I recently became a member of She Writes, a free online community for women who write. All aspects of writing are covered on there, from getting published to webinars, blogging, and everything in between. I am still learning about the site, which is huge and has a lot to offer. I have to admit that it kind of confusing to me, though valuable.
Being a member of She Writes has kind of effected my writing self-confidence, and not for the better. Before I joined, I was just going along happily posting on my blog, planning on writing a novel, a resource book, and my husband's memoir. Then I saw how many people out there were doing the very same thing! Now, somehow, I am all of a sudden up against humongous competition. I guess. Because I am so new to this, I didn't even know enough to know that.
And then there are discussions of how hard it is to get into the mood to write. About getting stuck. About how to get re-inspired when you get writers block. I hadn't even thought about having nothing to say. I am usually a very chatty Kathy unless I am sick. Plus, everybody else is busy entering contests, feeling the pain of rejection slips (maybe nowadays they are rejection emails), and being discouraged overall. Or, sometimes they are elated because they have gotten a book deal or some of their other work published.
I am following Stephen King's suggestions of writing every single day, and reading, reading, reading. Lucky for me, I was already doing those two things anyway. I didn't have to build that into my schedule by carving out time. Yesterday I began reading a new book, and I had to put it down. The writing was irritating. Though it did get published, and it was book #5 for that author. Steve says to read the badly written books, because they can teach you even more than the really good ones can. I'll keep that in mind, and get back to it someday when I am very bored.
Instead, I picked up an old favorite, Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver. That book is way too good; and I think, well, I know that I will never be able to write like her. I am no Barbara Kingslover. Then again, neither are most writers. Barbara is so observant and remembers all the feelings and details that go along with her characters. She packs more into one sentence than others do into a whole paragraph. I am Kathy Matthews, though I am not sure yet what that means in fiction writing yet. In the 1000 words on my novel that I have written so far, I don't think I did that bad though. I got inside that little 13 year old good girl's head pretty well, at least for a couple of pages.
One of the women on She Writes did write to me and said that she wrote her novel, and she was a newbie, and that it is getting published. She told me that, "If I can do it, you can do it too!" That was nice of her, to be encouraging to somebody she doesn't even know. I guess that is what She Writes is really about, when you get down to it. Sharing ideas and learning from other people's experiences. I'll keep trying!
