Quote of the Day: Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home. Anna Quindlen
Today is 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 month, I am a co-host, meaning I’ll be visiting several extra blogs today. The other co-hosts are: Feather Stone, Chemist Ken, Beverly Stowe McClure, and Kim Lajevardi.
Question for the Month: Do you have any rituals that you use when you need help getting into the ZONE? Care to share?
I’ve tried a few, but none have stuck. It works best for me to write fiction outside of the house. I went to the local coffee shops while writing my play, Coffee Shop Confessions. That’s not an option during the Covid-19 Quarantine. I also had success last summer when I wrote a short story for the contest. I rolled out a blanket on the grass, grabbed a notebook and several sharpened pencils, and channeled my inner middle-schooler. That worked, too. I also enjoy spending time on my deck. Sitting out there gives me the sense of going somewhere, being intentional about my writing, and I expect to have more success now that it’s warmer. Also, I’ve planted a ton of containers, and a couple smaller garden beds in the yard. If all those seeds grow into plants, and don’t get eaten by deer and rabbits, I’ll be sitting in a jungle of vegetables and flowers. I expect to be inspired by nature and gardening. We’ll see. The pandemic is distracting and disheartening. My motto right now is, Keep calm and plant a seed.
I’m happy to help promote the next IWSG Anthology: 
Voyagers: The Third Ghost
An Insecure Writer’s Support Group Anthology
Journey into the past…
Will the third ghost be found before fires take more lives? Can everyone be warned before Pompeii is buried again? What happens if a blizzard traps a family in East Germany? Will the Firebird help Soviet sisters outwit evil during WWII? And sneaking off to see the first aeroplane – what could go wrong?
Ten authors explore the past, sending their young protagonists on harrowing adventures. Featuring the talents of Yvonne Ventresca, Katharina Gerlach, Roland Clarke, Sherry Ellis, Rebecca M. Douglass, Bish Denham, Charles Kowalski, Louise MacBeath Barbour, Beth Anderson Schuck, and L.T. Ward.
Hand-picked by a panel of agents, authors, and editors, these ten tales will take readers on a voyage of wonder into history. Get ready for an exciting ride!
Release date – May 5, 2020
$13.95, 6×9 trade paperback, 168 pages
Print ISBN 9781939844729 / EBook ISBN 9781939844736
Juvenile fiction – historical/action & adventure/fantasy & magic
Founded by author Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writer’s Support Group offers support for writers and authors alike. It provides an online database; articles; monthly blog posting; Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram groups; #IWSGPit, and a newsletter. A Writer’s Digest 101 Best Website for Writers and The Write Life’s Best 100 Website for Writers
https://www.
Links:
Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/dp/
Barnes & Noble – https://www.barnesandnoble.
ITunes – https://books.apple.com/ca/
Kobo – https://www.kobo.com/us/en/
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/
My short story “One More Minute” is in the 3rd IWSG Anthology, Tick Tock: A Stitch in Crime, also by Dancing Lemur Press. As a fun way to promote their books, the editors at Dancing Lemur asked their authors to record themselves reading from their work. You can watch it on the Dancing Lemur Facebook page.
One more thing before I go. I know there are an overwhelming amount of options to watch on live streams, etc, but here’s one I want to highlight. Park Square Theatre in St. Paul, MN has a huge mission to create theater for students. This year, they weren’t able to perform The Diary of Anne Frank live, so they recorded it using Zoom. It’s brilliant. I have never felt so emotionally connected to the story and Anne’s experience. Available through May 24, 2020.
Go. Create. Inspire! And, stay well.
Journaling Prompt: What are your coping skills during this pandemic? Where do you go, or what do you do, for inspiration, now, or any time?
Thanks for co-hosting today. It’s cool that going outside your home helps you right. I’m the opposite. I can get an idea anywhere and I can take notes and outline anywhere. When it comes to pulling all that together to write, I have to be a safe place, home, a family member’s home, a locked hotel room, etc…
Yes. I need quiet, too. But, a change of scenery is good for me.
Congratulations, Mary. I’m thrilled for you. I also understand what you mean about the pandemic being distracting and disturbing. I’m spending way too much time watching the news. Enjoy your success and thanks for co-hosting.
Thanks, Joylene. I turn off the news from time to time and garden, read, or interact with my college boy who is quarantining with me.
