#IWSG post--is our writing ever good enough? There's help out there!

Aren't we all somewhat insecure about our writing? Well, duh, that's the whole point of IWSG!  I've never yet met a writer who wasn't stricken with self-doubt somewhere along the line. So a perfect antidote is to attend a masterclass with someone whose past students got published after attending her classes and many ended up on the New York Times Best-selling List. I could live with that!

Facebookers amongst us will know that I've been attending a Margie Lawson Immersion Class for 5 days, where 8 lucky writers who were the first to sign up spent 12 hours a day learning at the seat of the master editor and make-your-novel-amazing Margie from Colorado.

The mornings were spent learning how to make our manuscripts sing louder, through more visceral writing and amplification, and the afternoons were spent writing, analyzing our manuscripts and the biggie--one-on-one sessions with Margie.

Absorbing her edit system (which of course I can't share due to copyright) was the most awesome thing about the retreat, held in a gorgeous home in a leafy suburb of Brisbane. I also picked up 2 fab critique partners, both romance writers.

Margie has asked me to host an Immersion Class at our beach house in March '17. I'm considering it.

No, Margie didn't hire me as her publicist, but I'm so excited about what I've learned that I thought I'd share it for the #IWSG.

So I'll just share one example of mine with you. You have to have a ms under your arm when you turn up. I brought along my 45,000 word ms for 'Carpe Diem---Love and Art in Paris' (WORKING TITLE).  I never got further than a few pages with Margie as she was bursting her creativity all over those opening pages (and my major turning point). I went away from the one-on-one and rewrote my opening line...and my first two chapters several times.

Here's the opening line on my original ms:

OPENING LINE:

The stranger props himself on a bar stool in front of me like he owns the place.

(cringe-worthy much?)

REWORKING:

I watch the tall Frenchman push his way into Marcel’s Bar in Pigalle, Paris’s naughty end of town.

(After a session with Margie. Less cringe-worthy?)

Now, it still has room for improvement, of course, writing always does, but now that I've been Margie-fied, I have learned a few more ways to tempt the reader.

NOW after visiting other IWSGers, I see I was supposed to answer the question: how do I find the time to write in my busy day...well, lately I've been getting up early and writing for a couple of hours before anyone else wakes up...it's just me, my laptop and the sea view. Then I grab two hour sessions throughout the day. I'd say at the moment I'm averaging about six hours a day writing. That's what Hemingway did, and Dean Koontz does...

Thanks a whole bunch of koalas, Margie!

www.MargieLawson.com

Lawson Writer's Academy

Twitter: @margielawson

Facebook: Margie Lawson

This has been a post for the Insecure Writers Support Group. Go HERE to sign up or read more posts.

Visit the co-hosts!

C. Lee McKenzie,Rachel Pattison, Elizabeth Seckman, Stephanie Faris, Lori L MacLaughlin, and Elsie Amata! 

And a heads-up for the October Write...Edit...Publish. There is a choice of themes: CONSTELLATIONS or HALLOWEEN, or if you're very, very clever, a combination of both! So get your little sci-fi, fantasy or horror brains around the next challenge. More details soon! Should be a double hoot!

• How about you? Have you attended a writers' retreat?
• Do you know Margie Lawson?
• Do you have any editing tips to share with us?

#IWSG post. #Writing at the desk. Jane Austen. Writing for fun! Lynda Young release, Cling to God.

Welcome to another #IWSG post.


Thanks to Alex J Cavanaugh for starting this group and thanks to the rotating co-hosts. This month, please visit Alex's assistants, 

 Tamara Narayan,Tonja Drecker, Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor, Lauren @ Pensuasion, Stephen Tremp, and Julie Flanders! 

Today my topic is Writing at the Desk. 

We as writers might be sitting at our writing desk (your bed, the beach, the cafe), penning something for pure enjoyment. Okay. Rare. Most likely we're sweating over a masterpiece with a deadline, which is where writing loses its fun aspect. And where insecurity hits.

Jane Austen was prolific in her writing, with 6 major novels to her name. (See her full range of books HERE). The most popular has always been Pride and Prejudice which has had numerous adaptations. Considering she died at just 41 years old, she penned an amazing number of words--published novels, and some 3,000 letters. 

When Jane Austen was 19 years old, her father George Austen recognised her prodigious talent. He bought her that little mahogany writing desk we see in the rare drawings of her. This was in the early 1700s. Don't tell me that Jane, a woman, felt secure writing away in those good old days, where, let's face it, women had fewer options than today.

Austen christened her beloved desk with a tale told through letters (remember them?) featuring the wicked and wayward Lady Susan Vernon, an unashamed adulteress. Jane didn't dream it would see the light of published day. This was her fun work. The wickedly audacious tale about Lady Susan was considered way too scandalous by Austen's family to ever be published. But, time marches on, and fifty years after her death, the controversial and unfinished work was published. The Kindle edition is FREE.

