Rooting for the Antihero (Plus IWSG Anniversary!)

It's the first Wednesday of the month, which means it's the posting day for the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Click here to learn more and sign up!

September is the IWSG's fifteenth anniversary!!! 

I actually started my own blogging journey that same year, but I didn't join the group until almost two years later, and if I've labeled all of my posts correctly, this post will be my 153rd post for the IWSG! I'm definitely thankful for this group for so many reasons. I love having an online community of other writers (even when I don't feel like I'm a writer anymore) that can commiserate about all the highs and lows of writing. I also had a short story published in one of the IWSG anthologies, which was a great opportunity. 

And honestly, if it weren't for the IWSG, I probably wouldn't blog at all anymore. It's nice to have that monthly reminder to keep writing and stay connected. So congrats to Alex and all of the IWSG for reaching this anniversary!

My tenth wedding anniversary is also this month! Hubby and I are going back to NYC (yes, again...) and seeing Harry Styles at Madison Square Garden. I have made no other plans for what to do when we're there. Probably eat lots of pizza. 

Back to the IWSG! This month's optional question is: Do you have a favorite character archetype you tend to gravitate toward in your writing?

I honestly don't think I do. And that's not just because I have no idea what I like to write anymore! I feel like my MC's definitely have some things in common from time to time, but they've also been very different. But there also haven't been that many of them, to be honest. I tend to get very caught up in a particular story for years and not much can distract me from it. It was like that when I wrote my first novel in high school, and definitely has been that way with Uneven Lines. Now if I could just finish something and publish it...

I love the idea of an antihero or a morally gray character. I don't really have any ideas other than UL that involve an MC like that at the moment, but it's definitely something I'd like to explore more in the future. It is really fun to write a character like that. 

What are your favorite character archetypes?

Whoopsie!

It's the first Wednesday of the month, which means it's the posting day for the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Click here to learn more and sign up!

So it's currently 4:21 PM where I live and I just remembered I never wrote my post for today. In my defense, after work yesterday I am officially on vacation for 12 days! But what was the first thing I did on said vacation? Wait and hour and a half at the RMV to get my license renewed/Real ID! So much fun! After that hubby and I went out for dinner for some much needed food and cocktails. When I got home, I told myself, hey, I'm on vacation! I'll just write my post first thing in the morning! And well, I obviously forgot. 

What was my excuse for procrastinating up until yesterday? No comment. 

Anyhoo, this month's optional question is: As a writer/author what is something you regret? Or something that you wish you'd done differently in your writing process?

Pretty much anytime I sent my novel to any sort of friend or coworker to read, or entered it into a contest. Basically anytime I sent it out into the world. (Except for the one actual beta reader I had. She was great!) 

There were two major problems with this: one, the book was never ready. It's still not ready. I want to change so much before trying to get it published. I can't believe I was brave enough to let so many people lay eyes on it. 

Two, people suck. They promise to read but never finish. Or in the case of the contest, they crush all your hopes and dreams by telling you how much you suck for even trying to write this story.

But maybe one day when I finally finish this novel and it turns out the way it's supposed to turn out, all of the nonsense will have been worth it. One can only hope. 

Now I will attempt to read some other blogs and get back to my vacation!

Get Out of Bed!

It's the first Wednesday of the month, which means it's the posting day for the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Click here to learn more and sign up!

Pretty rude of the first Wednesday sneaking up on me by also being the first day of July. I say that as if I wasn't going to procrastinate anyway and write this late the day before, but still. It was an "oh, crap, that's tomorrow??" kind of moment. 

But anyhoo...I do not have an answer for this month's question, so I'm also on my own here deciding on what to write about. Luckily, there is something on my mind. Well, some of the time. 

As I've mentioned maybe once or twice, I've had a serious creative block when it comes to writing for the past few years. I have no desire to write anything, whether it's an old idea that needs to be finished, or the very rare new idea that pops into my brain. But not only am I not writing anything, but for the most part, I'm not even thinking about my stories. 

