IWSG January 2014

The Insecure Writer's Support Group is the sexy creation of Alex J Cavanaugh.   Its glorious purpose is 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!  Visit the website and/or join the Facebook Group.


I wouldn't say I'm suffering the post-NaNoWriMo blues.  I'm still riding high.  This conversation happens every other day in my home:
"Hey Adam."
"Hey Dara."
"Know what I did?"
"What'd you do?"
"I WROTE A FUCKING NOVEL IN A MONTH!"
"YOU SURE AS FUCK DID, LOVE OF MY LIFE!"
*high fives and sha-na-na-nas here*

December is often the recovery month, and if not then, January is the revision month.  So says the NaNoWriMo community.  Here's my dilemma.

My novel isn't done.
At all.
I'm barely halfway through the story.  My last update about how my MC is randomly in Spain and I left her there?  That happened.  She, her BFF/lover and random new Spanish guy trying to help her are sitting at a random diner in Spain (if such a thing exists) eating muffins (do they do muffins in Spain?) and the conversation stopped because their almighty, godlike creator Dara started running around the house once she hit 50,018 and hasn't looked back.  Literally.

So I see these posts and blogs and articles floating around now.  5 quick ways to start revising your novel!  Proofreading: Should you have a friend do it or a professional?  How to edit and revise in under a month!

I'm even already seeing How to decide between indie or traditional publishing and How to find and choose an agent.

Holy hell, my girl's in a foreign country and I don't know how to yet get her back home and I'm supposed to start thinking about publishing?  I'm supposed to print out these 90-something pages on our piece of shit HP printer and read it all over with a red pen?!  OH GOD, I STILL HAVE A CHARACTER NAMED "ASS-HAT BOARD MEMBER," I'M NOT READY!!!!

I'm torn between sitting back down and planning out the second half of the story, immediately picking up where I left off, and reading the massive influx of information on the stages post story completion.  There's that thing inside me that assumes all this awesome revision and publishing and other phase information is going to disappear into the voids of the interwebz forever and I'll never find them whenever I finish my novel.

The other part of me is torn to read all the articles!!!!  Then it's 11 o'clock at night and I got nothing else done and I still have another 17 dozen to read.  And crap, poor Maisie is still waiting for me to somehow make Spain work for her even though she doesn't know a word of Spanish.

And lastly, I still have that portion of me that wants to just flip over my laptop in a rage and go back to spending every second of my spare time on WoW since that's sometimes the only thing I can fully accomplish something in (SCORE!  I got the insanely-rare-vanity-pet-you-get-by-grinding-the-crap-by-fishing-in-the-sewers!  LIFE OBJECTIVE COMPLETE!)


So what about the rest of you?  Any of my fellow NaNos in the same predicament?  Or even my fellow new-to-writing homies, do you ever start to feel overwhelmed with all the info that's out there and feel like you're going to miss something?