Stepping into the forest of my mind

Stepping into the forest of my mind
Just as every journey begins with a first step, every story begins with the first word.

Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Insecure Writers Want to Know: Are You a Risk-taker When Writing? Try Something Different in Style/POV? Add Controversial Topics to Your Work?

Who me? A risk taker? I’m a big chicken, remember? But you know, if we really dive deep into this question. Aren’t all writers risk takers?  

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We risk sending out our tender new stories—our babies—to strangers in order to be published. To see if gatekeepers feel our stories are good enough to be out in the world. We send them to agents or editors, small presses and publishers.

Or -

We risk publishing them ourselves to see if others feel our stories are good. We take on the personal responsibilities of editing and revising them, laying the stories out, spending our hard-earned capital for book covers and publishing methods. 

So maybe the answer is yes, I’m a risk taker of sorts, when it comes to my stories. To getting published. To getting out there in the world with my voice, my themes, my morals. No matter which publishing method I try.  

As for trying something radically different in style or POV or adding controversial topics to my work, no. I haven’t tried any of this in my creative writing. Not yet! How about you? 

It will be interesting to see how you’ve tackled this month’s question. It’s wonderful having a topic to share our thoughts on each month. I am extremely thankful for all of you for being my sounding board and advisors in this writing and publishing journey.

A small update about my college memoir:

·       It’s about 60,000 words.

·       My current title choice is The Courage to Believe – One Mother’s Journey Through College.

·       This is a story about a mother who learns to believe in herself and her dream of college after someone tries to rip the same dream away from her daughter.

·       How many beta readers do you usually have?

Please feel free to offer any insight on this.

Thanks again for visiting! Be sure to stop by Adventures in Writing again. 

This post was written for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.  I’d like to thank our co-hosts for April: PK Hrezo, Pat Garcia, SE White, Lisa Buie Collard, and Diane Burton. Please visit them if you can. 

Our group posts on the first Wednesday of every month. To join us, or learn more about the group, click HERE.