it is.

I wrote some gags for a wedding speech that I'm hoping to use somewhere else down the line.

Insecure Writer's Support Group #7

Last month, I failed to write a proper Insecure Writer's Support Group post. Well, not this month. This month I attempt to atone for that. Sign up here.

I have no more time, but I have managed to organise things better. I'm attempting to fit a week's work into a Friday and although I am ultimately not succeeding. I am getting a lot done. My new job has involved filming a documentary Carleton In Lockdown reflecting upon how Covid 19 has affected a small village in North Yorkshire. I've also entered a couple of writing competitions, been pitching some things, so fingers crossed, and writing things which haven't been announced yet, so I'm not in a position to say much.

This month's optional question:

There have been many industry changes in the last decade, so what are some changes you would like to see happen in the next decade?

I would like to see online writing receive similar pay agreements as print work. I've heard of one massive media company that has recently cut their payment by a third and blamed it on Covid-19. I would like to see writers of all genders, ethnicities and backgrounds offered the same terms and, in particular, advances. A recent twitter conversation revealed that cis white males were far more likely to get a decent advance than any other group. This is obviously discriminatory and unjustifiable.

Ten years from now my son will be eleven years old and it feels that during his short life so far the planet has taken several regressive steps. I hope that we can catch up in that time.

Insecure Writer's Support Group #6

The months are just flying by, aren't they?

I literally have no time to write a decent post today. I'm looking after a nearly sixteen month old. He's frustrated. I'm frustrated. He's just eaten the rubber off my pencil.

Insecure Writer's Support Group #5

It's time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group again. You can sign up here.

This month's co-hosts are Feather Stone, Beverly Stowe McClure, Mary Aalgaard, Kim Lajevardi and Chemist Ken. So, thank you to them.

Every month there is an (optional) question and this month it is: Do you have any rituals that you use when you need help getting into the zone?

The short answer is "No". The longer answer is "No, I haven't got time for that. I've barely got time to write, never mind time to ritualise something that is extraneous to the writing itself."

My outlook has improved slightly since last month, and I've been working on a couple of pieces and a couple of pitches, but my now fifteen-month-old son is now taking his first steps, climbing everything and getting over his immunisations. The brief chances I had to write any more than this appear to have well and truly disappeared.

Insecure Writer's Support Group #4

It's time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group again. You can sign up here.

The co-hosts this time around are Diane Burton, JH Moncrieff, Anna @ Emaginette, Karen @ Reprobate Typewriter, Erika Beebe and Lisa Buie-Collard. So, thanks to them.

Every month there is an (optional) question and this month it is: what's your favourite piece of punctuation?

I'd have do go with either the interrobang or-

April Fool!

No, of course it isn't. The question couldn't really be anything other than: "So, in this time when our world is in crisis with the covid-19 pandemic, our optional question this month is: how are things in your world?"

Crikey! What a month. OK, who ordered the global pandemic?

I'm currently in isolation as I would imagine a great many of you are. I originally isolated because my wife was in an at risk category, but we both started showing symptoms. We had headaches that just wouldn't clear, very snotty noses, no sense of smell and a dry cough, but so far no fever. It wasn't much fun.

I saw lots of people complaining of boredom, which irked me because I have a one-year-old and therefore no more free time than before. Still no time to write. While people whinged about having to watch boxsets or learn to paint, I resented them a bit. At the same time, I discovered that I was a key worker, and so while everyone else worked from home I would be expected to brave the outdoors. Before the election I was considered unskilled, now I'm key to success of our nation's efforts to beat coronavirus. Nobody tells you that you are a key worker until they want you to do something and this is not a job that pays well enough to warrant risking your life. I was worried that my 'joke job' would get my family killed.

While we waited inside, we saw people hoarding food, panic buying, fighting over toilet roll, vandalising ambulances, stealing hand sanitiser from hospitals, robbing schools, throwing away perfectly good food and wilfully ignoring the scientific advice to prevent the spread of the virus. Maybe we don't deserve to survive this.

My isolation is due to end this Friday. Wish me luck.

In the meantime...

- Don't go out if you don't have to. Work from home if you can.

- Wash your hands more often and for at least twenty seconds.

- Don't buy more of anything than you need.

- Don't be selfish. Think of others.

Insecure Writer's Support Group #3

Another month, another Insecure Writers Support Group.

This month's support group is co-hosted by Jacqui Murray, Lisa Buie-Collard, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre and Shannon Lawrence. A big thank you to them.

Since last month's post, writing really has taken a back seat. Between work and childcare and trying to get more work there hasn't been time for more than a couple of sentences here and there. The strangest thing is that whilst I haven't had time to commit anything to paper, I've been absolutely brimming with ideas.

Isn't that weird?

This month's (optional) question is: "Other than the obvious holiday traditions, have you ever included any personal or family traditions/customs in your stories?"

Not really. I once wrote a sketch about Scrooge and Marley from A Christmas Carol quibbling over the details of the ghostly night ahead.

MARLEY

Believe in me or not, it changes nothing. You will be visited by three spirits.

SCROOGE

Oh, let me get a pen.

MARLEY

It’s quite simple.

SCROOGE

Just a second. You can never find one when you need it, can you?

MARLEY

Where was I?

SCROOGE

I will be visited-

MARLEY

You will be visited by three spirits.

SCROOGE

(as he writes)

I will be visited by two more spirits.

MARLEY

Expect the first tomor- What? 

SCROOGE

Three excepting yourself leaves two, Jacob, you should know that. Arithmetic was always your strongpoint, in life.