But there is a certain place I find my brain actually drifting off into story land and picturing my characters and their stories. And that's when I wake up in the morning. 

Now, it's not every single morning. It's only the days where I don't get up for work, where I can just wake up naturally and stay in bed for as long as I want. I get up at 4:45 AM for work, so that usually doesn't give much thinking time between waking and actually getting up. It's when I don't want to get up quite yet, but I can't get back to sleep, either.

Just this morning (Tuesday), actually, I found my brain jumping from different story ideas and watching the scenes play out in my head. It gives me hope that the desire to write is still somewhere in there.

The only problem is taking this thinking time and actually doing something with it. When I'm lying in bed picturing my stories, I actually feel like I want to get up and write. But it's hard to motivate myself to actually do it. By the time I get up and get ready for the day, the thoughts have left my brain. There are other tasks to focus on (even if that task is just watching TV...). 

There have been times where I've said to myself, I'm going to do it different today! I'm going to follow the inspiration out of bed and at least LOOK at the story I'm thinking about, try reading it and seeing if I can get back into it. But I never do. 

I know the answer is simple. Just immediately get up out of bed and do something! Don't even brush your teeth! Go straight to the laptop and just read or write some stupid stream of consciousness. It's like I need to shake myself on those mornings. Stop letting the inspiration slip away!! 

I guess I don't really need advice when the answer seems pretty obvious. But does anyone else have a particular time of day when your stories are on your mind? What do you do to take advantage of that inspiration? 

Ideas from Everywhere (and Nowhere)!

It's the first Wednesday of the month, which means it's the posting day for the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Click here to learn more and sign up!

This month I'm a co-host! The other fabulous co-hosts are: Victoria Marie Lees, Natalie Aguirre, and C. Lee McKenzie! Be sure to give them a visit! 

This month's optional question is: Do most of your story ideas come from one place (the news, dreams, etc.) or do they hit from all over the place?

My ideas come from everywhere! Or in the case of the last few years, nowhere! But more on that later...

Since all of my ideas are old, you've probably heard all this before. But maybe you're new here, or if not, I can tell you again! 

Uneven Lines, my main WIP that I've been working on for FIFTEEN YEARS *ahem* came to me in the span of an evening after watching some trashy exposé on student-teacher relationships on the E! channel. For some stupid reason, I decided I wanted to write about an age gap relationship (I don't recommend it), and went off to my college writing class with no concrete details in mind. While sitting in class, Jordan (the main character of UL) birthed himself from my brain and threw his plot at my head like a brick. And the rest is a long, painful (but occasionally enjoyable) history.

I've gotten at least one idea from a dream. The story I still call Shiny New Story, although it is no longer shiny or new, is one. I dreamt about two characters meeting up in a barn, and for some reason I knew the entire scope of their relationship in that scene, and I found that super interesting. I can't tell you what it is--spoilers!--but I have written a bit of this story and would love to finish it someday. 

I've gotten story ideas against my will, like with Sexy Fluff #1 (there will be others...). I was just minding my own business writing a pointless scene that takes place before Book 3 in Jordan's maybe someday trilogy, just for funsies. I realized how easily I was writing this scene, one that was leaning more towards romance than the super complicated stuff I usually write. Then I thought, huh, maybe if I tried writing more typical romance I could actually bust out books faster and maybe actually get something published. But that's silly because I don't have a plot idea, right? Ha, WRONG. The next morning I woke up with a rivals-to-lovers story idea and wrote over 50k words of it for NaNoWriMo. And, you guessed it, I haven't finished it! There's a recurring theme here, isn't there?

