WIP: ME

We hear all sorts of terms whirling around the writing world: plot, marketing, pitches, and yes WIP. I have a few WIPs--emphasis on in progress--started. Whenever an idea pops into my head, I start a new folder on my handy-dandy laptop. 


If I'm lucky, I'll fill the folder with a skeletal outline. Other times, a sentence or two summary is all I'll do. I flipped through those folders the other day, not realizing how many I'd accumulated. They're primarily YA and MG, but I had a few first reader ideas that I'd foldered-all-up.

I mentioned yesterday how I have a hard time being me at times. So it got me thinking ( light bulb moment) about the real WIP in my life: ME. Do I have folders in my head holding my experiences, no matter how grand or minute? Of course I do. And I'm not simply referring to memories. I mean the place in my psyche that's grown over the years because of my surroundings, my choices, my hopes, dreams, fears, or heck--love of mustard. We all have them. (u may be a ketchup lover, sorry.) I've discovered that I yearn for them, sometimes consciously, other times not so much.


I also have a folder in my head I call my sticky note. It's the place where all the unmentionables or issues I'd rather avoid go. (note the sticky note above...Ah...) 


Got one of these? 


Well Ana, my MC does. She'd do just about anything to avoid thoughts of her missing mom and her empathic abilities, to the point of endangering herself. Instead of facing her sticky note horrors, she decides to investigate the local Hybrid (snooty lycan/energy vampire) and call him out. Eh...probably not the best idea. But hey, she stopped thinking about her mom...for a bit.


I've decided to step out and try to give you more of me the person as well as the writer. That was just a glimpse. I'm definitely not known for posting my work online. Only exception to that stiff rule is my writing communities like YAlitchat or Inkwell. But the ladies and I over on Oasis for YA have decided to start offering up bits of our work for critique in hope to help others.


And  yes, Writers' Ally may even see a bit of my work too. A snippet here; a frayed end there. I'll be writing in the voice of one of my characters, mostly Ana I'm sure. 


Would that scare you off? Using my examples to work through issues we all have? Would 'proceeding with caution' be too much?


So do you think your psyche influences your writing, too? Or can you separate yourself from it all. Are you a WIP like me?


***Want to meet a fantastic young writer who is going places? Check out part of my interview with teen writing sensation Riley Carney over on Oasis for YA!! Second half to come soon. And don't forget to check out my girl, Kay's contest. 200 words of wooing and smooching.