Insecure Writers Support Group: It's A New Year & A New Beginning

It's time for the first IWSG post of this new year and I want to start off in a positive manner because I am trying to maintain mine. If you're new to the IWSG, please visit here and read all about this amazing group started by the always encouraging, Alex. J. Cavanaugh, friend and ardent supporter of writers and creative people everywhere. Plus, he's a sci fi and movie geek par excellence.

Being positive is difficult when it comes to writing, especially when we've gotten away from it because of overwhelming outside circumstances. It is hard as hell to be positive and keep the creative juices flowing then.

I admit, my friends, that I have not written a single syllable of fiction in six weeks. 6 weeks. Whew, writing it down here is like saying it out loud. I am relieved to come clean with you all. I let outside factors drag me down big time and once you go down that road, it is hard to turn around.

Now what do about that. Well, I'm starting by dedicating myself to writing some fiction every single day, whether it's a whole chapter or a few pages or even half a page. Some is better than none is my credo for now. I know there are those who will say you must do a specific page count if you want to get anywhere, but I just want to get back to it. Period. Even a paragraph is better than absolutely nothing.

I am also organizing my story ideas and projects. Thinking like an author with contracts to fulfill (I'm being positive!) helps to maintain that writing frame of mind. Cleaning my writing space is another. I have let other things creep into my authorial realm...bills, to do lists, etc. Even if you use your writing space for other paperwork, that stuff should have its own drawer so it's not visible as you try to write.

These small steps will hopefully start me on my road back to fiction writing. It's a new year and a new beginning!

And so ends my post for this first IWSG post for 2012. I wish you all good writing this year and may 2012 see our writing dreams come true.

Insecure Writers Support Group

Well today is Insecure Writers Support Group Day and I am sending out positive, productive thoughts to all my fellow writers out there. Some you of, like my good friend Vics over at Hairnets and Hopes, are doing NaNoWriMo this month. Vics, you can rock this challenge!! I have every faith in you. And the same sentiment goes out to all my writer buds doing the NaNo. Write On!!

In the spirit of the Writing Muse, I want to share some of my favorite quotes about writing. Here's hoping we all take away some inspiration today.

"A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket." ~Charles Peguy

"And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt." ~Sylvia Plath

"When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing." ~Enrique Jardiel Poncela

"Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead." ~Gene Fowler

"Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them." ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia." ~ E.L. Doctorow

2011: Goals, New Beginnings and Other Plans

Happy New Year!!! Time for me to set my goals and promise myself to become more organized, healthier, more organized, better with money, more organized...Can you tell I need to get more organized?

Aside from curbing my penchant for chaos, it's that time of year where I look over my story ideas, my writing commitments and my schedule then decide what I will be putting out over the next twelve months. This last year I released my first novel, Maxie Briscoe: Werewolf, started a blog, wrote several features and reviews and started participating in a horror blog called Dead End. And, and I finished a story I had started a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Whoo Hoo!!

This year I have a historical erotic tale I'm currently working on, a zombie tale, a sequel to Michael's Keeper and am in the planning stages of a sequel to Maxie. I also have planned an erotic sci fi trilogy. I would also like to bring you all more here at the Imaginarium with author spotlights, book reviews, discussions and a free read or three.

I am also planning to step into the realm of Twitter. Keep your fingers crossed as I am very intimidated by this social media, but the time has come. I'll let you all know what my Twitter handle is shortly.

I am very pleased to announce that I will be doing some contributing to a wicked cool film blog called The Movie 411. Dempsey Sanders is the editor and creator of this amazing site and I urge you all to visit often. He has really interesting features, reviews and just everything you've ever wanted to know about the movies.

I also want to get healthier. I am a Type 2 diabetic and would love to reach a very ripe old age so that means I will be working hard to keep my condition under much more ruthless control. Plus I've slacked off in my weight-loss. I haven't gained weight, but neither have I continued to lose so that behavior is stopping. My ultimate long-term goals are to climb up the pyramids at Tikal, hike to the summit of Mount Fuji and run a marathon. Not this year of course, but within the next five or six years so I've got to get my rear in gear and really start hitting the exercise routine.

I also want to be much better off financially speaking. Which means I have to be better at marketing myself, have a better understanding of money and have a steady source of income. This is going to be tough, but it needs to be done.

What are your goals for this year? Feel free to post them here because I am all about encouragement. I'll be your cheerleader if you'll be mine. I found a great quote and it says "If I bring forth what is inside of me, what I bring forth will save me." I know we can reach our goals Imaginarians. Here's to a successful 2011 for us all!!