I can get ideas from music. There are a few songs on Taylor Swift's album 1989 that remind me of my first relationship in high school, and since there is also a song called "Wonderland" on that album, I thought I'd just tie all my ideas about this together and write a fictionalized version of that relationship that is also a play on Alice in Wonderland. There's a line in the song "Out of the Woods" that I love: "the monsters turned out to be just trees," which has made me think of my mindset back then about my own mental health. Basically the overarching idea would be that even if you think it will, a relationship will not fix all of your problems. And the fact that this boyfriend was from the same friend group made it feel like a spectacle at times, makes me resonate with the song "I Know Places." How does Alice in Wonderland tie in? I'm not sure yet, except...we're all mad here! 

I've never actually written out that idea before so let me know if it sounds interesting or crazy! Oh, and I came up with the whole thing on the treadmill.

Lately, though, the ideas have been sparse. I honestly can't remember the last time that I came up with a new idea. On some level, I guess that's a good thing, since I have so many unfinished ideas to work with. But it can also be frustrating since I've been struggling to write anything for a few years. Recently, I actually started to think about a new idea that was based on my current situation. There's a main character who is a writer or maybe another type of artist that is creatively frustrated, maybe struggling and feeling blocked in other portions of her life as well.

I thought maybe it could turn into a horror/thriller. Maybe the protagonist comes across something that could help her but isn't all it seems to be, kind of like the movie The Substance. But it also reminded me of a season of American Horror Story, and I got stuck thinking of where to go with this story to make it original and interesting. All the ideas seemed to have been done before. And like with this protagonist, I've hit the wall with my creative ideas. Again. But hey, it was just a whisper of an idea. Maybe the next step will come to me soon. 

Well, I've certainly rambled enough!!!!! Basically, my ideas can come from anywhere. Thanks for stopping by! 

Where do you get your story ideas? 

Inspiring Feedback

It's the first Wednesday of the month, which means it's the posting day for the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Click here to learn more and sign up!

This month's optional question is: What was the most inspiring feedback you received from readers, including agents, editors, and beta readers?

That's a hard question to answer because it's been so long since I've actually gotten any feedback on my writing. And like many of you insecure writers, I'm sure, what I tend to remember the most is the bad feedback. That's definitely happened more than once and has thrown me off my game, making me question whether I should be writing what I'm writing in the first place. 

But inspiring feedback? I'll have to go into the archives...

Ok, so I literally had to go into the archives because I could not think of a single piece of feedback that I found *inspiring*. The truth is, I haven't had enough pieces of writing that people have actually read to even get feedback, good or bad. I had writing classes in college where we did give feedback for others' works, but none of what I wrote was all that memorable. There's also a few snippets in the reviews for the Hero Lost anthology that mention my story "The Last Dragon," but that's about it. 

There's also that really stupid thing I did where I sent the second draft of Uneven Lines to some friends and coworkers as I rewrote/edited it. Only ONE PERSON even acknowledged that they finished it. That was about it. Now that I'm thinking of it, actually, I did get a fun in-person response when I sent out a particular chapter that ended a bit dramatically. When I next saw one of my coworkers she screamed at me "WHAT DID YOU DO?????" Now that's the kind of response I could live for...

But I've only had one actual beta reader who is actually a writer, and read the whole thing, and gave all sorts of feedback, good and constructive. I saved all of her emails with the feedback and as I was reading it over to write this post, I came across my favorite part, and what I think finally answers the question:

"What can I say about voice, Sarah? Sometimes writers just get things right and there’s nothing a beta reader can do but read. Jordan’s voice is just that. It's almost diary like, but not always progressive. Things don’t always happen to move the story along in the typical sense but his voice sure as hell has momentum. He’s a very witty guy and it’s fun to be inside his head. Voice is not easy and I hope that when you write your next story Jordan isn’t too hard to shake off. When you have someone down to a T, they are not easy to get rid of, sometimes their voice stays with you forever… "

I love this feedback and I'm glad I found it again. Jordan's voice was really one of the few things that I felt I got right in this book and that I was proud of myself for. It's something I think I can do well when I put my mind to it. And that last part really hits me right now because I feel like I have lost that voice. 

