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!
Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say.
IWSG Monthly Question:
June 4 question - What were some books that impacted you as a child or young adult?
The Authors that Influenced Me!
When I was in elementary school I didn’t enjoy reading that much because I was in special education for it. Was made fun of for not being able to read that well. So I always stayed with books with a lot of pictures. But as I grew I stumbled across a book that had time travel, unicorns, a magical world that made me fall in love with the fantasy genre. After that I would pick up chapter books that were pretty thick and would sit and read for hours. I was a big fan of the magic tree house books growing up.
When I was in middle school and high school I fell in love with Mercedes Lackey’s books that made up her fantasy world. I devoured all her books I could get my hands on. If it wasn’t her I was reading it was Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis. Those were some of my favorite years digging around trying to find the next book in the series. The one that made me fall in love with dragons was “Song in the Silence,” by Elizabeth Kerner. She didn’t do a sequel until I was in high school and, of course I devoured the book and third one too.
I would say that a lot of my writing is around a similar style to these authors. My world is being created like there’s and has more adventure than romance. But now I read more romance than epic fantasy. Probably why I struggle with my writing. I find it funny that I enjoy reading dark romance and romance but I can’t write it to save my life. Sweet romance I can do but the sex scenes are hard to do and I find I struggle the most with them. But I don’t write that into my books that often let alone at all because I mostly write Young Adult books. However, I do plan to include more romance elements into my books so I need to practice how to build up a relationship between two characters.
What books do you read? If you are an author what books influenced you when you were a child or going through adolescents?
These books are all new to me. It's interesting that you say you write fantasy and romance. The romantasy genre is huge now, so that might be something to look into. My favorite YA fantasy writers are Gail Carson Levine and Shannon Hale.
ReplyDeleteYeah Mercedes Lackey is a big one I found at BN when I was in high school. She practically fills there shelves now. The Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis wrote the Dragon Lance Saga. They pretty much filled the shelves too. Those two authors alone are published through Tor Publishing Group. Song in the Silence by Elizabeth Kerner I found at BN when it first came out. It took her several years to write the sequel in the series. But I was a big Tor Publishing Group reader. Now I read pretty much anything Indie. I never heard of Gail Carson Levine or Shannon Hale.
DeleteSounds like quite a list for a kid that had trouble reading. Looks like that just slowed you down but didn't stop you. Kudos to you!
ReplyDeleteAnna from elements of emaginette
Yeah I jumped from little kids books to chapter books that were over 800 pages long. I was always reading about my grade.
DeleteYou just needed the right book to spur your reading capabilities.
ReplyDeleteFrom the books your read, I assume you also read CS Friedman? Her books were really good.
I don't believe I ever heard of CS Friedman. But when I was younger I would stay loyal to specific authors until I finally broadened my horizons. A lot of it was due to the authors I loved having so many books. Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis had like fifty books and spin of series that I loved.
DeleteI Mercedes Lackey books too! I have a good sized collection. Funny how the right books can ignite the love of reading. :)
ReplyDeleteYeah I have pretty much all of her old books. I haven't picked up one of her books in years. It seems like since I started writing I went away from the roots of only reading traditional authors to reading only indie authors. But I still follow Kristen Britain and her green rider series. I am obsessed with those books and plan to follow the series until the end. Pretty much been reading all the books since high school.
DeleteI got confused. I knew I read a book connected to the name Mercedes. I went looking through what Mercedes Lackey wrote and things did not look familiar. I went to my spread sheet of "books I've read," and realized it was Mercedes Thompson, the shapeshifter/werewolf protagonist of Patricia Briggs series. Right first name, wrong author, and character, not author.
ReplyDelete