It's the first Wednesday of the month and so it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) post! In an IWSG post, we writers bring our writing challenges and problems out into the open to share with each other and try to offer solutions. 

November has come really fast and so October flew by like a speeding bat! I was nearly burning myself out to get things done for my Halloween themed blogs and newsletter and even activity outside of my writing such as decorating the house. October and December are the busiest times of the year for me, so November is kind of a breather period between the two. So, for me, November is a time to rest . . . and to write. Not that I don’t write during October or November, of course. When I say that November is a time for me to write, I mean it’s a time to get back on track with the writing routine and not worry about holiday duties, Halloween and Christmas being two of my favourite celebrations of the year. 

What about Thanksgiving? I don’t cook so that leaves me out of any heavy duties for that holiday. And in my culture, there’s Day of the Dead/All Souls Day, but I celebrate it relatively simply. (I mostly just visit the relatives’ graves, trim the grass around them and leave flowers.) So, this month leaves opportunity for me to catch up on my current writing projects, including my upcoming book of short fiction, “Bad Apps”. “Bad Apps” is a collection of stories about evil and deadly phone apps. 

Now for IWSG’s November question: November is National Novel Writing Month. Have you ever participated? If not, why not?

I never did really participate in NaNoWriMo. I did my own alternative versions of it a couple of times. Back then I would, during the month of November, substitute month-long novel writing with month-long novella writing. But even that would eventually bore me because of the short attention span that I have. So, I don’t write long works such as novels and novellas. But I will read them, like I’ll read short stories, and I admire the authors who write them. Many authors put a lot work and a lot of focus into their novels. As far as any long works go, I’ll make short story collections which often run at least 100 pages. I can manage a short story at a time and then gather them into a book rather than write one long story. 

Find out more about “Bad Apps” and the progress that I make on it, by signing up for my free newsletter, “Night Creatures’ Call”! Are you participating in NaNoWriMo?

Today’s IWSG is brought to you by these super co-hosts: Diedre Knight, Douglas Thomas Greening, Nick Wilford, and Diane Burton! IWSG was founded by awesome author Alex Cavanaugh, writer of the Cassa Series of novels! 

Until next time . . .