Many years later (early 2000s), enter Whit Stillman, American filmmaker. He fell in love with the witty and charming Lady Susan and has worked laboriously to turn Austen's epistolary novel (a novel written as a series of documents) into a screenplay. 

Stillman jokes:

"The family was right. It should never have been published. It is about a corrupt young woman who is a mistress of manipulation in her attempt to make the world her own. Lady Susan is a terrific find. It was Austen's first adult work."

Stillman has named the adaptation, Love and Friendship, and has attracted big name actors--Kate Beckinsale is Lady Susan.

We usually think of Jane Austen as tame. Chick lit claims her as its heroine, one of the first chick lit writers. Think Emma and you can see where they're coming from. There are multiple Jane Austen fan clubs and reading groups, and novels written about her. She has become a commercial commodity, even having zombie films and books adapted from her novels. Think Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

If we think of the old adage 'write what you know', Austen must have been a very critical observer of her times. Her Lady Susan letters show her as a serious comedian with an incredible perception of the world as she knew it. 

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Someone who needs no introduction, and writes what she knows, is our blogger friend and fellow Aussie, Lynda Young. 

Lynda has gouged out some time from her frantically busy life to pen a daily devotional to help in the chaos of life. 

Cling to God: A Daily Devotional by Lynda R Young

Release date: October 18th, 2016
Published by Freedom Fox Press

Cling to God in the chaos of life…

Blurb: Cling to God is a book of devotionals for every day of the year. The aim is to encourage Christians in their faith, to help them think about their beliefs and learn more about God. The devotions are short and inspirational so that people with busy lifestyles will still be able to spend time with the Lord each day. It will appeal to a wide Christian audience, to those new in their faith as well as those matured beyond milk and honey.

Author Bio:

Lynda R Young, a Christian first, writes devotionals, articles, and speculative short stories. In her spare time she is also an editor, game developer, artist, and dabbles in photography and all things creative.She lives in Australia with her sweetheart of a husband. 

You can find her here: Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads

Links in full:
http://lyndaryoung.blogspot.com.au
https://twitter.com/LyndaRYoung
https://www.facebook.com/LyndaRYoungAuthor
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5832201.Lynda_R_Young

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• So, what are you writing at your desk?
• Do you have a favourite Jane Austen book?
• Do you have any questions for Lynda re her devotional guide?

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And the question of the month for #IWSG is:

What was your very first piece of writing as an aspiring writer? Where is it now? Collecting dust, or has it been published?

My first serious piece of writing was a story about a girl who sought asylum in Australia. This was the time of the Vietnamese Boat People seeking safety in Australia after the Vietnam War. I did my research, but life got in the way and this piece never grew wings. Now with asylum seekers and refugees all around us, the premise is current. Maybe I'll find it, dust it off, and modernise it. Or maybe I'll just start again...better idea.
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And the next IWSG Anthology is on FANTASY. Over at WEP we have a guest post from our previous winner, Arpan Ghost, writing about FANTASY.

The Inlinkz form is up. You can now sign up for the WEP GARDENS challenge in my sidebar or over at WEP or on Yolanda Renee's blog. Post from August 17 - 19.

Vive la France! #BooktagsBlogHop. My book this week: Paris Hangover by Kirsten Lobe

Okay, I've been right off writing ever since I heard about those #ParisAttacks on Friday 13th. Like many others, it took my breath away, leaving me no motivation to do what seemed frivolous things, like write for #NaNoWriMo or prepare a blog post. Then blogger friend Toi Thomas reminded me that today is the day I write about a book I've read recently. At first I thought I can't do this, then I thought, yes, I can. So everybody, and Toi, I'm sorry if this is going to be a little outside the square, but I'm presenting my reading my way.

Lobe tells us in a dedication at the beginning of the book that: "...mother taught me to believe in the words of Henry David Thoreau: 'Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.'"

Well, we saw on Friday 13th, that not everybody accepts the dreams we follow, seeing watching a game at a football stadium, eating at restaurants, walking down the beautiful Parisian streets, watching a rock concert where an American band was performing, are things to die for. Those 'soldiers' mowing down innocents with Kalashnikovs then blowing themselves and others away with suicide bombs obviously thought that dream of living and loving in Paris was anathema.

My favourite author, Ernest Hemingway, has a few lines in The Sun Also Rises, where he says, 'Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed with sex. You spend all your time talking, not working...You hang around cafes.'

That might sound like Hem would be on the side of the suicide bombers on Friday, but no, no one liked hanging around cafes quite as much as he did, so don't take it out of context. I deliberately included it as I think that it is a radical opinion of how Westerners enjoy themselves. Didn't we all think that hanging around cafes was not an action punishable by death? Until Friday, that is.

Which brings me back to Paris Hangover, the book I'm supposed to be talking about today. Okay, not exactly ISIS-preferred reading!


