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Wait, it’s September? #IWSG

Posted on September 1, 2026 by Loni Townsend

Well, I missed another month of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. *sigh* I blame editing. I’ve been deep into line-editing lately, and trying to juggle critiques with my offline life because school started again, my dog hurt his back leg, my son got sick, there’s been birthday parties and fair outings and teacher visiting. Though, all that was toward the latter half of the month and no excuse for missing the first Wednesday.

But I’m here now!

Happy Anniversary, IWSG!! Fifteens years is quite the feat!

I’ve cleaned up quite a bit in my revisions. Fixed the relationship, added more palace security, and my latest changes have been working to make a character less incompetent but still keep him true to his personality and social denseness. I’ve still got work ahead of me, and I’m not actually certain if I’ll finish all the edits this year, but I am making progress and that’s cool.

IWSG Question of the Month – Do you have a favorite character archetype you tend to gravitate toward in your writing?

I don’t know if it’s an archetype, but my characters tend to be dumber than a box of rocks. They are usually screwing up something because they didn’t think things through. I also have a leaning toward my characters being inappropriately unconcerned and cavalier about their situations. They’re fun to read, but alas, some people want characters to actually take things seriously every so often.

In honor of the IWSG’s anniversary, we were requested to post our books! Unfortunately, I’m still rewriting Thanmir War, I’ve pulled This World Bites, and Smoking Pen Press closed their doors so their anthologies aren’t available anymore. But there is still Full Dark, a benefit put together by our own Melissa Maygrove! So I am putting that out there. (And I should really update my links page…)

Do you enjoy editing? What are your favorite characters to write and read? Are you finding some good books this month?

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.

16 thoughts on “Wait, it’s September? #IWSG”

  1. yvettecarol says:
    September 2, 2026 at 1:28 AM

    Happy 15th anniversary of IWSG! Well done on working on your book 🙂

    Reply
  2. Natalie Aguirre says:
    September 2, 2026 at 5:37 AM

    It’s great that you’ve been busy editing. It sounds like you’ve had a lot of family things going on too. I hope your dog and son are feeling better.

    Reply
  3. Patricia JL says:
    September 2, 2026 at 9:31 AM

    It’s nice when you get a lot of work done on editing. Congrats on the progress!

    Reply
  4. Melissa Maygrove says:
    September 2, 2026 at 10:10 AM

    Oh, wow. I should have dropped the price on the anthology. I wish I’d thought of that. Thanks for the mention!

    I love my kids and had some fun times raising them, but I can’t lie. When school started this fall, I thought to myself, thank goodness I’m not a teacher, and I don’t have any kids who are students. I’m quite content to be in the empty-nest season of life. Now if I can just make it to retirement…

    Reply
  5. Alex J. Cavanaugh says:
    September 2, 2026 at 10:53 AM

    Dumber than a box of rocks – been a long time since I heard that expression.
    No worries on missing one month.

    Reply
  6. J.S. Pailly says:
    September 2, 2026 at 11:37 AM

    I have a soft spot for dumbo characters, too. Super smart, super competent characters are fine, but in real life, we’re all dumbos about something. Seeing characters make fools of themselves can be pretty relatable.

    Reply
  7. L. Diane Wolfe says:
    September 2, 2026 at 12:55 PM

    You had a lot going on in August. Some months it’s too much!

    Reply
  8. J.H. Moncrieff says:
    September 2, 2026 at 2:49 PM

    Wow, that sounds like a lot!

    I’m deep in a line edit too…the second in two weeks. I’ll be so glad when this book moves on to the next stages! I enjoy it if the editor doesn’t add more work because they don’t have a clue what they’re doing, which was the case last time. This round is a lot better so far.

    Hang in there. xo

    Reply
  9. Olga Godim says:
    September 2, 2026 at 4:35 PM

    Sometimes, a ‘dumb’ character is fun to read about. They often come up with most clever and unexpected solutions to their problems.

    Reply
  10. H. R. Sinclair says:
    September 2, 2026 at 5:28 PM

    I totally missed last month too. It was a blur of a month.

    Reply
  11. Anna says:
    September 2, 2026 at 8:00 PM

    I thought of them as brave and with little impulse control. hehehe

    And really, really fun.

    Reply
  12. Liz A. says:
    September 3, 2026 at 12:16 PM

    I do like editing. It’s the initial getting down of words that gives me hives. If I could just imagine the books into existence, that would be great.

    Reply
  13. Sherry Ellis says:
    September 3, 2026 at 12:44 PM

    Sorry about your dog and your son! Hope this month is better!

    Reply
  14. C.D. Gallant-King says:
    September 3, 2026 at 1:12 PM

    Life sucks when it gets crazy and stressful like that. I kept hoping that things would settle down once we hit September and the kids got back to school…

    Nope!

    Anyway, editing sucks. I wish I was more efficient and wrote cleaner first drafts, but it is not a skill I have developed.

    Reply
  15. Elizabeth Seckman says:
    September 9, 2026 at 3:33 PM

    You’ve been a very busy lady! Good luck with the editing!

    Reply
  16. Shannon Lawrence says:
    September 11, 2026 at 3:58 AM

    I do NOT enjoy editing! And I need to be doing it right now.

    Reply

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Welcome to my blog. I post here on the first Wednesday of the month. My topics include my stories and writing, life at the Town's End, creating and tinkering with graphics, things I learn and think might be helpful to others, and the occasional amateur photo. Thanks for stopping by! I hope to see you around.

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