I’m working my way through Ready, Set Write! this summer 🙂  

Week 9 Update:

1.  How I did on last week’s goals:  Last week, my goal was the revise my recently completed YA contemp manuscript.  I got about halfway through and had all the intentions of finishing when my agent and I had a discussion about it needing a bigger hook to move forward with it.  So I paused revisions and have been plotting ever since.

I completed a whopping 2 recommendation letters, so not the 3 I was hoping for.

I also fell off the wagon a little with the 21 day fix, but stress will do that to you.

2.  My goal(s) for this week:  Honestly, the only thing I care about right now is finding the elusive “bigger hook.”  I *think* I’m on the right track with an idea that will still tell the story I want to tell, but makes it a lot more interesting.  I’ve got a little less than 2 weeks until school starts, so at least having a direction and making some progress before then would be nice.

I need to have at least 5 letters done this week.

And I’d like to stay on the 21 day fix plan as best as I can this week.  This is week 3, gotta finish strong.

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

This is THE END.  I don’t think it will be changing.

Theo slings an arm over my shoulder and scoots my chair, with me on it, close enough so our hips touch. “You know what Pop would say if he were here right now?”

I smile into Theo’s shoulder. “What would that wise wise man say?”

“He would ask us why we’re not eating cake right now.”

I laugh. “Then let’s go get some cake.”

4.  The biggest challenge I faced this week (ex. finding time to write):  Myself, completely.  I get so emotionally attached to what I’ve written that changing gears is really difficult for me, even if I know in my head that it’s totally the right thing to do.  I tend to react immediately, and personally, when I really need to take a few days and marinate and wait for all the pieces to click together.  This happened to me with the book I got my agent with–I completely changed the ethnicity of a central family in the book and it altered, IMO, the whole feel of the book and made it much more universal.  But it took me a long time and waiting for mental clarity to come to that conclusion.  Hoping that the direction I’d like to go in is the right one this time too.

5.  Something I love about my WiP:   That this new idea, this “hook,” might just make it what it’s supposed to be.

How did YOU do?