The Insecure Writer's Support Group

It's the first Wednesday of the month, and that means it's time for another meeting of The Insecure Writer's Support Group. Our leader Alex J. Cavanaugh has assembled another group of marvelous co-hosts: Pat Garcia, J.Q. Rose, and Natalie Aguirre.

Be sure to check out the IWSG website for lots of writing advice and resources!

Here is the optional question for this month: Writer's have secrets! What are one or two of yours, something readers would never know from your work?

This is a tricky but fun question. It's tricky, because I've shared a lot about myself on this blog over the years. I think my biggest secret that I'm a little embarrassed about is how disorganized I can be with my writing sometimes. I try to plot, and I keep track of my word counts. These are simply meager attempts to get a handle on the chaos that is my writing process.

I can never write a story in sequential order. I hop in between scenes in an attempt to get an overview of the story as a whole. It's almost as if I need to write a scene for each of the major plot points in the story before I go back and fill in the rest. It's part of my process, and while it feels chaotic in the moment, it ultimately seems to work out.

As for non-writing related secrets someone might not know about me, I drink most of my cups of coffee cold. This isn't because I prefer to drink them cold, either. It happens purely through circumstance. Sometimes I get involved in something and forget I have a cup of coffee. Other times I have to put it up because my daughters both love grabbing at my coffee, so I can't have it within their reach out of fear they might burn themselves. The end result either way is cold coffee. And even though I would rather drink it hot, I'll still take it at whatever temperature I can because I want the caffeine.

Lastly, I'd like to wish my husband a Happy Anniversary! As of yesterday, we've been married 13 years.

What secrets do you have?