The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. It’s an opportunity to talk about doubts and fears you have conquered. To discuss your struggles and triumphs and to offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling.
December 1 question – In your writing, what stresses you the most? What delights you?
The only thing about writing which causes me stress is when I have a deadline and am not feeling the inspiration. Fortunately it happens rarely. Editing can be stressful, especially as I’m rarely able to do it in multiple continuous sessions, so cannot avoid worrying about consistency while I struggle to keep my head in the story.
The aspects of writing which delight me are many – building a new character, getting an idea to move the story along, doing background research which can provide a spark of inspiration for my story or by gaining satisfaction that I’ve found some piece of information or fact which will add to the believability of what I’m writing, feeling the words simply flow through my fingers onto the keyboard, reading it back afterwards while thinking “I can’t believe I did that!” That last part has never been less than a buzz, even if someone else doesn’t like it as much as I do, I’m just constantly staggered that an old lady who came to writing late in life can actually string stuff together, so – like I said – it’s a delight 🙂
The awesome co-hosts areare PJ Colando, Diane Burton, Louise – Fundy Blue, Natalie Aguirre, and Jacqui Murray – do take a moment to visit them.
While you’re here, can I tempt you with a #FlashFiction prompt?
Every month, we run a different #FF prompt. This month it’s time for one of our regular features when we celebrate the anniversary of Project Gutenberg being unleashed on the world today, 1st December. The aim of Project Gutenberg is to help people access books that they might not otherwise be able to get hold of. This can get a bit tricky because of copyright issues, but in some ways it becomes easier, because there are some fantastic books that are now out of copyright which would get lost forever if it weren’t for PG.
The prompt goes live on 5th December, for this month’s #FlashFiction prompt, head on over to Project Gutenberg, trying not to get distracted by the 50,000 or so books on the site! Take a look at the Recent Books section and pick one that you like the look of – the title of the book is the title/prompt of your story.
Tell us your tale – any style any genre, just nothing NSFW.
Word limit: 500-750 words
Deadline : Sunday 12th December @ 8am GMT
If you miss the deadline, you can always post your story to our #TortoiseFlashFiction page
© Debra Carey, 2021
Fiction Can Be Fun 
I have that same problem: when a deadline is coming up and I can’t find any inspiration. Being up against a deadline has a tendency to stifle inspiration, but without a little inspiration I’ll never get my writing done in time to meet my deadline. That’s the really frustrating thing.
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I’m fortunate in only have self-imposed deadlines so far, but I know that one day those deadlines will be external and I’d really not like to deal with that, hence deciding to try out Morning Pages. I plan to write a piece about it when I’ve worked by way through the book, so you’ll get to hear how it works (or not).
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I look forward to that!
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I’m with J.S.–those pesky deadlines. I don’t have a lot, but I do write for clients who have them. Usually, I’m properly inspired, but not always!
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Jacqui, I’ve pretty much trained myself to be triggered into writing mode when I sit down in my desk chair, so when I hit a dry spot inspiration-wise, I struggle. I’m going to be giving Morning Pages a go next year to see if that gets me into the daily writing practice, which I don’t currently have.
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Morning pages… Not familiar with that. I’m off to DDG it.
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From Julia Cameron’s Artists Way. I’m trying out the Artist’s Date at the moment, but plan to give Morning Pages a go in the new year in order to get into a daily writing habit.
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Hi, Debs! Thank you for reminding me about Project Gutenberg. It had slipped my mind. I’ve never written flash fiction before. I’ll have to try some in the near future ~ December is out of control in my world! Have a happy holiday season with your loved ones!
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Ah MLouise, that’s exactly how I feel about NaNo but, like it, we also do another Project Gutenberg prompt during the summer – look out for a link to it here then. Hope you find some great (free) reading material there too to enjoy over the holidays (if you get any reading time while having fun with your loved ones).
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