oh, a blogfest!

Hello, all. It's June 6th, and this is going down:

From Bess Weatherby's initial post:

" ...the rules for joining are simple:

1. Sign up  (did it!)
2. Follow my blog (one of my favorites)
3. On June 6, 2011, post two things:

        a) What your current WIP looks like

        b) What your writing goals are for the summer

4. Go around to the other blogs to encourage -- together we can make it through the lazy months!"

So, here we go.

What my WIP looks like right now, quite literally:

Thrilling!

And now you know the ENTIRE PLOT of my draft. (No, seriously, did I make it too obvious?) Don't you just love visual aids? As you can read in green on the left side of the image, "told you it was a mess."

You see that tiny box just under and to the right of the word "rawr?" That is where I thought all the action of the story would be. Imagine my surprise! You can barely see it!

So, here comes part two. My goals for the summer.

1. Summer has a built-in priority for me, and it's called Camp Loucon. I'll be spending at least three weeks there before the end of July, and one of my goals, truly, is to enjoy camp and let myself be there fully. Working there is HARD, and it takes a lot of patience and energy and boldness and sunscreen. I don't want to miss out because my mind is elsewhere. I do, however, plan to bring my notebook, just in case I find some time to write.

2. When not at camp, my main goal will be to... pretty much tear up the draft I just finished, rework it, outline a new draft, and start writing that. *Start* being the operative word. I don't expect myself to finish it until the fall or winter. I'm going to try to move a little faster on this one, say, five months instead of eight. But, yeah. Definitely not two. 

3. To be more specific, I do need to start playing around with opening scenes. In my rough draft, they sort of just pick up and go, because I knew they had to get there, but the motivations of the characters didn't come clear to me until I was halfway through the story. Oh, believe. I was so tempted to scrap what I had and start over right then, but I didn't (my husband wouldn't let me, the genius). I don't regret that at all (shoo, I wouldn't have finished for another year, probably, if I'd kept doing stuff like that), but now, I feel like I need to explore those motivations that I discovered for a little while. Otherwise, I don't think I'll be able to really make an outline that I'll be able to use.

4. Really enjoy my writing buddies. Think long and hard about joining SCBWI. Possibly, do that.

5. Exercise regularly. It's been a part of my routine for about a week now, and I'm really hoping to keep it up.

6. Also keep up with my reading goals. Way back at the beginning of the year, I decided that I would try to read 60 books in 2011. I'm getting there, slowly, but I'm also glad I decided to go for 60, and not the original 100. I know how I get. Readreadreadreadreadreadread... wait, shouldn't I be writing or blogging or something? Blogblogblogblogblog... Or, worse, TVTVTVTVTVTVTVTVTVTVTVTV. Netflix will be be the death of me.

6a. Watch less TV.

7. Just get my elbows into it and clean out this house until it shines. THIS will be the most difficult one for me.

So... I sort of strayed from the writing part of my summer goals, but they're all important. To my life, health, marriage, beliefs and mental well-being.

I hope everyone will stay tuned! Tomorrow, I have another blog award to share!

(I know. That was fast.)