Melissa Maygrove

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...

  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...

  This is my   Insecure Writers Support Group   post for May 2025. Alex's awesome co-hosts this month  are:  Feather Stone, Janet Alcorn,   Rebecca Douglass,   Jemima Pett,  and Pat Garcia! Please stop by their blogs and say thank you . 💻💻💻💻💻 Before I answer May's question, I'd like to post some information about Craig Martel's 'May I Write a Novel' writing challenge. NaNoWriMo is apparently no more, so Craig stepped up and created this. I've set a bold goal for myself - 35,000 words in 31 days. That means writing 2,000 words/day on my off days to make up for the days I work or have something else scheduled. So far, I've met my daily goals all but once, but it pushes me to the limit. I might not be able to keep up this pace. However it turns out, I'm learning a lot about myself and my writing abilities. We're already a week into it, but jump on in. Each person sets his or her own goal, so join us and adjust yours accordingly. Excerpt of Cr...

  This is my   Insecure Writers Support Group   post for March 2025. Alex's awesome co-hosts this month  are:  Ronel Janse Van Vuuren, Pat Garcia, and Liza @ Middle Passages! Please stop by their blogs and say thank you . 💻💻💻💻💻 Thank goodness for laptops.  No, my desktop didn't die. My mom tried to. LOL  My sweet 89-year-old momma did a header onto the floor at church and banged up one of her knees. She's in a brace for now, unable to drive and needing help with most everything, so I'm staying with her for the foreseeable future. That'll teach me to procrastinate pre-scheduling my IWSG post. Instead of answering the March question, I decided to post a brief update. Part of my plan for 2025 was to evaluate my social media activities and decide which to keep. On the blogging front, I plan to keep posting for IWSG, but I decided to leave Cowboy Kisses. As I told the blog hostess, it was a difficult choice and purely a business decision. She has been...

  This is my   Insecure Writers Support Group   post for February 2025. Alex's awesome co-hosts this month  are:  Joylene Nowell Butler, Louise Barbour, & Tyrean Martinson! Please stop by their blogs and say thank you .  💻💻💻💻💻 February 5 question - Is there a story or book you've written you wish you could go back and change? The short answer is no. Nothing significant about them, anyway. The first two novels I ever wrote got put aside for years. I debuted with #3 and published #4 as my second. By the time I went back to publish the first two (under a different pen name), they had gone through countless edits, and I hadn't seen them in years. I had become a better writer by then, and thanks to them being shelved for so long, I was able to be much more objective and polish them up quite a bit.  They don't get rave reviews like my westerns, but they are wayyy better than their original versions.  I'm lucky I had the self-awareness - and th...

  This is my   Insecure Writers Support Group   post for January 2025. Alex's awesome co-hosts this month  are:  Natalie Aguirre , Rebecca Douglass , Liza , & Beth Camp Please stop by their blogs and say thank you .  💻💻💻💻💻 I decided to skip the question of the month and give an update on my progress. I've done a dismal job of keeping up with my author planner. It's a good planner; I just need to make using it a habit.  Resolution #1 for 2025 is sit down at least once per month and make goal progress notes . From my 5-year Plan I only accomplished one goal from this list in 2024 -  change my work hours from full time to part time  - but I set myself up to meet another.  I've master-planned a new 16-book series. Whether I'll meet the goal of publishing 4+ books per year remains to be seen, but the groundwork has been laid, and all the books are set in and around the same fictional town (which will  reduce the amount of resear...

  This is my   Insecure Writers Support Group   post for December 2024. Alex's awesome co-hosts this month  are:  Ronel, Deniz,   Pat Garcia,   Olga Godim,   &  Cathrina Constantine! Please stop by their blogs and say thank you .  💻💻💻💻💻 Can you believe it's December already? Where did the year go! December 4 question: Do you write cliffhangers at the end of your stories?  Are they a turn-off to you as a writer and/or a reader? I write romance, so, no, I do not end my books on a cliffhanger. My readers expect a happily ever after. Reader-me enjoyed a series of short works many years ago that ended with hooks and formed a complete story as a set, but they were appropriately priced for the page count, and the author rapid-released them (one every week or two?), so I didn't have to wait long for the next.  As a rule, however, I prefer full-length novels with happy or, at least, satisfying endings. I hope 2024 has a happy...

  This is my   Insecure Writers Support Group   post for October 2024. Alex's awesome co-hosts this month  are:  Nancy Gideon,   Jennifer Lane, Jacqui Murray  & Natalie Aguirre! Please stop by their blogs and say thank you .  💻💻💻💻💻 I've got news! But first, this month's question... Ghost stories fit right in during this month. What's your favorite classic ghostly tale? Tell us about it and why it sends chills up your spine. I don't read or watch much scary stuff, because I don't enjoy being scared. If a movie is dark with things jumping out and startling me, I'll shut it off. In 1979, there was a movie titled When a Stranger Calls that creeped anyone of babysitting age the heck out. This was in the days of landlines, when many phones were still rotary dial. It's not a ghost story, but I'd have to list it as my scariest. In keeping with the Halloween theme... This month is the 7th anniversary of FULL DARK: A Benefit Anthology ! This colle...