On the first Wednesday of every month, members of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group (open to anyone and full of great resources and information for writers) post their answers to a monthly prompt on their blogs.
Authors benefit from getting an insightful prompt for generating more blog content, and IWSG links all respondents, which is a way for writers to discover each other. Pretty neat!
September 6 question: The IWSG celebrates 12 years today! When did you discover the IWSG, how do you connect, and how has it helped you?
I first heard about IWSG from Toi Thomas, a fellow writer and classmate in writing course we both took from The Muse Writers Center in Norfolk called “Becoming a Master Writer” (with John Dedakis). I had been bemoaning my lack of production lately, saying that it had been hard to establish and maintain a regular habit of writing. She suggested IWSG as means of sparking some blog content to get the juices flowing.
I think it has worked! I’m under no illusions that writing blog content is the same as writing prose. I can dink around on my author website for hours, but at the end of the day that doesn’t make me a writer – at least, not in the sense that I want to be. However, the monthly prompt to write something often serves as an indirect prompt to reflect on what I have written lately, what I’d like to write, and what I should be writing.
It’s fairly typical that after composing an IWSG post, I’ll also open up my notebooks or files and at least take a look around, and then this prompts further poking and more often than not, writing. I can also credit IWSG with helping me move toward a more general shift in philosophy from product-focused (which was ironically not producing anything) to process-focused (which has been excellent for addressing the root problem in the first place, consistency).
Thanks IWSG! Even when it seems like I can’t make any other progress on writing, often I can look forward to the first Wednesday of the month where I know I’ll get a little nudge in the right direction again.
Happy IWSG Day! Indeed, it is the reflection I do every month for the IWSG post that reaffirms my faith that I’m doing more than content writing.
It is nice to have the IWSG to fall back on every month. My writing has been pretty nonexistent lately so having that one constant still helps me to keep feeling like a writer.
That it gets you to writing is awesome! Big thanks to Toi for suggesting the IWSG.
Thanks Alex, and thanks for all you’ve done for the whole IWSG community!
Welcome to the group. you are certainly in good company!