Rosie J.
- Jun 7, 2023
- 6 min read

#IWSG June 2023: Replace writing? No way!

The Insecure Writer's Support Group in alternating white and orange words

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting! Let’s rock the neurotic writing world! Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

The awesome co-hosts for the June 7 posting of the IWSG are Patrcia Josephine, Diedre Knight, Olga Godim, J. Lenni Dorner, and Cathrina Constantine!

The following link will allow you to peruse everyone in the Blog Hop.

Link | ISWG Blog Hop Participants

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June 7 question - If you ever did stop writing, what would you replace it with?

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Hello, friends!

Wow!! How is it almost summertime?

I can't believe I actually entertained turning my heat back on over Memorial Day weekend. I know East Tennessee is prone to some late Spring cold spells, but usually not on Memorial Day weekend! Everyone is out on the lake by now, having fun in the sun.

May was a fairly uneventful month, honestly. Lots of work. Lots of playing catchup. Not a lot to write home about, as they say.

It was mostly weird. My partner's mom ended up in the hospital with pancreatitis for over two weeks. My partner ended up taking FMLA to go to Ohio for a couple of weeks to help with the animals and be there while she was in the hospital and the week after she came home. It definitely put a strain on me with keeping up with things around the house while he was gone (and I fully supported him being gone to take care of his mom and help out his dad) but it derailed a lot of my creative plans for the month.

That being said...I do have some news!

Ghostwriting

If you read my May IWSG post, you probably read about how I was working on landing some ghostwriting gigs through participating in my friend Mai's Romance Fiction Queen ghostwriting program.

I spent much of the last two weeks in a back-and-forth with a potential client about a contract and getting some samples of my writing together to send to the client.

The news is that it sounds like she wants to work with me and I'm going to be taking over a WiP that another ghostwriter quit working on due to personal reasons. It will be a great first project for me since it's already outlined and has about 10k written. I can't wait to get started working on it.

I'm so excited to hopefully start making some money off of writing.

In the next month or so I plan to work on updates to my website as well with my works-in-progress page and my new ghostwriting services page.

I think I'm going to call that Rosie's Whispered Words, what do you think?

Writing Goals for June

May goals: Start holiday romance revisions, 3-sample portfolio for ghostwriting, WIP Website page...

Well, I got my 3-samples done and sent them off to a client! I think I need to add an alternate 4th sample that I can use in place of the 3rd sample (which is a full steamy scene), but it's a scene from an urban fantasy so it's written a bit differently than a full steamy scene from a romance novel might be.

One of the samples I used for my portfolio was an excerpt from my holiday romance. I did rewrite it in first person, and I think I liked it. So it looks like I'll be rewriting my holiday romance from third-person to first-person. Whoops! I didn't start the rewrite, but I did make the decision at least.

No website changes, but that's coming.

June goals...

I'm presenting at a conference in my career field in a few weeks and need to get my slide deck and everything ready for that, so that's going to come before writing stuff.

With the ghostwriting client now, that will be revving up, so I guess, for June, my writing goal is to not fall behind on my first ghostwriting project!

I'm also planning to participate in Camp NaNoWriMo in July, so I'd like to get a project pinned down for that as well.

ConCarolinas

I attended ConCarolinas this past weekend and it was AMAZING. This was my sixth year going since 2016. I've only missed one year, last year, because we had other travel plans that made it impossible to go.

I will definitely be working on a blog post to recap the weekend! In the meantime, you can see some pictures from the weekend on my TikTok (@RosiePotter56) or Instagram!

Clawdia Scribbles the Caticorn attended alongside my partner and me. She loved getting to learn about writing and other things and meet some other friends!

I was also able to purchase a lot of books this weekend! Not that my TBR pile needed to get any bigger, but I'm super excited to read these.

IWSG Monthly Question

The question this month asks if you ever did stop writing, what would you replace it with?

I have stopped writing in the past. It was more of a creative block in general during a very heavy time in my life when everything was a wreck. At the end of 2017, my nearly 11-year relationship fell apart, and I had to start over.

It was all I could do to pick up the pieces of me and hold my life together and move back home to a place that was the last place on Earth that I wanted to be.

Pile the pandemic on top of that when I was starting to see the light again, and it took me until 2021 to start making creative progress, especially in writing, but also in music.

I don't know if I'd necessarily replace writing with anything. I'd probably just do more music. But honestly, most of the times in my life that have coincided with me not writing had to do with me being creatively drained because of work or life or depression.

I'm much happier when I'm able to write or make music or go for other creative endeavors, and I prefer not to think about replacing those with anything! It's just part of who I am, and I can't imagine making the conscious decision to stop doing it.

Something would be seriously wrong in my life for that to happen!

What about you? Have you had periods of your life where writing had to take the backburner because of other commitments or simply because you didn't have the creative energy to continue? Did you do something else instead? Tell me about it in the comments!

Twitch Writing Sprints Reminder!

Purple background with a couple hearts. Text: Writing & Productivity Sprints on Twitch, Wednesdays 8-11pm Easter, Fridays 1-4pm Eastern, twitch.tv/RoseEvenstar21

Shameless plug!

I'm still having a blast doing Writing & Productivity/Coworking sprints

on Twitch every week! Come join me to hang out, have fun, and get shit done!

Wednesdays at 8 pm EDT and

Fridays at 1 pm EDT

on Twitch!

Having an accountability group is so wonderful! If you're not into Twitch, but are on Discord, I also have a group there that has a lot of writers, artists, musicians, gamers, etc., who support each other. We talk writing on a regular basis and generally have a good time!

Feel free to join The Rose Garden on Discord!

Thanks for stopping by and let me know in the comments your thoughts about the June question or tell me about your general writing goals for the month or what's happening in your writer life (or life in general).

Be sure to see my links down below for other places to keep up with me online and other related blog posts!

For now,

Rosie J.