Checking in one last time #YABbootcamp

I'd love to say that I stayed strong, and completed all my goals....but I can't. Life, as it usually does, got in the way more than I would have liked.

BUT I did make progress in each of the goals I set forth at the beginning of the boot camp, and I can honestly say that #YABbootcamp helped me get further than I would have if left to my own devices. That is both awesome and saddening at the same time.

But spring is hard for me. Real life demands a lot in these three months - a lot more than I realized when I decided to jump on and walk the plank.

And these three months have left me with lots to think about as I move forward.

SO: status:

I DID edit some, and in so doing, really evaluated the genre. I went NA with the story - a shift I was happy with, but has left me wondering if the characters survived the shift - jury is still out.

I DID send query drafts and a few rounds to my CP of awesome for some valuable positive and negative feedback

I DID get to see and provide feedback for that same CP of awesome - and I was soooooo happy to see words from her. I think that inspired me to keep going.


Where do I go from here?

Forward.

I think the query for WHITE LIES I've been playing with is finally ready for a round with agents.

STATIC - thought definitely still a draft is going somewhere - and there WILL be time in the near future to play with it more.

Thanks YA Buccaneers for a lot of fun, the chance to meet some truly awesome and inspiring teammates, and the time (and accountability) to keep writing even when everything was in my way!

Has someone seen my horse??

I JUST realized that I haven't been on here in FOREVER... okay, so slight exaggeration, but close enough! I am still alive!!!

And I've returned - or am returning - or trying to return, depending on how I feel like looking at it.

SOME of the chaos of my work related life has subsided - quite successfully - so now it's time to get the rest of my life back into a semblance of normalcy *laughs at the thought of normal*

To do this, I need my horse - the writing / editing / proofreading horse so I can catch it and get back on it!

So - Have you seen my horse?

 

Color: Depends on her mood - or mine - currently invisible

Last seen: fleetingly while I brushed my teeth last month

 

Answers to the name of: Muse

 

If you see - approach with extreme caution! While Muse is not dangerous, she spooks easily and will disappear again without much provocation.

 

Responds positively to chocolate and Doritos

 

This week! I do have a few goals that I feel confident I can actually achieve.

1. EDIT more!!

2. Send pages for review to my awesomely amazing CP

3. breathe and regroup

 

 

 

The only dead end is the one I make for myself.

Checking in: Am I making progress?

Looks like its time for another update, and the progress this week has been slow - sickeningly slow. Most likely because, well, I was sick. Nothing life threatening - just enough of an annoyance to make my life miserable for several days.

And I'm not 100% yet, but there was enough of a recovery over the weekend to warrant continued progress.

So where does that leave all the words?

Well, apparently I've made enough progress to realize I have no idea if I'm making progress.

That's clear...well maybe it is to some writers.

When we last chatted, I had established a working title for the latest project - STATIC is still holding!

But the other alterations that I've been playing with have reached a critical junction. It's time to see if anything is actually working.

And so I have to get some feedback from my awesome CP and see if the beginning has shaped itself into something positive.

My story is definitely starting to take shape, and some of the missing elements have been found, but the beginning is continuing to pull my attention and focus. I need to put it in the hands of someone I trust and move forward.

So this week, my goals are to keep moving into the novel and wait to see if there IS progress, or if the element of confusion is still controlling my story.

Fingers crossed.

Check in #4.... YABbootcamp

This week... well... it went. Real life got in the way a tad - actually a lot more than I want or care to admit, but some good things did happen.

Goal Update:

First things first, and update on goal #2: I'm happy to report I have a working title! My current project shall henceforth be known as STATIC

*does happy dance* *Muppet flail*

This title was hard to peg - but I think this title may stick - at least until an agent or editor wants to change it. I resisted it originally because that is the first word in the book, but the more I thought about it, not only does static play a pretty important part in the entire thing, but it also serves as a pretty nice metaphor for what Sam, my main character, has to go through as she tries to unravel and understand exactly what is going on around her.

Now as to goal #1:

I think I went into red overload - no reference to static or any other electrical charge intended here. I had gotten to far with edits and changes, that a vast majority of my story was red. To clarify, I utilize and LOVE the track changes feature in Word. So everywhere I altered anything, it either became red, was underlined in red or was crossed out in red.

And before you suggest, I am fully aware that I can change the color of the edits...but I'm a teacher - red works for me... until this week, that is.

So this past weekend, I realized what I had to do. I was so overwhelmed with all the red, that I couldn't see what I still needed to do....

File - Save As - Create new File - Accept all changes - Voila! - no more red - and a shiny new document to bleed all over :)

I am not ready to send anything to anyone, but I feel like progress can be had this week. I am almost to the point where feedback will be needed to let me know if I'm going in the right direction, but there are some holes and elements that I need to fix first! And naturally, my story is shifting again, taking another turn I wasn't ready for.... but I'm trying to let the story tell itself, rather than me force it to tell something it doens't want to.

