Before I begin… an official, zeal-filled SHOUT OUT to all
the wonderful (and I’m sure happy-that-it’s-over)
A-Zers who completed the Challenge…and then realized late last night that IWSG was today!
(It’s not my fault… Blame it on
Murphy’s Law or Cavanaugh’s Calendar :)
Speaking of Alex, I have the pleasure of helping with this
month’s IWSG alongside Lynda R. Young and Rachna Chhabria.
Personally, I look forward to catching up with the many
Bloggers who’ve generously commented on my blog these last few weeks while I
took a needed editing hiatus.
My writing Insecurity this month stems from the beautiful
ballyhoohaa that is Baseball (although if
you are, like me, a *rabid* fan of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, there is little to be happy this week,
month or year!)
Take Monday night – (please,
I don’t want it back!!)I watched and/or listened to six-and-a-half hours of ball until the Angels lost the game in the bottom of the 19th inning.
(However, I spent a couple of you-can’t-buy-this-for-money hours with my five-year-old son as we
watched innings #9-16. So, it wasn’t all bad. I take away some great family
memories that I will treasure forever... once
I stop crying like a gurl.)
Which made me think.Here I am, about to begin WIP #2 (starting July 1, I officially remove the cellophane from my seven remaining brain cells.)
Which is all well and good, but what am I going to write about?
Am I nuts for even trying?Where do I begin?
Seriously.
I have hundreds of scraps of paper running around my ideas folder, (which reminds me of a red-bricked, soot-covered ye Olde English orphanage, only I call it The Wordage.)
The Wordage is a place of security for all scraps, such as multi-colored Post-its, beverage squares, McDonalds’s napkins, small yellow pads, folded-in-half printer paper, legal size yellow pads, and even a printed copy of a Smart phone picture depicting a note scribbled on a fuzzy palm (mine, not a tree.)
All the scraps belong to several dozen ideas that float around The Wordage.
Some are older than others, and a few are hardier than the rest, but nothing stands out more than this one, cheeky little idea that keeps coming back for more.
Using a random filing system, I’ve codenamed the idea “Oliver.”
(Quite unique, I’m sure you’ll agreeJ)
·
Will
the Angels ever win again? (They lost again Tuesday, sob...)
·
Will
the Oliver idea bear fruit – or will
there be a twist?
·
Should
my ideas be even allowed to roam the streets alone?
Who knows?
It is, however, going to be so much
fun to find out.
Finally, on behalf of Linda, Rachna, Alex Cavanaugh and Art Bell, thanks for joining
us for another edition of Coast-to-Coast
AM, er, sorry, I mean Insecure
Writers Support Group (where you are
never wrong as long as you write.)
 |
| This is not Alex J. Cavanaugh |
51 comments:
Let me be the first to encourage you to give that new WIP all the room it needs to grow! I can't wait to hear more. :)
As for baseball, I don't follow it much-- and I swear that has nothing to do with the fact that I live near the city that hosts the fabulous Chicago Cubs ... How wonderful that your son is old enough to watch the game with you!
Hi Mark!
Nice to meet you! Thanks so much for stopping by my IWSG-post for May.
Wow! What a way to learn your writing craft! Working as
a journalist! Well, Ernest Hemingway did it.
I will be taking a break from my dreams of becoming an author for the next month. I'll be student-teaching ten-year-olds to read and write. I really look forward to this challenge.
Best wishes,
Anna
Congrats on the co-host gig, Mark!
Oliver conjures up images of my choir singing "Consider Yourself"...
So does your "Oliver idea" have anything to do with singing... or street urchins... or "please sir" moments...? LOL
Writer In Transit
That picture made me laugh!
All those ideas. I have idea envy.
Sounds like both of us have some decisions to make soon.
And thanks for co-hosting this month!
Oliver says, "May I please have some more?" I have many such "Olivers" in my drawer. I typed some in and titled the folder on my computer "Tid Bits." Which is the nicest word possible considering what is inside. Thanks for co-hosting and sharing your insecurity!
Yes, let your ideas roam on their own!!! Let them, let them! I'm sure that would be enough for a party. Besides if you don't let them, how will they grow up? :)
Have to admit - NOT a baseball fan, or sports fan of any kind.
