Question of the Month: Have you ever slipped any personal information into your characters, either by accident or on purpose?

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. You can also visit the founder Alex J. Cavanaugh for more info and links. This is a great group, and today, we’re sporting the swag!

My name is Mary Aalgaard and I'm an insecure writer. Sporting the IWSG swag and showing support for Insecure Writers everywhere.

My name is Mary Aalgaard and I’m an insecure writer. Sporting the IWSG swag and showing support for Insecure Writers everywhere.

The IWSG is including a question of the month, now, which is helpful. I get tired of writing over and over that I don’t carve out enough time for myself to write fiction. Blah, blah, blah, you’ve all heard that before. I have been trying some new writing lately, and that is lighting a spark. One is that I’m helping my piano students write music. I didn’t think I was a song writer, and therefore couldn’t teach it, but I’m discovering that together we can figure it out, and we’re coming up with some pretty awesome stuff! We’re doing both lyrics, or stories, and music. We started with animal/pet stories/songs, and October’s theme is Halloween. Also, I’d like to try writing a mystery/thriller short story for the next IWSG anthology. We’ll see.

And, in answer to this month’s question. Yes. Absolutely. Maybe not personal information as in phone number, but personal in the way of things that have happened to me, my emotional response. I used some of my mom stories in my play Coffee Shop Confessions. I’ll be writing about my travels on the back of a Harley-Davidson, soon, fictionalized, but they’ll be inspired by my personal experience.

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt: How much of you comes out in your creative work?