IWSG: Wednesday, July 3, 2019 ~ Ennui

It's the first Wednesday of the month,
the day that members of the
Insecure Writer's Support Group
share their writing struggles
and writing successes
and offer their encouragement
and support to fellow writers.






To visit the IWSG website, click here.

To become a member of the IWSG, click here.

Our wonderful co-hosts who are volunteering today,
along with IWSG founder Alex Cavanaugh are:
Erika Beebe,  Natalie Aguirre, Jennifer Lane, M.J. Fifield, Lisa Buie-Collard, and Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor.

I hope you have a chance to visit today's hosts and thank them for co-hosting.
I'm sure they would appreciate a visit and an encouraging comment.
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Every month the IWSG announces a question that members can answer
with advice, insight, a personal experience, or a story in their IWSG posts.

Or, the question can inspire members
if they aren't sure what to write about on IWSG Day.

Remember the question is optional.
This month's featured question is:

What personal traits have you written into your character(s)?

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Thank goodness for the Insecure Writers Support Group.
I've been struggling with everything this month, including
blogging,
and without the commitment of posting for the IWSG,
I'm not sure when I would have gotten moving again.

Nothing bad has happened.  
I've just succumbed to a growing ennui
as frustrations piled up during June.
Recent days have found this non-napper overwhelmed,
hiding under a blanket, and sleeping in the afternoon.

Stern self-talk has not worked as I've fallen further and further behind
with writing, blogging, exercising, downsizing our belongings,
and preparing our house to put it on the market.

I wake up from one of these uncustomary naps and peek out from under my blanket
hoping someone has made it all go away.  No such luck.

However the arrival of IWSG Day has driven me back to my computer
and forced me to write something, anything this evening.

With regard to this month's IWSG question, I usually write nonfiction;
so, when I do have characters in a piece,
they are real people and I use their actual character traits.
My current nonfiction work is a memoir, so I am absolutely in the story.

Two Unlikely Protagonists

My Father and I

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Circa 1974

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

When I write fiction I draw from people, situations, and places I've known.
I naturally write realistic fiction, and it's hard for me to move beyond that.

Last month on IWSG Day I came across a member
who enjoyed writing and reading noir mysteries ~
My apologies, but I can't remember who she was.

Curious, I googled that genre and found a Barnes & Noble list
of 50 Must-Read Noir Detective Novels compiled by Jeff Somers.
One of the fifty was Brighton Rock by Graham Greene.
Since I love Brighton, England, I had to read the book.

Brighton Rock is brilliant.  
Greene's harrowing noir mystery is set
in the criminal underworld of seaside Brighton in the mid-1930s.
His characters are unforgettable, and Greene created them
with a vivid, original style of writing that is a joy to read. 

barnesandnoble.com

Greene knocked my feet out from under me with his writing.
He left me stunned on the ground, paralyzed by inadequacy.

And so I nap under my blanket.

How do you keep writing, when you feel stymied by ennui and genius?

I'm going to hit publish, go to bed, get up tomorrow,
and summon some courage to get going again.
I will not miss IWSG Day!

Me, with the Most Courageous Person I've Known

My Mother, Sara MacDonald MacBeath

Summer 1951

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved