Ready, Set, WRITE! Wrap-Up

Ready. Set. WRITE! is a summer writing intensive that encourages goal-setting and accountability, and provides an opportunity for us to cheer each other on wherever we’re at with our writing projects—planning, drafting, revising, or polishing.  This year, your RSW hosts are Alison Miller, Jaime Morrow, Erin Funk, Elodie Nowodazkij, and Katy Upperman.

I can't believe RSW is over! It's been such a productive summer, and I've had fun following everyone's progress. My goals shifted slightly as the summer went on, but I'm super happy with what I accomplished.

My summer goals
Bring my manuscript draft, HALFWAY TO HONDURAS, up to 60k: ACCOMPLISHED! Final word count is 60,400. I've got another 10k or so to go before the story is complete (not to mention lots of revisions), but the hardest part of drafting is behind me.

I shelved my second goal of revising and submitting 2 stories from my thesis. HALFWAY TO HONDURAS kept me too busy, and I didn't want to focus on anything else this summer.

Also I started setting book goals toward the end of summer. This week I read DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT by Laini Taylor, the second book of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy. LOVED IT! 

Onto Manuscripts and Manicures!
I didn't go too crazy with my nails because I have zero manicure skills. ;) I found a supercool color (Mutant by CoverGirl - a la Jennifer Lawrence/Mystique) that also reminded me of a place in Belize my narrator wants to visit - the Blue Hole.

There are actually two: one just off the coast that's a scuba hotspot (I based my nail color off this one), and a smaller inland one hidden back in its own little national park. I visited the smaller Blue Hole while on a trip to Belize. It's surrounded by rocky cliffs and caves, and the water was so cold it soothed all the bug bites we'd acquired up to that point!   

Unfortunately I had to borrow this picture from Huffington Post, I didn't visit
the Great Blue Hole myself. Maybe one day!

 

This one I swam in!

And so here are my nails! Nothing fancy but I'm obsessed with this color! 

And finally, an excerpt from HALFWAY TO HONDURAS. This is the opening section.

Carla beats me to the Ice House. I pull into the parking spot next to her Chevy Malibu, the same car we drove to Wawa every morning before first period for sixteen ounce coffees. The car she taught me how to pump gas on. The car that got us to and from show choir parties, flying down back roads at three in the morning to sneak into bed before our parents woke up. The shotgun seat conformed to my back, I rode in it so often.

I walk across the lot and pull open the diner door. Senior year Carla hit a pothole and blew a tire, and while we waited for her dad to come help us with the spare, we sat in the backseat together and cried. That car was everything. It was how we made memories. With graduation just months away, we both wondered if it was a sign. If the opportunities for new memories were dwindling.

If I had known how correct my gut was, I would’ve made us stay on the side of that road forever.



 

 

My "Current Projects" page has also been updated with a blurb about H2H and some fun pictures!

 

Once again, thanks to our lovely RSW hosts and to everyone who participated. I had a fantastic time writing this summer! Let's do it again sometime! 

Ready. Set. WRITE! Week 12

 

Ready. Set. WRITE! is a summer writing intensive that encourages goal-setting and accountability, and provides an opportunity for us to cheer each other on wherever we’re at with our writing projects—planning, drafting, revising, or polishing.  This year, your RSW hosts are Alison Miller, Jaime Morrow, Erin Funk, Elodie Nowodazkij, and Katy Upperman.

How I did on last week's goals: I wrote 4,600 words. I'm still stunned I managed it because I had days when I only wrote 100 words (or none at all). I spent three hours at the library on Saturday and made up for my earlier slacking.  

I also finished both BEAUTY QUEENS by Libba Bray. LOVED IT! Review to come. 

My goals for this week: Reach 60K! I only have 3,200 words to go - planning to finish RSW out strong! 

 

I also want to make progress on DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT by Laini Taylor, the second book in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy. Not sure I'll finish it this week (work has seriously cut into my reading time) but hopefully I'll get close. I'm about a fifth of the way through and really liking it so far. 

 

A favorite line from my story OR one word/phrase that sums up what I wrote/revised: Bachelorette party. (aka how I managed to reach my word count goal after days of slacking off. So much fun to write!)

 

Biggest challenge this week: The slacking. My mom and brother were out of town, so Dad and I had to make dinner after coming home from work. That bumped my writing time back even later in the evening, and there were a few nights we chose to watch Kids Jeopardy (because I can actually answer those questions) instead of being productive. 

 

Something I love about my WiP: Giving my protagonist friends. She hasn't had a good group of girlfriends in her life, and I'm loving seeing her with the friends she's needed for so long. Girl power!

Hope everyone's planning to finish RSW strong this week! Good luck with your goals. :)

 

Ready. Set. WRITE! Week 11

Ready. Set. WRITE! is a summer writing intensive that encourages goal-setting and accountability, and provides an opportunity for us to cheer each other on wherever we’re at with our writing projects—planning, drafting, revising, or polishing.  This year, your RSW hosts are Alison Miller, Jaime Morrow, Erin Funk, Elodie Nowodazkij, and Katy Upperman.

How I did on last week's goals: I wrote 4,100 words, which helped me cross the 50K mark! That means I have less than 10K to go before I hit my RSW goal of adding 60,000 words to my draft. I've started using the goal-setting site MyWriteClub to track my goal (it gives you one of those percentage bars like the GoodReads challenge, which means endless obsessing on my part).  

I also finished both WE SHOULD HANG OUT SOMETIME by Josh Sundquist and KISSING IN AMERICA by Margo Rabb.

My goals for this week: Another 4K. Sticking with what works. I also started reading BEAUTY QUEENS by Libba Bray over the weekend (beauty queens crash on a mysterious island, part LOST, part Lord of the Flies with tons of feminist critique!) so I'd like to finish it this week. 

Over the past month I've sort of unofficially given up my secondary RSW goal of revising 2 stories and submitting them to 5 literary magazines each. When I set my goals, I underestimated how obsessed I'd be with writing my current manuscript. And submitting stories to lit mags takes almost as much effort as full-out querying, so I think I need to set that aside and focus on it later. One I finish my draft and am sick of writing, I'll revise/submit.  

A favorite line from my story OR one word/phrase that sums up what I wrote/revised: My narrator's best friend has just been elected next year's show choir captain by her peers and "suffers" through some honorary hazing at a party.

“They made me stand on the roof of the toolshed and sing Legally Blonde: The Musical,” she told me once we were back inside.   

I burst out laughing. “So nothing you couldn’t handle?”

“Yeah, but I wish I’d been a little more intoxicated first.” 

Biggest challenge this week: I wrote a tricky argument/disagreement between my best friend characters, and I spent a lot of time staring at my screen, trying to work it all out in my head first. (This is why I rarely write around other people, especially non-writers. I probably look like a space case half the time.) 

Something I love about my WiP: I figured out a new layer of my protagonist. She's very distrustful of her friend's fiancé, and I FINALLY know why. It's been an issue since (literally) page one, and I worried it made her unlikeable. I even got annoyed with her sometimes, but now I understand her.

RSW is coming to a close soon (*tears*)...how's everyone doing with their goals?

Ready, Set, WRITE! Week 10

Ready. Set. WRITE! is a summer writing intensive that encourages goal-setting and accountability, and provides an opportunity for us to cheer each other on wherever we’re at with our writing projects—planning, drafting, revising, or polishing.  This year, your RSW hosts are Alison Miller, Jaime Morrow, Erin Funk, Elodie Nowodazkij, and Katy Upperman.

How I did on last week's goals: I wrote 4500 words, 1000 of which were freewriting about my narrator. So that 1K didn't go directly toward my manuscript total, but it's definitely going to help my story going forward. I've started going to the local library on Saturdays to write (I'm less likely to slack off there, I'm learning), and it's been great!

 

My goals for this week: Sticking with the 4K goal. I also want to finish the two books I'm currently reading: KISSING IN AMERICA by Margo Rabb (which I won in a YA Buccaneers giveaway) and WE SHOULD HANG OUT SOMETIME by Josh Sundquist.

 

 

A favorite line from my story OR one word/phrase that sums up what I wrote/revised: 

Maybe this was it, I thought. The moment after you reach the top of the roller coaster and finally see what you’re up against. Knowing you’ve got maybe ninety seconds to soak up the rush before everything skids to a halt so hard it shakes your bones.

 

Biggest challenge this week: Feeling guilty about freewriting/tinkering/brainstorming too much. I can spend AGES outlining and making lists, but I'm gunning for 60K by the end of RSW. Even though the freewriting I did this week was necessary, I need to keep my draft's wordcount going up. I've gotten in the habit of working on the draft every day and now the crippling guilt sets in on the days I do character sketches or other things I can't count toward my word count. Which is partially a good thing (I'm a VERY guilt-motivated person), but I need to realize that these outline-type things are only going to help me, even if it takes me a little longer to reach my word count goal.

 

Something I love about my WiP: I'm really starting to explore the deeper layers of my protagonist (what she worries about, why she's mad at people). It's going to take a lot of revision, but I'm finally understanding her on all levels.

 

 

How did your writing go this week?

Ready, Set, WRITE! Week 9

 

Ready. Set. WRITE! is a summer writing intensive that encourages goal-setting and accountability, and provides an opportunity for us to cheer each other on wherever we’re at with our writing projects—planning, drafting, revising, or polishing.  This year, your RSW hosts are Alison Miller, Jaime Morrow, Erin Funk, Elodie Nowodazkij, and Katy Upperman.

 

How I did on last week's goals: I wrote 4,300 words, accomplishing my 4K goal.

 

After 40,000 chronological words, last week I finally surrendered and started writing scenes out of order. I'd been trying to avoid this (going straight to the fun scenes, which I love to do, often takes away my momentum), but the scenes I wrote are big ones near the end. For someone who's pantsing this entire draft, it sort of became necessary to have a rough idea of what I'm working toward. It's totally open to change, though, so we'll see where we actually end up at the end of the draft!

 

My goals for this week: 4K again. I also want to do some freewriting to get in my narrator's head a bit more, so if that means my manuscript's total comes in at under 4K, that's fine.

 

A favorite line from my story OR one word/phrase that sums up what I wrote/revised: Packing lists. My characters plan a backpacking trip, so I decided to include some of their itineraries and packing lists in my draft. So fun! And an easy way to increase my word count.

 

Biggest challenge this week: Impatience. As much fun as I'm having drafting, I'm ready to have a substantial manuscript to revise. I've got tons of ideas for development and some new highlighters and tons of post-its...itching to start revisions and tear into this draft!

 

Something I love about my WiP: I'm getting into the travel/wanderlust aspect a bit with the packing lists and fun little add-ins. Makes me want to plan a trip!

 

 

How did your week go? I'm already starting to get sad that we're entering the last month of RSW...not ready for it to end!

Ready, Set, WRITE! Week 8

Ready. Set. WRITE! is a summer writing intensive that encourages goal-setting and accountability, and provides an opportunity for us to cheer each other on wherever we’re at with our writing projects—planning, drafting, revising, or polishing.  This year, your RSW hosts are Alison Miller, Jaime Morrow, Erin Funk, Elodie Nowodazkij, and Katy Upperman.

 

How I did on last week's goals: I just barely reached 4K by the end of last night's writing time, but the exciting part is that the day before, I hit 40K! Saturday was a great writing day. I reached my daily word count goal, recorded it in my calendar, and then decided to keep writing...twice! Normally just reaching my daily word count is a struggle, so anytime I go beyond that feels like a victory!

 

My goals for this week: 4K again. The usual! I'd love to have closer to 5K though, so I might make that extra 1,000 words my stretch goal.

 

A favorite line from my story OR one word/phrase that sums up what I wrote/revised:

I sit under the purple comforter in Carla and Jeff’s guest room and don’t sleep. It’s quiet and still and weird. I’ve never spent the night at Carla’s and slept in a separate room where I can’t whisper back and forth with her in the dark. We’d always be exhausted until turning out the lights. Then something about the darkness reenergized us, and we’d talk for another hour about school and guys and the future.

 

Biggest challenge this week: Realizing just how much work this manuscript will be even after my first draft is done. I already see plot revisions that need to be made, structural ones, characters I don't fully understand yet. And it looks like it's going to wind up longer than 60K, so I might not finish by the end of RSW...Trying not to let it damper my fun, though!

 

Something I love about my WiP: Mehhh, it wasn't one of those super lovey weeks with me and my WiP, unfortunately. My growing list of things to fix in revisions is making me keep my story at arm's length right now. Don't want to get too attached to anything and then have to cut it later.

 

 

Okay, so how did everyone else do this week? Anyone else got the messy draft blues?