Then... I applied what I'd learned to my manuscript, writing a character description for the caseworker and for the teenage mother. After reading it out-loud, Keith said it was excellent and that he felt like he was right in the room observing what was going on with the two young ladies.
Also I did some research on the internet for information on teenage mothers and hit pay-dirt with a CPS newsletter that had an entire issue on teenage parents. I'll be putting my research links online, right here on this site. Stay tuned.
Also I filled out a long questionnaire about Alyssa's character, so I'd know her better. For example now I know she has a habit of saying "damn" which is a lot more mild than the other swear word I had her saying. I'd better change that.
Speaking of swearing... the results of my little survey at the right are now 50/50 and I need more opinions.... so if you haven't voted yet, please do! Thanks!
I've been up since 4:30 am and spent quite a lot of time revising and trying to understand The Alyssa Project. The first draft is still only about half done, if that. I finally realized that I was once again confused about the timing of events. This is the same thing that messed up The Scribe of Irohila which is still mostly unrevised.
Solution: I made a calendar to keep the action in the right time frame. I'll be making another one of these to help with the revision on my first novel.
It has been a long time since I've worked on this - but I'm feeling more enthusiastic about it now that I have a better idea of what happened when.
Today is our local writers club - I'd better go get ready!
So far, I'm enjoying the book. I would like to finish this before I write more, but writers write... you know what I mean? We can't stop writing just to get more training. No matter how good a book is, it is more instructional to keep writing, in some ways. However, today's book market is so competitive, it is good to know the standards we will be expected to meet, if we want to see our novels in print.
Today I went to the local river-access to write in my journal, just before sunset. While there I spent some time brainstorming ideas for editorials in Happy Camp News. I've written a few, but generally I've let that part of the news slide a bit. The topic not only has to be current, it has to be something that interests me... and so anyhow, now I've got a list of ideas to pull from.
