Melissa Maygrove

  This is my   Insecure Writers Support Group   post for May 2026. Alex's awesome co-hosts this month  are:  Jenni Enzor, Jemima Pett, Jamie of Uniquely Maladjusted but Fun, and Kim Lajevardi! Please stop by their blogs and say thank you .  💻💻💻💻💻 I'm participating in the May I Write A Novel writing challenge again this year, hosted by Craig Martelle over at Successful Indie Author . There's still time to join the fun if you want to challenge yourself and rack up some serious wordcount.  The format is different for 2026. Instead of using a community spreadsheet, you register  on the site, then you post updates on your progress that show up in a main feed that's visible to others. You can create and name different projects on your personal page and keep track of more than one. It's a really neat setup. There are videos for those who like to do sprints, and the entire thing is available year-round. It's not just for the writing challenge months...

  This is my   Insecure Writers Support Group   post for April 2026. Alex's awesome co-hosts this month  are:    Cathrina Constantine,   Kate Larkinsdale,   Rebecca Douglass  & me! Please stop by their blogs and say thank you .  💻💻💻💻💻 I have so much to post about this month, I don't know where to start!  I'll begin by answering this month's question. 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? Sometimes I search instrumental music scores that fit the mood of my WIP and listen for a bit, but I write better with brown noise in the background. It keeps my mind from wandering, and using it consistently reduces distractions and increases my word count. If you'd like to try it, here's the YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpARSyDLKes  It's 8 hours long and has very rare ad interruption....

I'm spending this month's IWSG in my writing cave. See you next month!

  This is my   Insecure Writers Support Group   post for February 2026. Alex's awesome co-hosts this month  are:   J Lenni Dorner, Victoria Marie Lees, & Sandra Cox! Please stop by their blogs and say thank you .  💻💻💻💻💻 February 4 question -  Many writers have written about the experience of rereading their work years later. Have you reread any of your early works? What was that experience like for you? I wrote three novels before publishing any and debuted with the third. Then I followed that by writing and publishing WIP #4.  (To clarify, WIPs 1 & 2 are paranormal romance; WIPs 3 & 4 are western historical romance.) The first two manuscripts got put on the back burner for several years before polishing them and publishing them under a different pen name. I had done several rounds of edits before setting them aside, and I still cringed when I went back to them--especially the first one.  Side note: I've apologized repeatedly...

  This is my   Insecure Writers Support Group   post for January 2026. Alex's awesome co-hosts this month  are: Shannon Lawrence, Olga Godim, Jean Davis,  &  Jacqui Murray! Please stop by their blogs and say thank you .   💻💻💻💻💻 January question: Is there anything you added to your writing plans for 2026 that you couldn't get done in 2025? I investigated going wide with my other pen name, and I've positioned myself to do it, but I haven't actually pushed the button. Besides lack of time and other projects taking priority, the learning curve of going from dealing with one retailer and their rules to multiple ones with different and sometimes conflicting rules makes my brain say, "Nope, nope, nope."  I'll do it eventually. On the publishing front... I'm ducking into my writing cave every chance I get, trying to finish my current WIP . This is the first time I've put a book up for preorder before it was written. I'm not sure I like thi...

I'm skipping   Insecure Writers Support Group  this month. Merry Christmas! See you next year!

  This is my   Insecure Writers Support Group   post for November 2025. Alex's awesome co-hosts this month  are:  Jennifer Lane, Jenni Enzor, Renee Scattergood, Rebecca Douglass, Lynn Bradshaw,  & Me! Please stop by their blogs and say thank you .  💻💻💻💻💻 Before I dive into my IWSG post, I want to link a post I made a few days ago , in case you missed it. It's an update on reformatting book 1 and the effect it had on series read-through. #datajunkienirvana November 5 question - When you began writing, what did you imagine your life as a writer would be like? Were you right, or has this experience presented you with some surprises along the way? I love this question! I look forward to blog-hopping around and reading other people's answers. As a kid, I jotted a few short stories for fun. Then I set writing aside for decades. Flash forward to my 40's. A popular series got me hooked, and I became a voracious reader. That made me decide I wo...

Last month, I posted about reformatting my debut novel, Come Back .  As part of the glow-up, I added a series link in the back matter, plus a QR code for the paperback, and a couple of sentences that told the reader which books contained stories of supporting characters (books 2 & 4). My goal was to improve series read-through. The e-book interior was updated September 12th and the paperback September 16th, so, the backmatter changed roughly half way through the month. I compared both Kindle e-book sales and Kindle Unlimited page reads by looking at total sales and page reads for each of books 2-4 and calculating what percentage they each were of the sales/reads of book 1. Ex: If I sold twenty copies of book 1 for the month and ten copies of book 2, read-through for book 2 would be 50%.  Of course, I have no way of knowing whether the same reader bought all four books - or in the case of KU, whether customers were reading the entire series or even the entire book - but th...

  This is my   Insecure Writers Support Group   post for October 2025. Alex's awesome co-hosts this month  are:     Beth Camp, Crystal Collier,  & Cathrina Constantine! Please stop by their blogs and say thank you .  💻💻💻💻💻 October's question -  What is the most favorite thing you have written, published or not, and why? That's a tough one. The first novel I ever wrote will always be dear to my heart. But, after reading through it and my debut novel when I reformatted them recently, I'd have to choose my debut, Come Back .  (Cover by Carrie Butler) I spent a lot of time writing and polishing that one, and it shows. It has several scenes that evoke strong emotions. I still tear up when I read them, even after all these years. Following up on my post from last month... I finished reformatting Come Back and uploaded the revised version to Amazon. I gave the book a general glow-up, but the main change was updating the back matter. I...

  This is my   Insecure Writers Support Group   post for September 2025. Alex's awesome co-hosts this month  are:  Kim Lajevardi,   Natalie Aguirre, Nancy Gideon,   & Diedre Knight! Please stop by their blogs and say thank you .  💻💻💻💻💻 The  scare Amazon gave me  in July was a huge motivator. I've been a very busy bee. 🐝 There's a progress report after this month's question.  I've included pictures for your enjoyment, but it's long.  Feel free to read on the diagonal. LOL September question - What are your thoughts on using AI, such as GPChat, Raptor, and others with your writing? Would you use it for research, storybible, or creating outlines/beats? I'm still deciding how I feel about AI and where the boundaries should be. I might use it in the planning stages (ex: to brainstorm or turn my synopsis into outline form), but sinking into fictional worlds and crafting stories is my therapy. I won't give that over to a com...