WIM Week 7: The Reflection Post

Now that our final drafts are done, it’s time to wrap up Writer-in-Motion with a final reflection post! This project has just been so AMAZING – beyond everything I had hoped for.

When Jeni, KJ, and JM first proposed the idea, I knew it’d be a great way to help me get over my fear of sharing my writing with others. Writers inject pieces of themselves into their work, and exposing that vulnerability was a struggle for me. To put my raw process out there for the rest of the world to judge was almost as scary as giving a speech in a bikini to a crowd of Asian grandmas! But I’ve learned in life that’s the best way to handle fear. You just gotta fist it up and stare it in the face. So I committed before I could change my mind, and here I am, alive on the other side, feeling extremely grateful.

It was hard at first, no surprise. After flying through that first draft, my fingers itched with anxiety to revise. Could I really stand to throw something so messy and unpolished up in public?? I mean, I can’t even send a casual email without editing it twice, for crying out loud. This was madness! But then I reminded myself that was exactly the whole point. To show readers my entire writing process in all its good, bad, and ugly.

The next hurdle was to click that PUBLISH button, which I totally failed at. So I put matters into WordPress’s hands and scheduled the post to go live first thing the morning of. That way, I couldn’t chicken out. And you know what? It worked!!

After that draft went up and there was no turning back, things got easier—most definitely with the help and incredible outpouring of support from this wonderful group of writers! I soon found myself less concerned with the public-ness of it all and more focused on the process of improving the story itself. I loved getting feedback and insights to help better my story. I loved learning from everyone else’s processes and then watching their stories evolve from good to fan-frickin-tastic! Soon, I was clicking that PUBLISH button, no problem. This part I had expected. This part I had anticipated to be the prize for participation.

But WiM turned out to be much more than that. This project went beyond the processes, the stories, the revisions. It went beyond overcoming fears.  It became a writing haven for me, where I found my tribe of astounding talents who would cycle through at all hours of the day to offer friendship, advice, support, encouragement, laughter, and taco gifs. By far, this connection has been the most valuable part – the MVP – of my WiM journey, hands down! This part I hadn’t anticipated. This part was a blessing.

And on that note, I’d like to shout out huge THANK YOU’s to the WiM Crew:

• To our outstanding editors Jeni, Carly, Maria, and Justine for their undying faith in us writers, and for generously donating their time and expertise! Y’all are the best!
• To my critique partners Paulette and HM – you guys helped me so much and I’ll forever be grateful! Love you!!!
• To the great KJ—thanks for adminning, tech supporting, Twitter-threading, mother-henning, occasionally instigating, and always overachieving! Seriously, KJ is Ms. Do-It-All, and we all HEART the halo out of her!
• To my fellow WiM writers—your talents and creativity blow me the heck away, and I am so humbled and honored to have met all of you!
• And finally, to you, the reader and cheerleader who’ve been with all of us throughout this enlightening journey! I hope you’ve found something in WiM to love as well.

Writer-in-Motion was a genius concept, and I hope with all my heart there will be more to come—for those with a writerly fear to overcome, for those seeking encouragement and feedback to improve their skills, for those willing to put yourself out there to be a part of something amazing. There’s nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Cheers and as always, thanks for reading!❤️

Check out Jeni’s Blog for the entire WiM Roundup!