This week, I also started Mapping everything after the fabulous post on YA Buccaneers. For some...err....most this will probably seem backwards, but right now, as I'm shifting from one genre to the next this is helping me validate where those plot holes are and what I still need to fix!

And now I need to get back to those words....

Shifting Hurts: YABbootcamp Check in #3

? ? ? ? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?? ?  ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ?

? ? ? ? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ?

In case you couldn't tell, for me this past week has been full of questions and what ifs....

I found myself in what I felt was a moral dilemma. My original premise set my main protagonist being a 16-year-old girl...but this week, as I started editing - I mean really started editing the plot and events, I found that I wasn't completely comfortable with some of the situations I was putting her in.

This led me to wonder if the plot would still work if she was older, and since I knew I had a long way to go, after a lot of deliberation and I'm sure annoyance to my critique partner, I decided to give it a try.

And can I just say this shift - from 16 to 19 is not. easy...and one week later, I'm not 100% sure if it is the right thing to do. And one person that I trust with my words stated that she thought it read like a teenager in YA rather than NA...And I value her advice and criticism above just about evetrytyhing, so her feedback gave me pause. But I knew that if I didn't at least TRY I'd alwasy wonder and maybe never be completely comfortable with it all. 

Basically, this week was a lot of staring at the tracked changed in my word document and wondering if they were the right changes to make and therefore a lull in forward progress - but this happens from time to time.

Let me qualify this post by stating that I am fully aware that teen age girls can get caught in some very sticky situations, and that I loved the toughness of my 16 year old girl.... but in the long run, it is my hope that some of the character interactions and plot elements will work better with a little bit older individual.

SO bottom line -
I did make some progress towards goals #1 - a *cough* working draft.
I DID play with a few possible titles BUT would like to hang on to those until I've made a final decision
And it is my goal for this week to be able to send a bit to my CP of Awesome and see if the age shift actually is working - and if not, work though elements to either make it work at 19 or make it work at 16.


Guess I better get back to the words!
Until next time.

Walking the Plank #YABbootcamp Style

So here goes... an updated, though still early draft from the beginning of my still *coughs* untitled story.

“Why won’t you believe me?” I yelled at my mother for the 157^th time since Megan disappeared. A week later and already it was as though nothing had happened. I squared my shoulders and continued. “Lori told me what happened. Lori told me what they did. She wasn’t kidnapped by some random idiot, she was taken.”

I thought back to what I did…what I should have done on that first day…

I know what happened. It wasn’t pretty, and I’m not entirely proud of myself for what I did to Lori, but I had to find answers since no one else was telling me anything.

I looked down at my hands. My knuckles were bruising and there’s blood still under my nails.

“Well that’s just silly,” my mom said and pulled me back into the conversation. “You and your government conspiracies.”

I rubbed my temples and shoved the last of my homework into my bag. “Mom,” I started in a softer tone, hoping to get some kind of response, “it’s not my conspiracy.” I bit my lip to keep from yelling. “I heard the three clicks from the hallway. Everyone knows what they mean. Someone was listening.”

“Enough,” she snapped but didn’t look at me as she cleaned off the kitchen counter. “Now, this is hard enough on all of us. We don’t need you spreading these types of rumors. You know the government doesn’t take people just for saying the wrong word. You know those camera systems were put in for our benefit and protection.”

Roller Coasters of the Editing Persuasion

#YABbootcamp Goals Update:

• Progress on #1

• stalemate on #2

• no advancement on #3…yet

Editing sucks.

This isn’t a new, earth shattering realization by any stretch of the imagination, but I needed to put that out there for the universe so that I could deal and move on.

I am currently *cough* enjoying the editing roller coaster. For those of you who’ve experienced the ride, you understand exactly that I’m going through. 

I love it.

I hate it.

I love it.

I’m ready to throw my computer out the window.

I wonder why I even bothered to write this in the first place.

I laugh.

I cry.

 

And then, I walk away from the computer and repeat everything again the next day...

Let me go back and qualify a bit, because I’m realizing I was too harsh in my initial comment. I DON’T hate hate editing….I just hate the place I’m at right now.

And where’s that? Somewhere, sadly enough and ironically enough, between love and hate.

I haven’t touched this story since I finished that first draft a few Nanos ago… and because of that, I had forgotten about some elements… but not all.

I hadn’t forgotten that the beginning needs major restructuring, or that some of the content may read too mature even by YA standards – and these are things that I am actively dealing with…

But!

I had forgotten about the good. I had forgotten about the interaction of some of my characters. I had forgotten a few scenes that even in edit stage gave me goose bumps when a read them (yes…toot toot…but we, as writers a allowed and required to do that from time to time).

I had forgotten that in less than a month, I had managed to take a premise and turn it into something intriguing…

And it’s important not to forget those positive – especially when other elements feel so daunting.

So I’ll get back on the roller coaster and continue the editing ride and see what’s left when I finally decide to get off.

 

Until next time...