Hi everyone. It’s the first Wednesday of the month and this means it’s time for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group (#IWSG) to meet. I didn’t do as well on my writing in February as I’d hoped. In part, I blame COVID, because over the last week of the month, I felt too blah to write much. I’m still not feeling 100%. Truthfully though, that’s not all. I’ve also just not felt as inspired as I’d hoped.
I’m feeling really disappointed in myself with the fact that I didn’t complete #Write28Days. I know the idea of keeping a landing page was frustrating me from the get-go, but I could have written the posts and not linked them up, I guess. Instead, I gave up after three or four days only.
With this being the case, I’m feeling kind of conflicted about whether to sign up for the A to Z Challenge in April. It was a huge success in both 2020 and 2021 and I know from those years that I can make it work. That being said, I’m so scared of yet another failure and disappointment.
This gets me to this month’s optional question, which is about feeling conflicted about adding a scene to a story or writing a story at all. Since I write autobiographical non-fiction, I feel this sense of conflict all the time. When I was younger, I didn’t feel it much at all, but this led to extreme oversharing. For instance, I remember in 2007, when I’d been in the psych hospital for a month, posting the graphic details of my suicidal crisis to my blog. I later felt the need to erase the most triggering aspects.
Other than that, I’ve not felt conflict about adding scenes into stories or writing a story at all. I mean, my fiction, which I also wrote during my teens and early twenties mostly, was also hugely personal. However, at the time, like I said, I wasn’t really concerned with this.
If you write personal stories, how do you find the right balance between oversharing and not sharing enough?
A Multitude of Musings 
Wishing you all the best. I do add some personal stuff to my writing but I fictionalize it, so maybe it’s not as hard to choose what to share.
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That makes sense. Thanks for sharing your perspective.
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I don’t write much about family or work, which eliminates most potential problems. If I write about anyone else, I am careful not to identify them fully. Otherwise, I don’t mind sharing about myself on my blog, though of course I don’t share everything!
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I think I wouldn’t be writing about work if I had a paid job either. I do write about family, but mostly about my past experiences. I definitely am with you about not identifying anyone else fully. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
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Hi,
I do hope you go back and write the rest of your articles, even though the 28 days may be over. And I hope you do the A to Z.
Wishing you the best in your writing.
Take care.
Shalom aleichem,
Pat G @ EverythingMustChange
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Thanks for your encouragement. That means a lot to me.
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I probably overshare, but its who I am, I cant not share, I feel pulled to share and be truthful about my personal life and what I go through each day. xoxo
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I think most people think I overshare too, so I get where you’re coming from. Just keep being true to who you are.
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Exactly Astrid that’s all we can do keeping ourselves sorry I was dictating I meant to say keep being ourselves
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I agree. No need to apologize, I understood your message.
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Just do what you’re comfortable doing, that’s the only way it should be.
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Thank you. You’re probably right about that.
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Like you, I wonder every year whether to participate in April AtoZ Challenge or not. I have found that doing this challenge helps me get ‘back in the groove’ of blogging more regularly and writing book reviews that I’ve been putting off. So I am signing up for April AtoZ for the 11th year in a row!
So I hope you’ll give it a try – you already have successful years of experience!
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Thanks for the vote of confidence. Good luck on your A to Z too!
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