But I do so relate to "what am I going to write about"??? Ever catch yourself pondering on that very question while you stare blank-eyed at the screen, and ten hours later finally rouse yourself enough to realize you've daydreamed half a manuscript about a plot somewhere in the lush islands of Hawaii...oh, wait. You already live in Hawaii!
With the skillful way you write, I have no doubt you'll conquer your insecurity. :)
Lol! Nope, there isn't a guitar in his hands.
Not to add salt in the wounds...much...But I love the A's. While you were groaning, I was cheering as Cespedes knocked a 2 run triple in the 5th. I was like Oh,Hell yah, when Seth Smith, at the bottom of the 6th cleared the bases. Parker pitched pretty good. Your guys got in a few (nail biting) good ones too.
I've been looking at many of my completed works to see which are worth working on and there is one that has been pulling on me. Certain parts are in need of rewrites.
I hear you on the need of a hiatus. It's hard to write when your mind has narrowed down it's focus to a pinpoint of must do's.
I do have this idea that has been nibbling on my creative consciousness for quite a while. I also have a folder that I have scenes defining a few of the characters. Lots of research bits,too. I need to start putting it together.
Oliver does sound Cheeky. So is this one fiction?
Happy writing!
Sia McKye OVER COFFEE
I'm certain the whole world will be saying, "Might I have more?" to Oliver.
Hey, you started the bad puns with the twist comment.
And yes, I finished A-Z and thought whew, then got a quick, "Oh crap!" but sharing insecurities is always fun, so it's all good.
Cavanaugh's Calendar, huh? lol sounds like you have a fun day with son. Awesome.
Crazy ballgame:) I like your Boston strong logo too:)
"Will the Oliver idea bear fruit – or will there be a twist?"
What a great line that is^^^ I was giggling when I read it.
I was one of those last minute writers. I didn't realize the first fell on a Wednesday until yesterday. Yikes!! Thanks for hosting. Muchly appreciated!
This was a very nice post! I liked this very much.
www.modernworld4.blogspot.com
Well, I happen to be a die-hard Red Sox fan, and while they're playing very well right now, there was this historical total collapse thing they did at the end of last season that made me very, very sad. But it got better.
And, like what Kirsten said, definitely give Oliver the room it needs to grow.
You're great for co-hosting this month! Where in Hawaii do you live? I'm from Kahuku.
I haven't watched baseball in a while, but...aren't there only 9 innings?? Was that overtime?! If so, that had to be nerve-wracking!
Beginning a WIP is always tough, and I don't know why. Maybe it's the subconscious fear that it won't go anywhere past whatever's in your head. Fight through it! July is a month of freedom. Be free! :D lol
Thanks for hosting!
I know the feeling of having lots of books and projects in the queue. You always should trust your gut if there's one book or editing project that's calling out to you more than the others at the present time.
Hello Mark! This is my first ISWG so hi! Though, I hear I missed you during the A to Z challenge, I'll have to go back and check those out.
Your closing agument- the joy of finding out first-hand- is the marrow insides the bones that we suck with all our might and it fuels us. Or at least me. Thanks for the reminder!
"where you are never wrong as long as you write"
LOL...love that!
Thanks for co-hosting, this month, and best of luck organizing those scraps :)
The Angels are doing very poorly. Not sure what's going on there.
We never know what something can be until we start letting it form. Let that bugger walk around. Love the catch phrase at the end btw.
If it's any consolation, my D-backs aren't doing so well either. Fun post. Thanks, Mark.
That's funny! I have a version of your Wordage going for every single one of my novels! I call it the scrap pile.
Thank you for visiting my IWSG post, you're a great co-host. Like you encouraged me, I'll encourage you to keep going. An idea will blossom and you'll have story before you know it.
I started like that, too, but my handwriting is so bad that when I went back to read it, I couldn't. So now, I immediately title the prospective novel/short in a word file and add little tidbits as they come to me.
Congratulations on WIP #2. I have no doubt it will be as wonderful and directed as #1 was!
Yeah, I know what it's like to have all my time sucked away by stuff I love. I discovered an addiction to So You Think You Can Dance over christmas break. Dang. Now I'll never get any work done.
Have fun co-hosting, Mark. Love 'Wordage' what a great way to describe all those scraps and notes we keep. Good luck with your new WIP too.
I am glad the A to Z challenge is over and was looking forward to a break until I remembered IWSG!