And so on. They treat a supernatural experience with all the reverence of a contractual disagreement. They split hairs, argue and completely squander an opportunity for a reunion. I was quite pleased with it.

Insecure Writer's Support Group #2

Has it really only been a month since the last Insecure Writers Support Group? So much has happened since then that it doesn't seem possible.

This month's support group is co-hosted by Lee Lowery, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Jennifer Hawes, Cathrina Constantine, and Tyrean Martinson. Thank you to them.

Since last month's support group I've taken part in the twitter pitch, which was encouraging if not wholly successful for me. I'd be interested to hear how everyone else got on.

By far the biggest change since last month is my wife has gone back to work after her maternity leave and I am now taking care of our son three days a week. I'm still worrying about time to write, but now there is even less of it and no one else to take care of him. I have broken writing tasks down into a series of microtasks, so I can get something done in the few moments of down time. I'm writing this during one of his shrinking number of naps.

I'm thinking of writing something about being a stay-at-home Dad in what is definitely a Mum's world, but I'm not sure if anyone would want to read it. I think it could be pretty funny rather than just middle class white guy complaints. In the short space of time so far, I've been made both very welcome and very unwelcome.

This month's optional question is: has a single photo or work of art ever inspired a story? What was it and did you finish it?

The answer is neither a straight-forward yes or no, but more of a sort of. I was involved with a theatre group and someone chose a series of photos to act as stimuli for scripts for sketches. I selected these two photos:

And then wrote Four Doors Down and Dog Lady, but if I'm completely honest the photos reminded me of ideas that I'd already had rather than inspiring them in the first place.

For seventy-three weeks, Susan at Stony River used to run Microfiction Monday. Does anyone else remember it? She would post a photo the week before and invite everyone to respond to it with a 140 character story. It was a great writing exercise. Eventually I did them all and I really missed it when her site went down. I hope she's OK. Maybe the IWSG needs its own Microfiction Monday. Would Insecure Writers be interested in joining in?

Insecure Writer's Support Group Twitter Pitch 2020

I took part in the Insecure Writer's Support Group Twitter Pitch on the 15th of January 2020. The idea is that writers turn to twitter to pitch ideas and any prospective interested parties can like them and then begin a conversation about what to do next.

The only rules were you could post once per hour per manuscript and you didn't like anything unless you were an agent or publisher.

I decided to pitch two ideas:

A school discovers that they are the only people on the planet. Cut off from everything they knew, they are forced to start again. What will they do? How will they cope? Who will learn more: the pupils or the teachers?

School's in. Forever.#CO #SF #MA #YA #IWSGPit

— David Black (@Davetweetedthis) January 15, 2020

When her stage magician uncle dies, Sam inherits his props. She tries to learn his tricks but finds there's more to it. She visits where the rabbits in the hat are pulled from and meets a sawn-in-half lady.

Magic is real. The trick is making it look fake.#AD #MA #YA #IWSGPit

— David Black (@Davetweetedthis) January 15, 2020

The hashtags at the end of each pitch were to detail the genre and intended age group. I chose #CO (contemporary), #SF (sci-fi) and #AD (adventure) for the genres. I was tricky for the former pitch, since although definitely a science fiction idea, it is very much a soft science fiction. I have no intention of explaining the science behind the fiction. For the latter idea, I should probably have included #F (fantasy). That wasn't my biggest hashtag related mistake, however, I decided that the age groups I expected to be interested in these stories to be #YA (young adult) and #MA (which I completely made up). In my haste to post the first pitches before the end of an hour I intended to write #MG (middle grade), but ended up with #MA which depending on your opinion is either Middle Age or Middle Adult.

I managed to post each of them seven times before I had to surrender to the need for sleep. Damn my time zone. My pitches received three comments, 39 retweets and were liked nine times. Sadly, none of the likes were from agents or publisher, but instead other writers, a friend and in one case a Ugandan orphanage charity.

I was encouraged that people wanted to spread the word on my behalf, but disappointed that none of those people were necessarily in publishing. Either way I am determined to spend this year working on both ideas.

Insecure Writer's Support Group #1

I'm new at this. I've been meaning to join in with the Insecure Writer's Support Group for years and never gotten around to it. Well, that changes now.

It's hosted by Alex Cavanaugh, T. Powell Coltrin, Victoria Marie Lees, Stephen Tremp, Renee Scattergood, and J.H. Moncrieff. So, thanks to them.

The only thing I'm currently insecure about is time.

There is never enough of it. Since my son was born there has been so little time. You know that having children means that your life will change, but you'd be a fool to think you could predict how it would change. I knew there would be more calls on my time, but it never occurred to me that I would have almost no time. Last year, I got a job writing for a website, but when I started my son was a largely immobile babe-in-arms. As the months have progressed, he is now an inquisitive little boy who can crawl at speed, pull himself to standing and make quite complicated vocalisations, whilst armed with an increasing number of teeth. All of which is brilliant, but means watching him is a far more involved endeavour than it was nine-ish months ago and therefore there is less time for anything else. I take some pride in the fact I haven't missed a deadline, although I have come closer than usual. I feel some guilt that inevitably he is being ignored in some small way in order to make that possible. I should stress that he isn't being left unsupervised, he is always with a capable adult.

Each month, the Insecure Writer's Support Group poses an (optional) question and here is this month's: What started you on your writing journey? Was it a particular book, movie, story, or series? Was it a teacher/coach/spouse/friend/parent? Did you just "know" suddenly you wanted to write?

I've always wanted to write, initially lots of unfinished short stories as a child, followed by comedy scripts and sketches in my mid-teens and scripts for comic books in my twenties, but I've surprised myself by moving increasingly towards prose and non-fiction as well.