0 Here We Go Again: An IWSG Post

 Today is the first Wednesday of the month which means it's time for another installment of Alex J. Cavanaugh's increasingly popular Insecure Writer's Support Group where writers all over the blogosphere shout out (or whatever) their insecurities and receive back words of understanding and support from those who have been there and survived that.  Click on the link for more information or for a complete list of participants.

So, last year at this time, I was writing a post about my new endeavor to self publish my novel.  I was going to publish that novel by April June September October November December 2012.  I even won a giveaway and had little 'promotional' stickers made up:

that are now delightfully incorrect, like a newspaper declaring Dewey the winner over Truman. You know, only without all the significance to the actual world.

But then I didn't.

(I know. You're all like "Really? Why didn't you say something? I mean, it didn't really sink in the first 500 times you mentioned it but now I get it!")

So I'm kind of starting over this year. 2012 turned out to be a learning year. A building year, like when a baseball team loses all its starters and has to start from scratch.  I fortunately don't have to start from scratch so 2013 will be the year my team wins the World Series.  Or, since it's football season and my team's in the playoffs, 2013 will be the year my team wins the Super Bowl.  Or, at least makes the Super Bowl.

And I am slowly starting to be okay with that. Slowly. I don't want to dwell. I know I have been and I don't mean to dwell and be hard on myself and kick myself when I'm down. I want to jump up and knock this thing out of the park. I want to split the uprights and... whatever the equivalent of a home run is in football. And I think I can do it. I like to think I'm smarter and wiser and closer to the finish line than before.  I like to think that come January 2014, I won't be writing this post over again. You all have been a wonderful group and I feel bad— really bad— about my broken record-ness.

So it ends now.

And if it's not too much to ask you for a favor... If you're a self published author and there's something you found out about the experience that you wish someone had told you before you started wading in these waters, I'd love to hear about it.

Here's the inspiration behind today's post's title:




ONE LAST THING OF NOTE: Author Christa Desir has come up with a great idea: The Jan Plan.  You may have seen it on other blogs or on Twitter but the idea is starting the year off right by actually finishing something.  The something is up to you. Maybe it's a NaNoWriMo project. Maybe it's your laundry (or is that just at my house?). Whatever it is, it doesn't matter. But it's a great thing for writers in which to consider taking part. If you're interested, be sure to head over to her site to check it out...