Glitter, Stickers & Getting Older | IWSG

I'm excited to be co-hosting this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) day along with Tamara Narayan, Tonja at Kidbits, Lauren at Pensuasion, Stephen Tremp and Julie Flanders. The IWSG is a place to share and encourage, where writers can express their doubts and concerns without appearing foolish or weak.

I think our world could use a lot more places like this - places where we can safely share our concerns, doubts, fears and insecurities, whether about writing or anything else that we're passionate about, and get support and encouragement in return. When you find a place like the IWSG, it makes you want to keep coming back for more.

A new feature of IWSG is a monthly question which may prompt folks to share advice, insights, a personal experience or story. Some folks answer the question in their IWSG blog post or let it inspire them if they're struggling with what to say.

This month's question prompt is:

What was your very first piece of writing as an aspiring writer? Where is it now? Collecting dust or has it been published?

Check out how people have answered this month's question, as well as the other insecurities and writing topics they may have written about by visiting the IWSG sign-up list here. If you want to know how I answered it, have a read below.

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I was talking with a woman at our marina the other day and she told me she thought I was in my late twenties or early thirties. My first thought was suspicion - What does she want? Why is she buttering me up? Then I had a closer look at her and noticed she was squinting in the bright sun and her eyeglasses were all smudged with dirt. I realized that she couldn't see the lines on my face, gray hair on my head and the jowls that are starting to form, all of which clearly give away the fact that I {gasp} recently turned 50.

Some people find their passion for writing when they're young. Their first pieces of writing might have been written with colored pencils in little booklets made out of construction paper. And they've been writing ever since.

Me, not so much. I started blogging three years ago and decided to start writing seriously last year, when I was almost {gasp again} 50. So, my first piece of writing isn't a colorful homemade book covered in glitter and stickers that I poured my heart and soul into when I was a child and presented to my mom to read with a hopeful smile on my face.

Instead it's a rather dull looking Word document in my computer with the rather uninspiring working title of Draft #341, filed next to the naively and optimistically titled document, The Only Draft I'll Ever Need (which goes by its nickname, Draft #1) and sits next to The Draft To End All Drafts (which goes by its nickname, Draft #2) and their offspring, Drafts #3-340.

I've been working on my first murder mystery novel since November of last year, so it hasn't had a chance to get too dusty yet. But, enough is enough. I need to finish a decent draft of this so that I can print it out, apply some glitter and stickers and give a copy to my mom to read with a hopeful smile on my face before I turn {sigh} 51.

What do you want to accomplish before your next birthday?

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