I was very daunted by the idea of writing in a public space (or around other writers!) at first. It took a change of focus to block out the surroundings. I found putting on my headset and listening to tunes helps me keep attention on my WIP and drowns out other distraction. I do my internal brainstorming out on my deck. It’s nice to finally be able to get out there . . . not that I can actually GO anywhere else for the time being. Thanks for co-hosting this month, Mary!!
The deck is my sanctuary. Thanks, Nancy!
I like your comment about going somewhere intentionally for your writing. I’d never thought of it like that, but it’s a great way to focus–even if you have to stay home for now. Nice post!
Thank you. Now, I need to follow my own advice!
Changing the venue where you write does help. I’ve never written outside my home though. Now that the weather is getting nicer, the deck is a great place to write. Thanks for co-hosting this month.
Thanks, Diane. I plan to spend more time on my deck, surrounded by my growing plants, and hopefully, growing plot in my story!
Great job co-hosting today! Huge congratulations on being in this next anthology, Mary
Correction, I’m not in this anthology. I’m only in the Tick Tock one with you Lee! Still, I congratulate all the winners.
Will come to you next time i need inspiration
Thanks, Claire. I’ll probably be posting about my growing garden!
I work better in my house, in my little office. But I’ll give outside a try. Maybe go as far as my patio. 🙂
Thanks for co-hosting!
The patio would be a nice place to write, especially journaling.
I wish I could write in a coffee shop! I find myself paying too much attention to whatever everyone else is doing. Guess I’m a people watcher at heart, minus the creepy. 🙂 Thank you so much for co-hosting this month! It’s great to meet you.
I get distracted for a while, then it becomes white noise. Also, the setting was a coffee shop, so it was inspirational.
“Keep calm and plant a seed” – that’s such a great motto! Your deck area sounds lovely. I enjoy sitting outside as well, but the days are starting to get too hot for that here in Florida.
Thanks, Ellen. Enjoy the sun and keep on being creative.
Getting out, especially outside, seems to be your thing.
Thanks for co-hosting today!
Thanks, Alex. Yes. I need fresh air, sunshine, and nature.
It’s interesting that you seem to gain inspiration by moving around, to different spot. I know lots of people agree.
Jacqui, yes. A change of scenery inspires me.
Hi Mary, like you I don’t have many rituals to get me in the zone. Just bum-glue and a desire to have written! Today it is gorgeous in Nova Scotia where I live. I can hear a female sharp-shinned hawk calling for her mate to come and get the spring work underway! We have lots of deer and rabbits wandering through as well, which puts a dent in the desire to garden. I mostly write at my desk, in my tiny office, looking out at trees and critters. I’ve never been much of a cafe writer, though I do like the idea. These days I’d be stymied with that desire anyway. Glad to meet you – I was a playwrite back in the day, and may go back there sometime. I wrote several musicals, with a small team, that were produced, I’ll be back!
Jan, I envy your success in writing plays and musicals and producing them. I would like to do more of that!
I tend not to be ritualistic in regard to writing. I’ve tried writing outside the house like you’ve described, but with my susceptibility to distraction I end up looking around for any diversion I can find. I work best in isolation. Hmm–with that in mind it seems I should be writing like crazy of late. I’ve been writing more perhaps, but still even at home I can find plenty to distract me.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
So true. We do what we can, get distracted, then pick it back up again.
Thanks for co-hosting this month! I like your motto!! Will be planting lots of seeds…LOL
Planting a seed is one of the most hopeful things you can do.
So what you’re saying is being out in the world is where you find your inspiration. My backyard is pretty inviting to me right now. I might just follow your lead. 🙂
Anna from elements of emaginette
Yes. Plus, my current WIP is set mostly outdoors.
How neat that the outdoors is your method! Thanks for co-hosting this month. Stay safe & well.
Thanks, SE, you, too!
Thank you for co-hosting this month. I would love to write out in my garden. Here in New England though, we are having a mighty cold spring. I’d have to bundle up!
Heading outside is always great for inspiration! Sunshine helps all the things 🙂
Hmmm, what are my coping skills right now? Breathe in… hold… breathe out… repeat. That’s about all we can do.
Thanks for co-hosting this month. 🙂
I love your motto in these awkward, out-of-control times! I’m proud to say that I planted ranunculi bulbs, for the first time, as the start of our requisite homestay… and two brilliant orange flowers have appeared
Yay! It’s fun to watch something grow into a beautiful plant or yummy vegetables.