Definitely women's fiction, or chick lit, Lobe writes very autobiographically, so even though this is a work of fiction, it is obviously a pretty true account of her life. The premise (and what she did in her real life), was to ditch her super-glam life and apartment in New York City and relocate to a tiny walk-up Parisian apartment in Saint Germain. Fleeing her Big Shot boyfriend, the main character, Klein, starts over in Paris, plunging into the mysterious world of Gallic Men. She lives a life full of Moet and Gauloises, dating Frenchmen and waking up with a hangover most mornings.

Klein/Lobe describes her life in her chosen city: 'Living in Paris is an experience like no other. It's like being on a ride at an amusement park: wildly exciting, a bit scary, a little overpriced.' 

As she settles into her new apartment she considers her dream:

"This dream has the perfect soundtrack. To awaken each morning to the sound of doves cooing and church bells ringing. C'mon, it doesn't get any more beautiful than that...The first sounds I hear as I come into consciousness are usually the tender voices of mothers and their children, up early and out on their morning outing to the boulangerie down the street to buy brioche and croissants. The gentle, 'Maman...' followed by, 'Comment, ma cherie?' is like music.'

On re-reading this passage, I couldn't help wonder how Parisian mothers spoke to their children on Friday 14th. 'The President has asked us to stay indoors today, cherie. Something bad has happened.'

But back to Klein. This American in Paris never had it so good--vin blanc at Cafe de Flore, painting in a garret, afternoons in the Jardins du Luxembourg--or so bad. But Klein's passion for France and its men allows her to press on through some dastardly experiences.

There's something for everyone in this book. It's first and foremost a love story to Paris and its literary giants. Lobe peppers her story with quotes from French philosophers, French poets, and French writers. One of my favourites is her quote from Marcel Proust:

'We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness, which no one can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world.' 

Sadly, Friday's attackers' wisdom must be questioned. Have they discovered wisdom for themselves, where they see executing innocent civilians as somehow more holy than attending a rock concert or hanging around cafes, or have they been brainwashed into a point of view?

My feelings for Paris/France are not a well-kept secret. Tonight I will stand in solidarity with them at a special event in front of our City Hall, which once again will be bathed in the tricolour.

Books set in Paris are always so full of life and love, which is why I read so many, and am working on writing one myself. Thank you Kirsten Lobe for this quirky little love story to Paris. I hope you are safe in your chosen city!

• If you think this post is worthy to share, please press my buttons!
• How have the #ParisAttacks affected you?
• Go here to read more #BooktagsBlogHop posts.

Sorry I missed the IWSG, my bad, but here I introduce myself and tell you about my new novel set in Paris.

Hi my friends!

Sorry, I totally missed IWSG for only the second time in its history and I feel bad, but what can I say, I'm just enjoying being on holidays up at the beach house--reading, writing, having coffee--and schedules don't exist. The teaching year in Australia doesn't begin until the end of January--long summer holidays! Too hot to be cooped up in a classroom!


But I'm a news junkie, and the news has been terrifying. Not everyone has been having happy times. Like you, I'm sure, my heart goes out to all those involved in terror attacks around this small world of ours. 


Now I've been going round reading some of your IWSG posts this morning (finally!) and see that we were supposed to introduce ourselves. Seeing as I've lost a lot of my regular visitors :-( and gained new ones :-) since I foolishly changed my blog URL, I think I will do a little introduction. (Now would be a good time to copy my new URL and add me to your blogroll, wouldn't it? I'd love it if you did.)

WHO AM I?

I've been a writer since I could write, and have publishing credits in Australian fiction magazines, newspapers, travel magazines, online magazines and in some e-book anthologies. But I've been quietly writing novels in my 'spare' time (I have 5 not-completely-finished novels thanks to NaNo). These have helped me learn how to write even if they are never published. 

I am seeking the traditional publication route (good luck with that, you say!) After I polished my first completed manuscript to death, paid an editor, did online writing courses, got a mentor from Romance Writers Australia, primped it up again, I have finally submitted it to a Harlequin line. No one ever said writing was easy, did they?

A scene from my new novel-Love Locked in Paris.

I am all fired up to write a 'chick-lit' this year. I am totally into the research and have hand written the first few chapters. I love it. Love the research. Set in Paris--food, landmarks, love...ooh la la!) 

I must say the idea to write this novel came from Alex J Cavanaugh, our very own Ninja and brains behind IWSG! How's that? One of the biggest involvements I've had in the blogging world is to run monthly permanent flash fiction bloghops. These have been invaluable in getting feedback for my work and for exploring ideas for novel-length works based on feedback. 

Love locks on the Pont des Arts, where some action takes place!

Alex has forgotten for sure that he commented on my flash fiction piece, Love Locked in Paris and said, well you've given us the middle of the book. Now write the beginning and end and you may well have a winner! Thanks Alex. I totally wouldn't have bothered taking the idea any further without your prompting.

So there you have it. Maybe 2015 will be my year to see at least one novel published, or on the way! 

I was going to blog about all the books I've read so far this year--heaps!--but that will have to wait!

• How about you? What are you hoping for in 2015?
• Happy New Year!