I was another of those A to Z'ers celebrating the end of the Challenge only to realize today was IWSG. Too funny!
Gotta be honest with you Mark, I detest baseball. I'd rather watch curling. Bottom of the 19th? That's not not a game, that's my idea of Hell. All that aside, best of luck on the WIP-launch (not to be confused with whiplash). Go forth and conquer!
VR Barkowski
You will get there Mark and glad to see you doing IWSG. My first foray into the A-Z Blogging challenge was a lot of work but had great returns.
I have that problem too. My ideas are in mulitple notebooks, scattered around the place. It's hard to find THE idea in all that mess, lol.
Hi from a fellow co-host!!
If Baseball had cheerleaders, I would be a fan. :-) Fun, breezy post. Greatest of luck with your WIP! Roland
You can do it! I'm about to do the same! We can take baby steps. :)
I am so so sorry about your Anaheim Angels. And, I won't even bring up how my beloved Rangers are in first place and killing it so far this year. Or so happy you now have the pleasure of watching Josh Hamilton suck it up in the most frustrating way.
But, I get you on the idea overload.
Hi from a fellow co-host. Like the idea of Cavanaugh's Calendar, it sounds super cool.
My ideas folder is creaking under all the weight. Need to work on one idea at a time. Hope you get lots of writing done, Mark.
Rachna Chhabria
Co-host IWSG
Rachna's Scriptorium
Hey from not-so-sunny Florida. I like your Oliver idea so much I traveled back in time to 1988 and named my 3rd son Oliver. Then I came back and missed by one day, so I posted Tuesday instead of Wednesday.
You're lucky your ideas are all in one notebook. That's organization. Please send me some. Organization, that is. I have too many ideas and not enough time to ever write them. So if you want help developing yours, I volunteer. I love brainstorming.
Oliver ... twist .... Ha!
Good luck with your new project! I look forward to hearing news of its progress!
I recently decided to give Scrivener a try, to use as a Wordage Notebook for all my random ideas for the third book in my MG series -- as well as notes for possible later books. It was working out really well until I got yanked off that project to do editorial revisions for Book 1.
And those changes will make revisions necessary to Book 2 (which my editor hasn't even seen yet), so I have no idea when I'll get back to Book 3. But at least I know all my ideas are safe in Scrivener!
6 hours of baseball. Yikes. I can hardly handle three.
Good luck with your new WIP. It's always fun to start something new.
Thanks for co-hosting! And have fun developing your idea. I always love the planning phase and learning about my new characters.
Well shoot...why not combine some ideas in that task basket of ideas you got!! My son is playing his first year of baseball! I'm like always yelling and cheering. Its too fun!!
Well, there is only one way to find out if that idea is going to turn into a great book...write it! Good luck and *ahem* Go Cubs! ;)
Not really, but I might after today (answer to the 'leave a comment quote' dude and dude-ette) Wow, you sound really interesting as a person, and I envy you living in HI! My aunt lives there, on Maui. Sounds like Oliver wants to see a bit of daylight so maybe you should indulge him... and on the angel front, the ONLY live baseball game I've ever been to was to see the Angles, in their home stadium!!! I didn't care if they lost or won because I was so excited to just BE there! (I won't tell you how long ago that was...)
Great strategy, Mark. And can I hire you write titles for my books. I'm so not good at it and you rock.
I feel for you as a friend, but it is difficult for a die-hard Red Sox fan to shed a tear over the Angels.
So, where do I creep in and steal those ideas of your? Umm?
I'm new here, and here as a IWSG member. Yey!
Shah X
http://shahwharton.com
As a Blue Jays fan I feel your pain. *sigh*
I bet Oliver will find its/his way! There's nothing better than starting that Shiny New Idea! Have fun!
19 inning? Good grief, Batman! The boy has taken an interest in baseball lately, but if he does want to join a team, I better bring a pad of paper just in case of a situation like that. Hope you got much editing done! :)
Mr. Mark! ALOHA! I have no doubt that something amazing will pop into those 7 brain cells, because you never disappoint. You are awesome! Try throwing a couple of those ideas from the "wordage" together and see if something fantabulous comes together! :)
Lol! I've considered simply taking all those ideas and notes and smashing it into an 'Ode to Book Que'. Think it'd make a best-seller? ;)
Its always nice spending family time together. Congratulations on your CassaStorm win!
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