It’s Tuesday,
January 3rd and I’m sitting here trying to decide what I want to
write for my IWSG post. I’m not feeling particularly insecure today. I found
out over the weekend that I was the ‘Runner UP’ in the December WEP Challenge
and for me, that was a pretty big deal.
Now, you might
be thinking, Geez! that’s second place (or as my kids would say, the first
loser-rude as that may be), but coming in second out of twenty on only my second time entering this Challenge, was a pretty big deal to me. ALSO, the piece I entered was one of the
short stories that I have been accumulating as part of my ‘memoir’. Yeah, you
read that right, I’ve been working on a memoir. I had started thinking that it
would never see the light of day. Why? Because it’s so personal. Let me
explain.
I had the good
fortune to be raised by two especially wacky people. I’m an only child and my
parents were well into their forties when I was born. They had tried before and
my mother suffered numerous miscarriages and even a still born baby. I never
doubted for a minute that I was loved and wanted. I admit while I was a
teenager there were moments when I doubted my love and/or need for them, but in
retrospect…what a fool I was. My mother left this world way too early and
needless to say I was much too young to be without her, but that’s a choice we
don’t get to make. Daddy lived to be ninety and we had our ups and downs but,
today I can honestly say I am who I am because of them and their somewhat
unorthodox upbringing.
My love for
them and the personal nature of my ‘memoir stories’ make them hard to share. As
a writer I’m learning to develop a thicker skin when it comes to critiques of
my work, but when it comes to the non-fiction of my life, it’s a whole ‘nother
story. I’m very protective of my parents and the memories of our life together.
I’m worried that I don’t have the skill to tell these stories in a manner that
would convey the love, devotion and even the spiritual nature of our
relationship, through some of the outrageous experiences we’ve shared.
Anyway… this
brings me back to the WEP Challenge ‘Runner Up’ win. What an incredible boost
to not only my ego, but the possible release of some of these stories that are
so near and dear to my heart.
The IWSG
question of the month is:
What writing rule
do you wish you had never heard?
BACKSTORY!
That pesky rule that says never ever have an ‘info dump’ of BACKSTORY, but
rather dole it out slowly. Sometimes that’s very hard. Sometimes all that
BACKSDTORY, sets the time, place, or world of the story. Sometimes that
BACKSTORY is integral to character development.
I’ve had
several critiques of a WIP that uses BACKSTORY in exactly this (these really,
because it’s more than one) reason, and the critiques are conflicting. they go from, ‘Never
ever do this.’ To, ‘go ahead and break this rule, because it’s really good and
necessary’. I get confused and feel conflicted. I guess I’ll just have to go
with my gut and submit it with the BACKSTORY as an info dump and let the
professionals tell me, if this is a rule that can be broken, and if I have the skill to break it properly.
I have always
had a hard time with rules. Go ahead, blame my parents.
The IWSG is
the brainchild of Alex J. Cavanaugh, today it has grown so much, he has a lot
of help pulling it off. If you want to know more, or would like to read other
insightful posts on this topic, please go HERE for a complete list of the
participants. While you’re there give a shout-out and thank you to Mr.
Cavanaugh and
the others who work so hard to bring this monthly blog-hop your way.
