Shannon Lawrence

Hi! It's time for the August Insecure Writer's Support Group! The IWSG was created by Alex J. Cavanaugh for writers to address their insecurities and lend support to their fellow writers. Anyone can join. Simply click on Alex's name and add your blog link to the list, then post the first Wednesday of every month. I'm co-hosting this month with deidre Knight , Liza , and Pat Garcia ! The optional question this month is: As a writer/author what is something you regret? Or something that you wish you'd done differently in your writing process? The only things I regret are the missed opportunities. I make it a rule to take on things that scare me and to learn and try new things, and I don't regret any of those things I've done. But I regret the times where I've been out of the writing world after various real world things, such as how long it took me to get back into the writing world when my dad died, or how I completely stepped out of it during my previou...

It's time for the July Insecure Writer's Support Group! Created by Alex J. Cavanaugh , the IWSG gives writers a place to air their insecurities and lend their support to others. Anyone can join. Simply click on Alex's name and put your blog on the linky list. This month's co-hosts are Rebecca Douglass , Ronel Janse van Vuuren , Cathrina Constantine , and Jacqui Murray . Be sure to stop by their blogs! The optional question this month is: Is there anything you'd like to see changed, added, and/or rearranged about the book publishing industry? I mean, probably a lot. It would be great if it got the kind of respect and treatment of the other arts. The gatekeeping. The imbalance. So on and so forth.  Do you have a word-count tracker that keeps a display of any sort? I wanted to be able to show novel word count and include it in my newsletters, but I'm not sure what's out there. I can track it on a spreadsheet, but I was hoping for something I input the word coun...

I'm late, but I'm here! The problem with working in finance is that things really hit in the last and first week of the month. It's the first Wednesday of June, which means it's time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Created by Alex J. Cavanaugh , the IWSG is a place where writers can come together to share their insecurities and support each other. Anyone can join. Simply click on Alex's name and your blog to the list. This month's co-hosts are Victoria Marie Lees , Sarah Foster , Natalie Aguirre , and C. Lee McKenzie . The 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? Mine definitely come from all over the place. The news, conversations, various media (movies, books, TV shows, podcasts), etc. I rarely get ideas from dreams, but I've worked through story issues I was having in them! It just takes one little spark, often a throwaway line or item, to get an id...

It's the first Wednesday of May, which means it's time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group! The IWSG was created to bring writers together to share their insecurities and lend each other support. Created by Alex J. Cavanaugh , anyone can join. Simply click on his name and add your name to the linky list, then post the first Wednesday of each month. The co-hosts this month are Jenni Enzor , Jemima Pett , Jamie of Uniquely Maladjusted but Fun , and Kim Lajevardi . The optional question this month is: What was the most inspiring feedback you received from readers, including agents, editors, and beta readers? While I've had some really nice things said about my writing, in general, one of my favorite things is when I'm in an anthology with other authors and stories and my story gets called out as a favorite in reviews. To know one of my stories stuck out to someone feels great. I had a great time in the UK last month and fell even more deeply in love with the little...

It's [past] time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group! (I missed two months, sorry!). The IWSG was created by Alex J. Cavanaugh to support writers and their insecurities. Anyone can join this monthly blog hop. Simply click on Alex's name and add your blog to the linky list and post the first Wednesday of each month. This month's co-hosts are: Melissa Maygrove , Cathrina Constantine , Kate Larkinsdale , and Rebecca Douglass . The optional question this month 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? I don't really do the playlist thing. I just play from my giant bushel of familiar songs, which ranges from musicals to hard rock to rap to electric to pop to whatever-the-heck-I-want. But I will punch it to a more appropriate song for dark or action scenes sometimes. I've never put together a playlist, really, so it won't sur...

Yay, it's time for the first Insecure Writer's Group of 2026! Crud, I have to remember to write that on checks and medical check-in forms now. We'll see how many times I mess that up. Anyway, Happy New Year! The IWSG was created by Alex J. Cavanaugh to provide a place for writers to air their insecurities and support each other. Anyone can join. Simply click on Alex's name above and add your blog to the linky list. The co-hosts this month are Olga Godim , Jean Davis , Jacqui Murray , and me! The optional question this month is: Is there anything in your writing plans for 2026 that you are going to do that you couldn't get done in 2025? Well, yeah! By virtue of having had a gazillion jobs at the same time in 2025, it was a crap year for me in writing. I've been frozen in burnout from having done that to myself since I finally got out from underneath the extraneous jobs, but this year, that changes. I intend to write more, submit more, to finish editing the curre...