It's
the first Wednesday of the month, so you know what that
means ... it's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group
meeting. IWSG was created by the awesome ninja captain Alex J.
Cavanaugh, and you can find out the other members of the group here.
Congrats to IWSG being two years old!
In July, I sought out a cover artist for People of Foxwick and Their Neighbors as well as for The Fate Challenges trilogy. I really only had one artist in mind, and I was so excited that she agreed to work with me. At the time I thought People of Foxwick and Their Neighbors would come out first, so we decided we would work on the cover art for it and put off the cover art for Reborn.
I told her my thoughts on what I would like to see on the cover. She did a few sketches, and we decided on a pose for the character. Then, she was off creating the cover art. I have to admit I was impressed even with the sketches, but the final cover art was AMAZING. Seriously. I have it as my computer wallpaper at work. I just like to stare at it. It's hang up on your wall good.
Of course, I already knew she was an amazing cover artist. Her name is Laura Sava, and you can see her work on deviantART.
But now I have this brilliant cover for my complete Foxwick stories collection and it completely intimidated me. How could my simple fantasy stories live up to this cover art? I'll admit my writing trickled to a halt. It took me three weeks to rewrite "Dragon's Sacrifice" (a 2500-word short story) because I just couldn't get my mind to stop thinking about the awesome cover art and how my stories just wouldn't be good enough.
Then, I realized that my first drafts don't have to be as brilliant as the cover art. I just needed to write and worry about greatness in edits.
The cover art is still amazing, and I plan to reveal it sometime next year (closer to the new release for People of Foxwick). It's okay to be intimidated, to want to write something brilliant. I needed a writing break, and now I'm back to writing.
I'm holding off on us starting the cover art for Reborn, though, until after I finish my edit before my beta readers get a hold of it. *laughs*
Has your cover art ever intimidated you? Or has something else held you back from your writing? How did you get over it?
