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How to keep writing when the writing gets tough
Writing is tough. Yeah, I know, I spend my writing time in a comfy chair in an air-conditioned room, lifting nothing heavier than a can of Diet Pepsi while other people are working construction in triple-digit heat. Trust me, I know how privileged I am. But while writing isn’t particularly physically demanding, it demands quite a bit of mental and emotional toughness as well as a huge dollop of faith–mostly in yourself. In this post, I take a look at the challenges writing presents and offer a few suggestions for pushing through when every cell in your body is screaming at you to quit.
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Uranium Springs postapocalyptic town and pre-enactment site (plus the usual news and memes)
In this week’s update, we’re going to visit Uranium Springs, a postapocalyptic town outside Holbrook, Arizona. Uranium Springs is the site of the annual Detonation festival, a postapocalyptic “pre-enactment” (read: cosplay) event. Long-Suffering Husband attends every year, along with a few hundred other Mad Max maniacs who are much more optimistic about the postapocalyptic aesthetic than I am. Attendees at Detonation, and its larger, better-known cousin, Wasteland Weekend, make the woman on the left look drab. I’m kind of fascinated by the whole postapocalyptic pre-enactment thing, and I love a good postapocalyptic story. I even wrote one: “Collateral Damage,” first-place winner in the Arizona Authors Association 2020 literary contest (learn…
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How to receive feedback on your writing without letting it crush your soul
Letting people read and comment on my work is terrifying. It’s like I’m offering another human a piece of my soul to critique. (Jeez, overdramatic much?) But if we want to become better writers, we have to put our work out there and ask for feedback–and not let that feedback crush us. It’s IWSG Day! But before we get into that: Happy IWSG Day! In case you’re new here, I participate in the monthly IWSG (a/k/a Insecure Writers Support Group) Blog Hop, which happens on the first Wednesday of each month. We offer words of encouragement to our fellow writers and share our doubts, fears, struggles, and triumphs. Some of…
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My story became an audio drama (#IWSG)
It’s the first Wednesday of the month, also known as IWSG Day. For those of you who are new to my warped corner of the interwebs, IWSG=Insecure Writers Support Group, a wonderful online community of, well, insecure writers. Once a month we organize our insecure selves into a blog hop, where we (you guessed it) share our insecurities. Or in my case, some of them. If I were to share all my insecurities, I’d fill a warehouse the size of that one at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark: If you’re as impatient as I am, skip to about 1:10 in the video above to see the warehouse…
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“A Christmas Duet” is published in Harmony Magazine
My short creative nonfiction piece about my mother’s last Christmas, “A Christmas Duet,” was just published in Harmony Magazine! I wrote the first draft right after visiting my mother on Christmas Day 2018. After a little revision and a lot of tears, I’m thrilled that this story has found a home. Harmony Magazine is a visual arts and literary journal published annually by the Medical Humanities department of the University of Arizona College of Medicine. Issues are available free online. You can find my story in the 2022 issue beginning on page 12. Note that it’s written under my real name, so now y’all know my not-so-secret identity. What’s “A…
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I’m co-hosting the IWSG blog hop! (#IWSG)
I’m so excited to be co-hosting the Insecure Writers Support Group monthly blog hop, along with Pat Garcia, Natalie Aguirre, and Shannon Lawrence! It’s my first time co-hosting any kind of blog hop, so like I do with every other new experience, I’m going to overthink it and write 17 drafts until the post is perfect. Just kidding. I’m going to do what I actually do with new experiences: dive in and flail around and probably look like an idiot but have a great time doing it (come to think of it, that sentence sums up my writing career quite nicely). Wanna come along for the ride? I have cookies…
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The importance of being influenced (#IWSG)
The word, influencer, makes most of us think of self-absorbed wannabe celebrities sharing their carefully-curated lives on Instagram or Tik Tok. (Nice work if you can get it, I suppose.) But we all have influencers. From the time we’re born, the people in our lives shape us in all kinds of ways. One of the things I find both fascinating and terrifying is how a stray remark, a quick interaction, can have a profound effect on another human being. None of us fully understands the power we have over others just by going about our daily business. I’ve written on here a few times about how I got a late…
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New story published, Organ Pipe Cactus trip, blog recap, recap, and New Years memes (Weekend Coffee Share #20)
Happy New Year, friends! I hope everyone had wonderful winter holidays. And a big thanks to Natalie the Explorer intrepid hostess of the Weekend Coffee Share! Thanks, Natalie, for helping me connect to so many awesome bloggers like yourself. Writing News–my latest short story is published! My big writing news: My Christmas horror story, “Woe is Me, Poor Child, for Thee,” has been published in the annual Deathlehem holiday horror anthology. See the linked post for deets. SQUEE!
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When to start a writing career? The second best time is now (#IWSG)
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” Chinese proverb This post is part of the Insecure Writers Support Group monthly blog hop, co-hosted this month by Erika Beebe, Olga Godim, Sandra Cox, Sarah Foster, and Chemist Ken. This month’s optional question is: What’s the one thing about your writing career you regret the most? Were you able to overcome it? Before I get to this month’s question, I want to share some exciting news with my IWSG friends (and anyone else who missed my announcement last week): I’ve published another short story! It’s a Christmas horror story, published in this year’s Deathlehem anthology, The Colour…
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2021: My year in writing
2021 was an eventful year in my writing career. I published some stories, made some progress, endured some frustration, and learned, learned, learned. Such is the life of a developing writer. I hope you’ll indulge me in a little year-end navel-gazing. I enjoy these kinds of posts from other writers, because it helps me see behind the curtain of their careers and get a more realistic understanding of what a year in a writer’s life can look like. And as I mentioned in my last year-end retrospective post (State of the blog and most popular posts of 2021), I find it helpful to do some annual stock-taking to evaluate my…
Janet Alcorn
Suspense | Horror | Romance
