It's the Fourth of September, and the Insecure Writers turn Two!!

Today's a very special day - not only is it the fourth of September (which means most people's summer holidays are over and gone), but it's the two-year anniversary of Alex J Cavanaugh's wonderful invention, the

Today's posts are hosted by Alex and his faithful group of co-hosts,

Chemist Ken

SL Hennessey

Michelle Wallace

and

Joylene Nowell Butler

and the group is more than THREE HUNDRED STRONG!!! 

(imagine fireworks right about now, please)

Let me take this opportunity to say thank you. 

1. THANK YOU to Alex for coming up with this idea. 
2. THANK YOU to Alex's co-hosts for helping him implement it. 
3. THANK YOU to all the other insecure writers for baring their writerly souls once every month and showing everyone else that no, we're not alone. 
4. THANK YOU to everyone who takes the time to comment on other people's posts (mine in particular), even for those of us who don't always have time to return the favour. For me, every comment I get puts a smile on my face even on the worst of days. 
5. THANK YOU, again, to Alex, who somehow always manages to pop in on my blog and say hi. You've made lots of my days that much more fun. 

And for once I'm not going to rant about my writing problems, but just leave the post like this, and leave you with a question - is there anyone in particular you'd like to thank for supporting your writing? 

ps. on that note, THANK YOU to my Book Bunny friends, for being there to support my writerly soul. *HUGZ*

On Holiday - A Write, Edit, Publish Bloghop post

Hello my dearies!

I hope summer is treating you well and you've had a chance to go on holiday and enjoy all that warmth. I'm on holiday right now, as a matter of fact - which is both good for and bad for my writing, all at the same time. For one, I'm regaining some of the energy that gets lost if all you do is work. On the other hand, holidays are not precisely conductive to actually sitting down and writing - what with all the sun and beachy things to enjoy.

So I post here for you, for Denise's Write...Edit...Publish bloghop,  not what I originally wanted to post, and what I have, in fact, been working on whenever I actually made it to my computer, because that something is not finished (or perhaps not fit for human consumption). Instead, I give you this:

Hot skin salt water

scent of brine and coconuts

Finally! The beach. 

The flickering air

covers multitudes of sand

fata morgana

Or, for the occasion of someone bumping into my car this morning (nothing happened, but my license plate was loose and had to be screwed back on) (and all that before my morning coffee)... 

Stop and reverse now

mirrors are decoration

never mind others.

Patience and temper

elusive, hot, cold, shaking.

Deep breath and onwards.

Well, that's all, folks! I hope you like my little Haikus (or as much of a haiku as I manage, anyhow). How are your holidays? Get lots of writing done? 

Don't forget to pop by the Write...Edit...Publish blog and see who else is taking part!

Holiday story post for Denise...(just a note)

Hi there!!

Since I'm actually really truly on holiday right now, I'd just like to let you all know that the post for Denise' bloghoppy thingy (see sidebar for link) is going up on the 23rd, because that 's the next time I'll be able to get to a computer.

See you there,

Once more, with feeling! (an IWSG post)

Oh yes, indeed! That's what's going on today - it's the first Wednesday of the month and that means it's time to welcome all my fellow insecure writers (brought together by the wonderful Ninja Captain himself, Alex J Cavanaugh, and his equally wonderful co-hosts) - so here goes:

HELLO MY DEARIES!!!!

I hope summer is treating you well so far. Mine has been rather unspectacular - I've been to the beach in Spain, yes, but mostly I've been working. There's so much to do, so little time! (I do believe there's a quote from Cecil Rhodes to that extent, though I could not find it - anyone out there who can enlighten me?) Other than the time factor, there's also the small problem that very little gets done around here because

a) everyone is on holiday
b) it's really hot here right now and nobody has energy to do anything
c) it's really hot here right now and everybody is short-tempered

so what the hey, I'm off on holiday next week. Yay me.

But wait, we're a WRITERS' support group, aren't we? Ooops. You don't care about my problems (ok you're all super nice so maybe you do but you know what I mean right?), you want to hear about WRITING!!!

Well, other than an abysmal failure to complete Camp Nano (I admittedly signed up on a total whim) (not that I'm making excuses or anything) (seriously, no excuses) (ahem), it's been going rather well. I'm working on one particular story right now (have been, exclusively, for over two weeks which for my story ADD is rather good), and I haven't gotten lost yet. I've gone back to one of my first and favourite methods of writing (or rather plotting)...drumroll please...

The Scene Card!! 

Ta-daaaa!!!

What is a scene card, you ask? (if you know already, feel free to skip this bit...) Here's what you do:

• take an old-fashioned index card
• write a title for the scene at the top
• make notes on who's in the scene, where it takes place, what happens
• take the next old-fashioned index card
• write a title for the scene at the top
• etc etc etc until the end

Why do I use this system? Because I'm not very good at writing things in order, nor am I good at plotting. So I write a scene, make a scene card for it, put the card in a pile. Sometimes I'll just make the card and write the scene later. I can then shuffle and re-order the cards at will, in an attempt to fix a plotline. I've been known to use different colour index cards, too, for different key characters or different subplots (think pink for the romance subplot). 

I've also, to my endless joy, discovered that this system works rather well with Scrivener (and I love Scrivener, NaNoWriMo be praised for that). 

So that's what I've been doing, writing-wise - rediscovering my roots. How about you? What's going on in your writerly life? Do you use index cards, too, by any chance? 

All the best,

ps. go HERE for the list of participants