Monday 8/30 Check-In

It's been almost a week. Have we picked ourselves up off the floor and gotten back into the writing groove?

What progress have you made on your project this week?

Where do you see yourself going this week?

What do you foresee as your biggest challenges this week to meeting your writing goals?

What's your biggest writing accomplishment in the last week?

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Permalink Reply by Mary Keating on August 30, 2010 at 9:52am

The guilt pours like cool maple syrup over hot apple pancakes. Writing? I am sitting in a cabin in Island Park watching the rain and anxiously awaiting a chance sighting of a little white rabbit. I did make a couple of interview calls before leaving town last Friday. My next deadline fast approaches. But writing? I guess I have been preoccupied with closets and clothing and lunch supplies. The girls head back to school on Thursday and I have convinced myself that writing will return in earnest in the fall. Perhaps my biggest accomplishment has been a bit of journaling. How about you Brooke? What is clicking on your computer keys?

Permalink Reply by Brooke Linville on August 30, 2010 at 7:24pm

Is it smoky over there? These fires have been crazy!

Permalink Reply by Brooke Linville on August 30, 2010 at 10:05am

I have been in a house cleaning frenzy. I've been chronically sick since the fire, and we finally have made major progress on my energy with meds, so I feel like I've been delayed in my nesting by 2 years. It's a lot to catch up on in a weekend!

I went back and revised parts of my chapter adding in additional narrative reflection. I have about 40 pages that I'm pretty happy with, so my next challenge will be moving forward instead of continuing the revisions. My writing class ends this week, which is going to be a major bummer because I've relied on them for deadlines and feedback. Keeping up a writing routine is going to be important. And trusting my own feelings about where it's not working. I think the biggest accomplishment was not letting the results of the contest get me too distracted from my overall goal.

Hope your girls have a good first week of school. It seems a little odd that they would start 2 days before a 3 day weekend!!

Permalink Reply by Carol Clouse on August 30, 2010 at 11:32am

...it seems quite quiet on the Passion Project battle grounds. I suspect a reprieve is in order for many ... self included... Other things are beckoning my attention, but creative energy and book writing happens to a large degree while you are not actually writing.

Permalink Reply by Brooke Linville on August 30, 2010 at 7:23pm

Do you keep notes of your thoughts? I have a hard time recalling if I don't jot down a few notes (which is hard while driving on the interstate with your kid in the back).

Permalink Reply by Carol Clouse on August 31, 2010 at 9:16am

Sometimes... I'll jot down a word or two so I am jolted into hopefuly recalling the entire thought. The words can seem so elloquent in your head, and then when you go to actually write you can't remember how it all "came out" ... or it was never really there in the first place!
It is often a simple shift of thought that can bring about amazing profoundess...

But then I figure if I can't remember it... it just wasn't meant to be in the book!

Permalink Reply by Katherine Harms on August 30, 2010 at 1:08pm

I have actually been energized by the outcome. I kept working on the project as the waiting days passed, but when the announcement came, I had to get real about my work. I located three books for research, and I have been so focused on this task that my husband had to suggest I come up for air! It won't do to check out on family just because I am writing.

I am excited as I see each core concept flower and develop its own shape in the big picture. It will take me at least a year to put it in final form, but I don't think I will lose interest this time. (There are a few half-finished projects in my "someday" folder.) The more I work on this book, the more I love it. It is truly a project from my heart, informed and fleshed out by mental disciplines. I can't wait to see how it matures.

Permalink Reply by Brooke Linville on August 30, 2010 at 1:23pm

That's great Katherine. I'm glad to see others so energized!

Permalink Reply by Melanie Sweeney on August 30, 2010 at 2:10pm

I think I finished my manuscript. I have never been so uncertain about this kind of thing before! I think the problem is that it's so far outside of my usual genre (fiction) that I'm having a hard time judging it. It's a fragmented, lyrical memoir that not only blurs genres, but also fits in between a chapbook and full book length, so I'm a little pessimistic about getting it published. Still, I think it might be the most beautiful, important thing I've written. I have my eye on what might be a perfect match with a small press, but they don't accept submissions for a few more months.

So, now I'm in the beginning of a new semester -- teaching and taking classes. I'm swimming a lot. I'm revising the novel I finished at the beginning of the summer and researching agents. I'm writing a short film for the first time ever and loving the speed of that kind of writing! I'm also enjoying the second brood of baby barn swallows on my back porch, two of which hatched in the last day. I'm super busy, which just churns up more creative juices, so all is well over here despite last week's disappointing result.

Permalink Reply by Brooke Linville on August 30, 2010 at 7:21pm

What classes do you teach? It sounds like you are going to have a very busy fall!!

Permalink Reply by Melanie Sweeney on August 30, 2010 at 9:47pm

I teach freshman composition to lovely, surprisingly inspiring young people. :)

Permalink Reply by Brooke Linville on August 31, 2010 at 8:42am

That's great. Do you have a Master's in English? Sometimes I think I would really enjoy teaching at that level. I used to be a special educator in elementary and junior high, but I doubt I will return to that environment. But I do miss teaching.