Let’s face it – there are times when we all need help. If you have water spurting out under your sink you call a plumber. If the lights go out and won’t come back on again, you call the electrician. If you’ve got this funny rash that seems to be spreading … well you get my drift.
For worried writers the ‘go to’ place is the Insecure Writer’s Support Group [website and sign up here] which was started and is administered by best selling author Alex J Cavanaugh. The first Wednesday of each month is the day upon which writers in every and any genre and at any level of expertise can let their hair down and have a legitimate gripe about anything that is worrying them.
Worries that are stifled, that aren’t voiced, that are kept secret, have a horrible habit of both growing and attracting companions. And then – oh, then the nasty ratbags have an absolute orgy and breed like lemmings until the poor writer’s brain is buzzing night and day with concerns that pushes them closer and closer to the cliff edge of giving up writing and concentrating on cost accountancy or shelving tins of beans in Tescos. Or, in my case, last months sales figures.
Bitching about your creative worries is healthy but can get a bit tedious for the readers, so restricting it to one day a month is a jolly good idea! This is the day, guys, and this is your warning that there’s some whining under the cut!
At the moment I’m worrying about marketing On A Lee Shore. What I would really like to do is concentrate on building my backlist. I’ve been trained since birth not to show off, never to be conceited enough to tell anyone that I’ve done something that I think is good, not to push myself forward ahead of anyone else, and so have a visceral revulsion when trying to sell my work. A backlist of quality fiction is almost as good, I figure, as a charming and confident marketing style.
BUT – and this is the big worry – since my partner retired and is around the house 24/7, I’m not getting the peace and quiet I need to write. He worked for 40 years in a constant babble of noise and finds the silence, which I need to be able to concentrate, disturbing and uncomfortable. TV is on downstairs, Radio 4 is on in the shed, study, kitchen and bedroom, and if he finds himself somewhere where he can’t hear any of those he talks to himself.
So what to do?
My allergy to promotion? I figure that the habits of 50+ years are a bit too hard to break so I’ll do the things I can cope with and hope that the publisher deems it enough.
Home environment? 🙂 sorted! I bought an industrial quantity of earplugs on Ebay and hope they do the trick.
Elin Gregory 
The best ear plugs I’ve ever used are silicone and made by Mack. No little pieces of plastic will do; they don’t block the noise adequately and are always falling out.
I, too, require damn near silence, and not just when I write. I’m so tired of the world of noise. Everywhere you go, music is playing, bass is booming, people are talking. Whatever happened to silence is golden? There’s a guy in my building who stands in the entry talking to himself while he smokes (which is against the law (the smoking, not the talking) and he’s been told, but he does it anyway). Talk talk talk. I can hear him all the way up on the third floor. My thought? “No wonder he never gets laid.” (He has other worse habits, as well, but I won’t go into them here; heh.)
An ex of mine always has the TV on. He might not be watching it, but it’s on day and night, and on CNN to boot (could be worse; could be Fox; ugh). When I visit him, he at least turns the sound down, but I always bring the ear plugs so I can sleep.
I’ve read the biggest crisis couples go through after the kids are grown and gone is when one or both of them retire and must find a way to deal with each other again. Good luck! 🙂
Ooh thanks for the recommendation. The ones I bought are made from a kind of squishy mouldable foam and they deaden the noise of TV and radio considerably but I’d still be able to hear a scream for help or someone shouting “Fire!”
I’ll get it sorted and will probably also feel a bit happier about marketing Lee Shore when the publisher’s office opens again and I can get them to change the grammatical howler they wrote into the poor book’s blurb. Anyone can make a mistake but *facepalm* the blurb isn’t the place to do it.
Very true! Errors in the blurb can and do put readers off. “If there’s a screw-up in the blurb, then the book must be screwed up, too.”
(I admit I am one of those readers.)
So am I, so you can imagine how distraught I am. The office opens on Monday. I’ll have the email at the top of the pile.
I have learned to ‘blank out’ Baby TV up to a point but its not always possible. Then, there you are in the middle of a tender love scene or a tense exchange between your heroes and……..WHAAAAH! The baby’s fallen over or walked into a door. *sigh* 😳 Ok, I’m off to join IWSG. See you over there. 😉
LOL, that’s the way. I remember that feeling very well – the dislocation as ones mind suddenly snaps back into real life as baby cries or, in my case, himself wants to know where he left his keys, wants a cup of coffee or asks “What are you doing?”
See you there.
I’ve found that big, over-the-ear headphones playing classical music (well, I favor baroque, but you get the idea) at a low volume will drown out television and other household noises, and the music doesn’t get in the way of my writing. Sometimes it even helps, like when I played Handel’s “Music for the Royal Fireworks” during the Vauxhall Gardens scene. 😉
As for “On A Lee Shore” — bought, tweeted, will mention on my Goodreads! You know I’m a sucker for Age of Sail.
I feel like a little kid waving around a crayon drawing, going “look what I wrote!” but as the book doesn’t come out until August, I suppose I’ve got time to get used to it.
I find music inspiring and listen to it when I’m driving or doing housework or doing accounts, but for writing I need peace. The voices in my head can be a bit faint and are easily drowned up even by the perfection that is Bach or Handel.
I hope you enjoy OALS and don’t find too many howlers. Alex said that nothing in it made her go ‘pffft’ so I have my fingers crossed.
August – closer to the date let me know when you want a spot on my blog and an interview and so forth. I might curl up and die about promoting myself but i can pimp for my friends until the cows come home 😀
I can see August is going to be very busy for me — everyone is being so sweet about offers of guest posts! Thank you! I’ll be sure to let you know.
Marketing is tough when we’ve always been taught not to brag about ourselves. It’s hard to change those habits. I’ve found that just mentioned that I write is a good opener, and then if people ask, I can tell them. I also like online promotion; it seems a little less “in-your-face” for marketing.
I write best with just a little bit of background noise – forced air heat, kids or dogs in the background but not next to me, that sort of thing. TV noise is just horrible. Earplugs or a trip to the quiet section at the library are good ways to avoid the noise.
Happy writing in 2013!!!
Thanks for commenting. I may have cracked the noise problem by going to bed at 10 and getting up at 5.30. that gives me 2 full peaceful hours before I have to walk the dog. 🙂
Ear plugs sound like a perfect solution. Mayb I’ll get some before the next family holidays/school holidays. It’s sooo hard to write when the tv is on all day, when music is blasting out of every music box and appliance, and what about all that fighting and arguing….aaagghhhh!!! Happy New Year Elin! xxx
I got squishy foam ones. They don’t cut out all the noise – I can hear the phone or the smoke alarm – but they dull the edge of TV and radio and were only about $4 for 20 prs including postage.
Happy new year to you too!.
I have on my iTunes several “Writing Playlists” that are soothing and easily relegated to background noise. Finding the ideal writing environment is like finding the right pair of shoes. You want it in every possible combination. Some days I get more accomplished at my real office than my home desk.
Great post!
Trying to get the lemming image out of my head… 😛
I have three middleschoolers, so noise can be a problem. I bought some stereo headphones, and now I listen to instrumental music while I write. It’s not as good as total silence, but it’s better than uncovered ears.
Great post!
IWSG #137 until Alex culls the list again.