UNEXPECTED Progress

Those who visited the Alleyway yesterday know I took the last few days off to participate in a few dance shows and to recover from the exhausting weekend. Missed it? Interested? Scroll below. :) However, being gone for three days has left me with a mountain of emails and to-do's, so I might be a bit scarce this week. TY for understanding.

I wasn't available to give the A-Z Challenge the proper adeu! *Waves, eyes glaze over and a tear trickles down my check* I enjoyed the challenge far more than I thought I would. Giving me a letter to focus my ideas on helped to collect my thoughts more readily and write more concisely. *HOTHEADS!!* 

Before I move on to my Tuesday Progress Report, I must give a huge shout-out to Author Elizabeth Mueller for giving me this:

Too cool!! I'm sure lots of you received it, too. *Round of Applause!*

Just as helpful as the alphabet challenge was for me, so now is the ROW80. Setting goals is important; something I'm constantly pointing out to my kids. And joint-pledging with three other writers has made it that more pleasant and meaningful. Not to mention, I've gained an amazing new CP out of it. :)

Goal #1 ~ I am making serious strides in my rewrite of MARKED BEAUTY. I've even reposted my brand new opening on a separate page.

I'm in the middle of Act II, threading in a new plot twist and discovering even more about my two main leads but also, myself--THE WRITER. I've come leaps and bounds in communicating my thoughts more concisely and recognizing my errors in my first completed manuscript of MB--probably the reasons the three agents in January who pursued the manuscript eventually passed. Editing and structure of ideas. Collectively, each mentioned that I could write and the story was quite unique. I think it was the amount of restructuring and the time it would take which gave them pause.

I've been very sensitive to that, careful what, where, and when I feed the reader back story or internal thought information. I've spread it out, giving crumbs through dialog and ponderings from secondary characters, and even at a few points a piece of a character's internal revelation in hopes to reveal it all at the climax.

I mentioned yesterday that I've had great progress. But I've also had some unexpected interest in my rewrite from one on the original agents who passed. Once I complete my rewrite, said agent would like to take a look at it. *Another round of applause!* But those claps aren't for me. They are for you and all who've stuck by my side in spite of the last few months when I was less than a blossoming flower of enthusiasm. Thank you. I am determined not to disappoint. :)

Goal 2 & 3 ~ Basically, I'm putting plotting and outlining my other three stories on the back burner because of the interest in my rewrite. As far as my picture books, I haven't worked on them but I've been lead to an amazing PB critique group who I can't wait to start working with.

Please take a peek at the three lovelies who are in this ROW80 with me.

Susan's PROGRESS
Margo's PROGRESS
C.Lee's PROGRESS

Do you have WIP PROGRESS to share?