It's beyond awesome to have L.G. Keltner on my blog today. No doubt you'll be seeing a lot of her as she guests around the blogosphere. I've asked her to talk on this subject, knowing many of us are keen writers but tardy with submissions...
Take it away, my friend!
Overcoming
Insecurity and Submitting Your Work
Hello everyone! Today, I'm going to do
two things on Denise's blog. First, I’m going to give you
some encouragement regarding the 2016 IWSG Anthology Contest (submissions close early November). Then I’m going to promote my latest novella Self-Help 101 or: How to Select a Costume to
Help You Deal With People. And
believe it or not, those two subjects are not entirely unrelated.
Entering a writing contest can be a
nerve-wracking experience. A piece of
writing is a deeply personal thing, and no one wants to hear that the story
they poured so much time and effort into didn’t make the cut. Every writer has to face the pain of
rejection at some point, though. That’s
part of being a writer, after all. If
you never risk rejection, you never give your work an opportunity to shine.
When I entered the IWSG Anthology Contest
last year, I was nervous. From the
beginning, I knew I needed to take part in it.
It was simply too great an opportunity to ignore. At the same time, I was shaking when I
emailed my entry. I second-guessed
myself for days afterwards. This seems a
natural reaction given what I’ve heard from other writers. As much as we love our work, we feel insecure
about it. We want it to be
well-received, but we fear that may not be the case. Sometimes we’ll try to edit it to death,
striving for some vague notion of perfection we can never attain. Fortunately, a looming deadline helped me
avoid this particular pitfall.
As I waited for a response, I vacillated
between thinking I’d turned in a good story and thinking that I’d wasted an
important opportunity by submitting something that other people may not
like. When I got the email telling me
that I’d not only made it into the anthology, but that my story “Felix Was
Here” also won the contest, I was stunned.
I’d spent so much time worrying about an entry that ended up winning,
and that seemed crazy to me in retrospect. I suppose
it’s inevitable to worry.
Writers can’t seem to help it. As
long as we don’t let those fears prevent us from submitting, we’ll be okay.
Dani, the main character in the Self-Help 101 series, is also a
writer. She deals with her own
insecurities. She has to contend with
critics and her own inner voice of self-doubt.
That’s a major theme in Self-Help
101 or: How to Select a Costume to Help You Deal With People. It’s fortunate that Dani has a lot of
supportive friends, and it doesn’t hurt that she’s extremely stubborn.
That’s the best advice I can give any
writer who wants to put themselves out there.
Find a support group, and be stubborn.
Excerpt:
His eyes
darkened. “That nasty comment I saw
yesterday? It was horrible, yes, but it
didn’t seem to bother you earlier.”
“No, not that
one. I got a new one today, and it
wasn’t from the same person, either.
This person actually knows how to spell correctly.” I leaned back, resting my head against the
wall. “That other one didn’t bother me,
because it didn’t offer any legitimate criticism. It just encouraged me to do something
anatomically inadvisable, and half the words were misspelled anyway. That’s easy to blow off, because that’s
classic troll behavior. This new person
essentially said that I’m an entitled brat who’d never had any real problems,
so I shouldn’t waste anyone’s time with what I have to say. And with class today and Rhonda saying the
things she did, it left me wondering why I even bother.”
Seth kissed my
cheek. “You do it because you love
it. What other reason is there?”
I shook my
head. “I also do it hoping to make
money, but that hasn’t been working.”
“Sure, you’d like
to make money, but that isn’t what keeps you going, and you know it.”
Fine. He had a point. I may be cynical about many things, but I do
write for the love of it. That doesn’t
make it suck any less when people insist I shouldn’t bother in the first
place. If anything, it makes it worse,
and my natural cynicism wasn’t sufficient to shield me.
“I know. I just . . .
I can’t help but wonder if I’m good enough to do this as a career. It’s what I want more than anything, but
wanting it isn’t enough.” I’d tried
keeping these insecurities bottled up tight, but now they were pouring right
out of me, and I was powerless to stop it.
At least Seth was the only one there to see me like this.
Title: Self-Help
101 or: How to Select a Costume to Help You Deal With People
Author:
L.G.
Keltner
Genre: holiday/humor
Length:
29,000
words
Cover
Art: L.G. Keltner and
Jamon Walker
Release
Date: September
27, 2016
Blurb:
Book 3 in the Self-Help 101 series.
Dani Finklemeier is adjusting to life in
college and the realities of living away from home for the first time. She’s also learning to deal with the
criticism that stems from sharing her writing with the world. Some of the online criticism is even spelled
correctly, which somehow makes it worse.
Fortunately, she has a Halloween party, a
group of friends, and a supportive boyfriend to distract her from the things
that are bothering her. Of course, a
holiday celebration wouldn’t be complete without something going wrong. Between an unpleasant confrontation with an
infuriating classmate, some shocking costume choices, and a bizarre fraternity
stunt, the evening will be anything but dull.
Dani’s detractors may not like it, but
she’ll definitely have enough material for another book.
Bio:
L.G. Keltner spends most of her time
trying to write while also cleaning up after her crazy but wonderful kids and
hanging out with her husband. Her
favorite genre of all time is science fiction, and she’s been trying to write
novels since the age of six. Needless to
say, those earliest attempts weren’t all that good.
Her non-writing hobbies include astronomy
and playing Trivial Pursuit.
Purchase
Links:
E-book:
Print:
Thank you for appearing on my blog today, L.G.
Now, do you have some comments/questions for L.G. about submitting your work? Or about her latest book, Self-Help 101 or: How to Select a Costume to Help You Deal With People?
And I can't let a chance go by. I'm asking you to submit to Write...Edit...Publish this month. Many of our regulars can't join us because of hurricanes and other life emergencies. I hope you might consider writing for us or simply posting a photo or an image that fits the prompts. Post between October 19 - 21. Any further questions, go to WEP or send Yolanda Renee or myself an email. You can sign up here in my sidebar. LOVE TO HAVE YOU!!
