Trust, steadiness, and uncertainty have been hallmarks of my life in the past month. But, then, uncertainty is always part of life.
The wolf is always just outside the door.
Sometimes we conveniently forget in our comfortable American lives that calamity can strike at any moment. Whether a pandemic or cancer, an economic depression or a terrible car accident, bad things happen.
Good things happen, too.
Whether good or bad, I’m resting on the rock of my faith, my faith in the salvation of Jesus Christ. How about you?
God’s got this.
With my circumstances, I’ve always had quite a few responsibilities and issues that pull me away from writing. God has resolved two of the rocks and hard places in my life, for which I’m immeasurably grateful.
With a husband who works from home, with me home writing, homeschooling, and preparing to go back to work full-time remotely, our COVID impacts so far have not been extensive. But, surprisingly, for this introvert, I’m getting cabin fever.
I’m actually making progress — on the novel, on writing-as-a-business, and my writing ability. I still have a long way to go on honing my writing skills, but I can recognize that I’ve “leveled up” in my writing.
I’m drafting Salvage‘s final scenes. As I write the scenes I’ve planned, more aspects of the story come to light, and more is added to my when-I-revise list.
In this section our protagonist is (mostly) out of the action, so my secondary protagonist, Emmett, is full-front in the story. It’s through him the secondary plot thread of ship dangers is revealed. As his character will not be in the next two books of the series, and his part in book #1 isn’t predominant, I need to keep him a little more shallow than Kaylah.
It’s tricky enough to handle two protagonists, but I needed both. And there are good resources out there, like this one from Jerry Jenkins about Left Behind.
I’m not branching out to writing blogs or copywriting, although I toyed with the idea for awhile. I’m focusing on my novel and on refreshing my software skills to land that full-time remote job.
So, a review of February:
Thankfully, I experienced productive writing time in February. I’m drafting part 4 of episode 1 of Salvage — nearing the end! I’ve also “leveled up” in writing craft, gaining a better sense of story development.
In personal news, I’m ramping up to return to software development full-time over at Code Onward. I’m hoping circumstances will allow me to pursue both creative pursuits — writing and development — in full force.
The cold winter is easing; the tulips and daffodils and surprise lilies are poking up green shoots. Can’t wait until the first blooms!
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Work continues on Salvage, Book 1, Part 2. I’m writing new scenes and expanding skeletal scenes to more robust ones. I’m not worrying too much about critiques, either outgoing or incoming, this month.
The draft of Part 1 of Salvage received more tinkering. It’s a good way for me to warm up my writing brain.
I don’t want to go overboard tweaking the first part of Salvage endlessly — and I haven’t. Drafting of Part 2 is coming along.
I’ve also formed some thoughts on an essay on Christian music lyrics as well as an article about Amazon’s Echo. It’s been a change of pace from my fiction work, rather refreshing mentally.
I’m also building relationships with other writers, swapping critiques, and I’m nailing down alpha readers for polished drafts of Salvage.
Deliberations continue about meeting other writers face-to-face. Conferences? I’m not quite ready yet. However, the bigger city an hour away has writer meetups. I may check them out in June.
That’s all for this month.
Work continues on the Salvage project. I’ve leveled up (so to speak) in my writing, and I feel like I’m actually adding layers to Part 1 that add depth and, interestingly enough, streamline the story flow some. Work on Part 2 continues, sketching scenes in terms of dialogue and some action.
Meanwhile, I’m branching out with ideas about an article for Christian homeschoolers and an essay about Christan contemporary music’s lyrics as a reflection of society.
Part 1 of Salvage, Episode 1, is almost drafted! It’s taken awhile, but it’s closer than it’s ever been. So exciting!
There’s always more to learn about the craft of writing, and more to revise. Meanwhile, I’m also starting to work on finding beta readers. If you’re interested in being one, let me know.
Happy Thanksgiving!
The last fraction of Part 1 of Salvage you would think would be easy to finish. Wrapping it up has been a little more complicated, though. I’ve spent some time streamlining my writing process, specifically in the spreadsheets where I go from plot elements to scenes to scene elements. In the process, I’ve detailed each key scene a little more fully. That seems to be making writing the actual scenes go a little faster.
So, sometimes a writer has to tighten her belt, er, plot. Did I mention my unique talent for making a short story very, very long? Turns out that’s something to rein in to create a great story.
After research, thought, and analysis, I’ve tightened up the plot for Salvage’s episode 1.
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I am excited for the possibilities for the coming year — the business year for my writing runs from August to August — and I’m so ready to dig in again.
I’m looking forward to making progress on…
Thanks for coming along on the journey!