Maybe I should print this quote out and frame it. Maybe if I look at it every day, I could get that voice to return. 

The Ultimate Playlist

It's the first Wednesday of the month, which means it's the posting day for the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Click here to learn more and sign up!

You guys won't believe it! I really buckled down over the past month and after years of burnout, I finally finished my third draft of Uneven Lines! And I really think it's ready to be published!!

You didn't really fall for that one, did you? 

Anyhoo, this month's optional question is: If you have a playlist (or could put one together) that either gets you in the groove to write or fits with one of your books, what is it? What type of music or what songs?

BOY DO I!!!!

I love putting together playlists for my stories. I've been doing it since I was a teenager. I've always found that listening to a playlist before sitting down to write usually gets the creative juices flowing. 

For Uneven Lines in particular, music has been an important part of the process. Jordan's love of music is evident in the book and he actually becomes a musician as his series progresses. So with him as a muse, I've found throwing as much music at him as I can is my best bet to get some writing done (or at least it used to be...). 

I have a straightforward 11 song playlist that goes through the main plot points of the book, but a few years ago, I decided that wasn't good enough. I wanted to find a song that fit as many scenes as possible, and called it the "Ultimate Playlist." I consider it something that may never be finished. There are always new songs to discover, after all. And hopefully new scenes to write...

So far the playlist is clocking in at 62 songs and 4 hours and 15 minutes. I should force myself to write for that amount of time after listening to it. And if you're curious about the songs on the playlist, you can take a look: 

It's not completely chronological because some of the songs I haven't found a specific scene for. It starts in order up until "Handcuffs" by Brand New (which would be for the very end of the book). The rest of the playlist is strictly VIBES. "The No Seatbelt Song" by Brand New has always been my #1 vibe song for this book. Basically there's a lot of angst on this playlist. 

What kind of songs would be on your book playlist? Do you like angsty songs?

How Do You Launch a Book?

It's the first Wednesday of the month, which means it's the posting day for the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Click here to learn more and sign up!

This month's optional question is: What elements do you include in your book launch? Or what do you have in mind for your future book launch? Or what advice do you have to offer to others planning to launch a book?

I've never published my own book, but I was one of the authors in the IWSG anthology book Hero Lost: Mysteries of Death and Life. When the book was released we were hosted on a lot of blogs where we could answer questions and talk about our stories. 

I feel like blogging doesn't have the same impact as it used to. Do people still do blog tours for a book launch? I'm sure that would be easy enough to set up if you have enough connections. Other than that, I would be completely clueless! 

I've always had this fantasy that if I were to have an in person event for Uneven Lines, I would bring cupcakes and other treats that are featured in the book, since food plays such a big role in it. I've always thought that would be a fun addition to a book signing or reading. 

I suppose I would try to use social media to promote the book as well, especially with Instagram and TikTok. I'm actually challenging myself this month to post one TikTok every day (although it can be about whatever I want, not just writing), just to have something as a creative outlet since I haven't been writing for so long. Maybe if I start talking about writing, it'll make me actually want to write. (I'm @sarahannefoster if you're on there and want to be friends!)

SPEAKING OF VIDEOS (nice segue there...) I have to share something that happened to me! It has nothing to do with writing but I have to tell everyone I know!!! 

I mentioned last month that hubby and I were going to New York City over Valentine's Day weekend and I had the best time! We went to see the musical Just in Time (for the second time) because I adore Jonathan Groff, and during the curtain call performance I got to dance with him! And I sang! In front of a whole Broadway theater! I can't believe I did that! And he gave me a rose for Valentine's Day! Yes I still have it!

I can't for the life of me figure out how to upload a good quality video into the post so if you'd like to watch it, click here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DUxBQZtDAyP/ 

How's everyone else doing? Have you ever done a book launch? Or danced with your favorite celebrity?