I planted seeds today. Green beans. My garden will be overflowing with stuff soon.
We’ve been taking a lot of walks and sitting on our deck almost every night. I work from home, but even I am starting to go a little stir crazy.
Yes. Walking helps calm me, too. Plus, I like to listen to books as I walk.
That’s great how you’re able to write out in public or outside. I’m definitely the opposite, though, I like to have peace and quiet (sometimes even my husband being around is too much, lol).
Thanks for co-hosting!
I hope you can find quiet places for yourself during this time of quarantine, Sarah!
Unlike you, I could never write away from home. I guess my routine includes the familiar environment of my quiet apartment.
I like your idea of coping with pandemic by planting veggies. At least, you’ll get a salad and a stir fry out of it.
Thanks for co-hosting this month.
Yes. Gardening gives me hope.
So nice that you have a deck to sit on and soon a “jungle of vegetables and flowers”. Hopefully, that will bring you peace and beauty to get in the zone. For me, as much as I love nature, it would distract me from writing. And, as much as I love warm weather and being outside in it, for my productivity, rainy, cold days with no distractions and no guilt about not enjoying the beautiful weather, might be better! 🙂 Thanks for co-hosting this month, Mary!
Yes, good points, Liesbet. Happy writing on rainy days!
I love your motto – “keep calm and plant a seed.” I have tried writing outside, but have trouble keeping focus. I do, however, find it a wonderful time to write down how things look, feel, smell, sound. Being in nature is so important for connecting the senses.
Yes. A good place to use, and write about, all the senses!
Thanks for co-hosting today, Mary! I do much better at home. I get too distracted otherwise. And thank you for mentioning the videos on the Facebook page. I’ve been tearing my hair out over making a video for Diane. Maybe watching other videos will help me get unstuck. Happy writing in May!
Congratulations on having a story in the Anthology. I look forward to reading it. I can imagine that writing in the garden with vegetables and flowers bobbing around you is very inspiring. Thank you for co-hosting.
Thanks, Kalpana. I’m excited to watch my plants grow.
We are indeed living in crazy times!
I like your idea about just going outside right at home. If I give up on editing and try writing (maybe short stories?), I may move my “office” out to the gazebo in the back yard. Make myself a latte, sit out at the table, and maybe I can pretend I’m at a coffee shop (like you, I like to write in coffee shops).
Rebecca, great idea!
I love writing outdoors, preferably at the cabin in the woods. I took a book to read, one to write in, and lots of pencils to the beach once. Between mesmerizing waves and engaging beachcombers, I ended up describing a sunburn much later 😉 I fear I’d have a similar reaction to writing at a Coffee shop so I stick (for the most part) to writing in my home office which really isn’t half bad. Thanks for co-hosting!
Love your visual of trying to write at the beach!
A jungle of vegetables and flowers – that sounds like a nice place to be. I love being outdoors, but there are too many distractions out there like birdsong and cloud shapes and chipmunks scooting hither and thither for me to get much writing done. I have to be inside, by myself, where I can focus. Thank you for co-hosting!
Thanks, Lori. Let those outside sights and sounds inspire you for the writing you do indoors.
I love that you channel your inner middle-schooler to create stories. Love the idea of lying on a blanket on a beautiful spring day, searching your mind for words to create a story. Bravo! I know what you mean about not being able to write at the coffee shop. I can’t hide among the stacks at the library either. All best to you!
Thanks Victoria. I’m grateful for warmer weather, sunshine, and the inspiration of the garden growing, like my stories and ideas.
Thanks for co-hosting!
I need music to get into the ZONE. Without it the words come out of my slower than molasses. But with them, specifically the music playlist I’ve created for the story I’m working on, my fingers are typing away at the keyboard faster than than the roadrunner.
That’s a great muse, Lidy.
Thanks for co-hosting. I’m hoping that critters don’t eat my vegetable plants too. All the sudden last year something ate them all. Hope your garden inspires since you can’t go out now.
Thanks, Natalie. Those critters are ruthless.
I don’t think I have the attention span to go outside of my house to write. I’d people watch, bird watch, everything but write! Kudos to you. Thanks for co-hosting!
Thanks, Debra. Yes, there are distractions.