It’s the first Wednesday of the month and this means the Insecure Writer’s Support Group (#IWSG) is meeting. It doesn’t matter that it’s Blogtober and the 31-day writing challenge is running. It’s already past 8PM as I write this, so I probably won’t have time for a separate post for these challenges. Maybe I’ll catch up with the word prompts from the latter challenge tomorrow. Maybe not.
For those visiting from #Blogtober21 or the 31-day writing challenge anyway, the Insecure Writer’s Support Group gathers each first Wednesday of the month to discuss our writing insecurities, fears, successes and setbacks. There is also an optional question each month.
First, let me share that I did quite well in the writing department over the past month. I published 22 blog posts in September, one more than in August. I also think I did an okay job of broadening my writing horizons. I (re)discovered the diary app Diarium and did an okay job keeping a journal in there for part of the month. Not so much in October so far.
For October, my goal is just to write a blog post everyday in keeping with the challenges I’m participating in. I may or may not go with the 31-day writing challenge word prompts. I don’t really intend to write much in the way of fiction or poetry, but who knows where my muse will lead me?
Now on to this month’s optional question: where do you draw the line with respect to topics or language?
First, I have a clear line relating to language: I don’t swear in my writing. Even when one of my angry alters was writing on here and tried to drop an F-bomb, I censored it out. I do occasionally use bad language on social media. I don’t use profanity though and haven’t for a long time, even before I became a Christian. I in fact find unnecessary use of foul language (which is most use of foul language) quite offputting in my reading too.
With respect to topics, well, since I write mostly autobiographical musings on here, I draw the line where I invade other people’s privacy. For example, when I mention my husband, I make sure it’s in a lighthearted way. I won’t write about our arguments, about our intimate life, etc. I do need to say though that I had to learn to shut up about such topics the hard way. In fact, my husband still likes to jokingly remind me of a post I published on an old, now-private blog in 2008 in which I described my expectations should he and I become a couple officially. In particular, he likes to tease me about calling him a “kid”.
For clarity’s sake, I am not and never was one to describe violence, sex etc. in detail. Even when I still did describe my fights with my parents or my intimate life with my husband, I didn’t use explicit language. Similarly, when I write fiction or poetry, I must say, I generally keep my language quite non-explicit too. I do write about dark topics, but usually by trying to convey the emotions rather than going into detail about the actual facts.
A Multitude of Musings 
Interesting question. The topic has to interest me. I guess that’s the line but I rarely touch on difficult ones. As for swearing. I actually swear a lot in real life but tend not to put it in my writing. In Fiction, if a character swears a lot, I set that up but fade it out (because to be honest, it’s tedious to read as ongoing speech pattern. #Blogtober21
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Thank you for sharing. I understand that it’s hard to read an ongoing pattern of swear words in writing indeed.
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Interesting questions! It was really cool to learn about your point of view on these topics.
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Thank you for saying that.
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There’s a lot that can be said without actually saying some things. Good for you.
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I agree. Thank you for your comment.
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Sounds like you’ve found the style you’re comfortable with. I don’t post much at all about my personal life. Privacy is a biggie for me too 🙂
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Thank you for commenting. It makes sense that you don’t feel comfortable sharing about your personal life. I’ve always been very open and had to learn to be more mindful of my and other people’s privacy.
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Bravo for writing so prolifically. That is the first step in writing…WRITING!! I need to make it happen every day but often make excuses for not picking up the ‘pen’ or the keyboard.
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Oh, I totally get you! I often make excuses for not writing too. I’m glad the 31-day challenge came with prompts, so I can get some inspiration from there.
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Well done, 22 blog posts in a month is fantastic for September and you are doing so well with Blogtober. I don’t swear on my blog, I think I said the “S” word once and that was about someone who was bulling my youngest. x
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Thank you for the compliment on my blogging. You’re doing really well too.
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I will swear occasionally in real life but I dislike the over use of it in books and blogs personally.
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Same for me. I have unlearned to use profanity, but other foul language will sometimes leave my mouth. In writing though, I can control it.
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Writing memoir and personal narratives is a whole other issue I hadn’t thought about! I write cozy mysteries, so no cussing in my books, nor on social media. At home? that’s my business 😀
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Thank you for sharing. Yes, memoir is very different from fiction indeed.
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awesome you can write without dropping F bombs! Unfortunately we cant do that lol!
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I understand you can’t. Then again, we don’t share everything we write in our private journal online or the like, so it’s not exactly that we never drop F-bombs. It’s just that they don’t make it onto our blog.
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Great post, this club, and linky sound good. You’re doing so well with the 31 days of blog posts, Blogtober challenge. I’m really enjoying it. I don’t tend to swear in my blog posts either but would if it was needed (well I would probably Asterix out the end of the word) xxx
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Thank you for stopping by. Yes, it makes sense that you would swear if it were really needed to convey your feelings.
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It’s a great idea to combine the two challenges, otherwise it will feel like a massive task ontop of an already big task! I wish you the best of luck in it.
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I agree. I ended up letting go of the 31-day challenge and just do Blogtober now though.
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