Happy Insecure Writer’s Support Day, Everyone! I completely forgot about last month’s post. I blame all the March action. The trip to Costa Rica was a whirlwind, wonderful adventure with my daughter, then there were school projects and events, and well, April came and went. April also brought new additions to the Town’s End.
Meet Oso Inu. We adopted him from the Human Society April 26th, a two-month-old mixed-breed squirming bundle of chewing energy. Oso was the name the Humane Society gave him, which in Japanese is a greeting like “Hey!” or “Yo!” (In Korean, my mother-in-law says, it means “come here.”) And he got the name Inu, because I name all my dogs Inu (which means Dog in Japanese). Therefore Oso Inu translates to “Hey Dog!” which suits him. He’s small enough still that he can’t reach the guinea pigs, and young enough to learn they aren’t chew toys. He’s rated as a medium dog, so somewhere up to 44lbs, they’re estimating. And he’ll have my husband for company during the day.
But what does that have to be with being an insecure writer? Well, it begs the question, will I be able to focus with all this cuteness? (Actually, he sleeps a lot still, so he’s perfectly fine with crashing on the bed next to me while I type.) In truth, focus isn’t the issue. I’m changing my plan, and that has me worried.
At the beginning of the year, I reassessed all the scenes and events of book 1, sound-boarded off my sis-in-law, and set up a spreadsheet with the scenes that’d get me to The End. Now that I’ve written the first quarter of the book, I revisited the plan because things deviated. And looking at what I had in mind… I didn’t like it. It was too messy, too all-over-the-place, too unfocused. (I guess focus really is the issue, huh?) So I made major changes to the plan, cut and rearranged, and while I have a tightly coupled timeline now, I wonder if it’ll play out correctly because of the movements. Won’t know until I finish, though.
IWSG Question of the Month – Some common fears writers share are rejection, failure, success, and lack of talent or ability. What are your greatest fears as a writer? How do you manage them?
Honestly, the biggest fear I have as a writer is that I won’t finish my series before I die. For one, I’ve started over on book 1. For another, I don’t even know what the plot of book 5 is other than “the good guys fight and defeat the big bad in the final showdown.” And when I don’t have an idea of what I’m doing, I tend to take a while. But my grandparents both lived into their 90s, so maybe I’ve got a good 50 years to finish this.
Any new additions to your life? How do you handle major plan changes? What are your fears?
About Insecure Writer’s Support Group
You can find the sign up for the IWSG here. We owe Alex J Cavanaugh a huge thank you for thinking this blog hop up.
Cute pup!
I’ve become more of a plotter than I was in the early days, but my characters still do what they want, and I have to adjust. If you’ll allow me to give you a piece of advice from an older empty-nester POV, you’re in one of the busiest seasons of your life. Hang in there. It gets better. In a few years, you’ll suddenly have a lot more time on your hands.
Oso Inu is so adorable—and I really love the name and the meaning(s) behind it.
I hope the new changes to your story plan work out the way you want. I’ve been working on a readthrough of my fantasy WIP, and while I think I may have corrected the issues with one arc, I have another one that is definitely *not* fixed. Sigh.
The going may be slow, but may we both get these stories where we want them to be.
Glad to hear the trip was such a success! And Oso Inu is adorable! 🙂
Adorable! Now you have a legitimate “My dog ate my (fill in the blank) excuse. Good luck with that cutting and rearranging. That is quite a chore.
https://substack.com/@cleemckenzie/p-162835681
What an adorable puppy! I hope he grows up to be a great writing buddy.
I also worry about dying or becoming infirm before I finish all the things I want to write–especially since I’m in a slow writing season right now. But some progress is better than no progress.
Good luck with your series!
That’s a cute pupper. He looks a bit like my guy. I just took him to the vet today, which cost me over $700. :…( And that was just for an exam, shots and some basic tests!
I don’t remember if I knew you had guinea pigs. We (well, my wife) has guinea pigs. We started at with three but we’re down to the last one. I’m counting the days. It’s not that I hate guinea pigs per se (though they are very messy), it’s just that I’m horrifically allergic. If I pick one up I break out in hives. We also can’t go to the pet store because my daughter keeps asking for more, and my wife tells her to ask ME WHY WE CAN’T HAVE MORE.
Anyway, it’s a thing in our house.
I bet you’ll finish your books up, it just might take you a bit more time to get there than you expected. I have found that things that seem to take forever end up finishing pretty quickly once you get to a certain point. You’ll get there. Maybe not this year, though.
What a cutie. Considering how we address animals, Hey Dog sounds like a pretty great name. (Just don’t tell anyone that’s what it means 😉
What a lovely puppy.
You’re not the only writer in this group to express the fear of not finishing your stories before you die. I’ve read it in other posts. Maybe that’s what afterlife is for – finishing all our stories?
Seriously, I think we should never finish our stories before we die. We should all have more stories to tell, always. Otherwise, why continue living?
Cute puppy! Glad that your trip to Costa Rica was fun. I agree with Melissa. I’m not an empty nester, but my kids are young adults now, and it does get easier. In my busy years, I just keep my expectations low and celebrate that I made some progress, even if it’s small.
Oso Inu is a cutie!
Unless you take ten years a book, I think you will finish.
Sounds like you had a great April.
I had to chuckle because I have a similar problem. I take long lulls between writing and can’t remember what I’d written. Then I have to reread everything which kinda drains me. Loni, you are young! I’m old and I also have an age thing going on. But I have been told age shouldn’t matter if you are a writer.
Love your cute little addition!! Enjoy.
He’s so cute!
You’ll know what you are doing with book 5 once you get through the first couple books.
“Hey Dog!” I absolutely love it! Such a cutie!
You’ll get them done–and they are going to spiral out in quick succession! I know it.