Letting Go of Insecurities

Greetings everyone!

I wanted to write a post today in coordinating with the release of Sensual Diversions, a sexy romance anthology. When I was asked a couple of months ago if I’d like to be part of the anthology, I jumped at the chance. Together with 13 other authors, we’ve compiled short stories and excerpts showcasing erotic romance.

Sensual Diversions will be released on Valentine’s Day and if you love erotic romances, you don’t want to miss out on this anthology. 

 

Getting down to the reason for my post.

I admit I’ve had to deal with insecurities with my writing. In fact, it’s one of the things I talked about during the #authorlifemonth challenge.

(You can keep up with all my #authorlifemonth posts on my Instagram account @dramacjc)

So getting back on track. As a romance author, I knew sex scenes were important in the story, yet I was afraid of writing them. I was worried what my family and friends would think if they read a sexy scene. That's one of the reasons why in my earlier books I had the action take place behind closed doors, plus I figured it'd be nice to let the readers use their imagination.

Then one day, I came to a realization.

I had to get over my fear.

When I was writing Westmore: New Beginnings, I decided to try my hand at writing a sexy scene. Writing the scene felt liberating, I was saying goodbye to my fears and hello to a new start with my writing.

Since then, I've become comfortable writing sexy scenes, you’ll be reading more of them in my upcoming books.

The point is you have to let go of your insecurities in order to move forward in your dreams. By doing so, you never know what you can accomplish.

Writing Challenge Motivation

I have a confession to make; I can be lazy when it comes to writing. I have moments where I want to write, but when I sit down at the computer, the feeling goes away. There's been days, even weeks where I've gone without writing.

I started working on my latest WIP back in June, and by mid August I estimated I had only completed 2 chapters. Sure that seemed like good progress, but for me it wasn't much. I needed some motivation, a kick in the butt to get me writing.

Thanks to writingchallenge.org I found my motivation. They host monthly writing challenges where you try to complete 500 words a day or 1 hour of editing. You keep track of your progress on the site's participant log and on Twitter using their hashtags.

I'd been thinking of entering a writing challenge because it'd be a great form of motivation and plus it'd be fun. When I came across writingchallenge.org I decided to give it a shot and see if it helped. So in September I began my writing challenge, each day I wrote 500 words on my WIP, sometimes I'd exceed the limit.

The challenge proved to be a great motivation and by the end of October, I finished my book. Having a goal to complete each day made me want to sit down and write, for the first time in months I was excited about writing.

Since the writing challenge, I've been writing and editing more. I make it a priority to try to write every day and not go more than one week without writing. I'm hoping to release my latest WIP in March and if I stick with my plan like I did in the writing challenge, I should succeed in my goal.

Writing Full-Time

To all those authors who are able to write full-time, I have one thing to say "lucky you."

There are only a handful that gets to pursue their writing dreams full-time. For others, they're still working a day job and pursuing their literary aspirations.

I'm one of those authors who works another job and even though my job's flexible it can still be tough to write on my books. I try to write at least once a day, even if it’s just a sentence or short paragraph. Although, I have to admit there are days where I’m so consumed with work that I don’t get any writing done.

Weekdays are hard for me to work on my books, but weekends are different. On weekends, I don’t have to worry about my job and I can relax and devote my attention to my books. So far this has been an effective method and I’ve found I can get more work finished.

I’d love to write full-time, unfortunately at the moment it’s not possible. But I’m not going to give up on my dream, I’m going to continue writing and maybe one day I’ll be able to become a full-time author.

Taking a Break From Writing

I don't know about anybody else, but when the holidays roll around I find it difficult to get any work done.

Maybe it’s the stress of the holidays that’s causing it, but for the last couple of weeks I’ve hardly got any work done. I had a goal of trying to finish Westmore 5 by Christmas, now it seems like I won’t be reaching my goal.

Although I'm disappointed my goal won't be accomplished, I realize maybe it's for the best. My mind's been clogged lately and I've decided to take a break and enjoy the holidays. The time off will help me relax and recharge my batteries. Then when the new year arrives, I'll be rested and ready to get back to writing.