ROW80 check-in and FashionBeans

It's that time of the week again, its either the first day of the week or the last day of the week depend on how you see Sunday, and it also the Sunday check-in for Around the Words in 80 days.

On Wednesday I had a happy preppy report for my check-in about what I discovered about my 1st draft of Feathers, now called Feathers and Deaf, at least that how I've saved it on my computer.

I kinda of like it, deaf and death kinda sound alike and it's goes with the plot line.
I have my good days and my bad days as far as writing my (changed) daily goal of 500.  I haven't wrote today yet.  I still have time after supper to write.  I'm going to the Rice Box to get Chinese in a little bit. I'm hoping to have my 2nd draft written in 100 days a total of 50,000 words. A good length for a young adult novel.

Today instead of writing I did a little characters resourcing over at FashionBeans a Men's Fashion website in England. I have three male characters in my story so far and since my heroine know her world more by sight since she's hard of hearing I wanted my guys to have a more individual fashion styles.  When I googled men's fashion that what came up and they had a section called Men's Street Fashions with 1077 photos seem like a good place to start.  (really wish my bbf was here with me to look, I think we'd have a good laugh over some of the street styles they found, you don't see most of these in Alabama. But I did see a few styles that remind me of guys I've seen at the coffee shop my go to place to people watch and write)

I realized yesterday I didn't write a writing prompt this week. 

My editing goal has turned into writing my 2nd draft, trying to decide if I still want to write my memoir about my spiritual journey the last few years.  If so I'm going to have to change my daily goal again.  Maybe 100 words on memoir and 500 words on Feathers and Deaf...
Need to decide, maybe I'll know by next check-in on Wednesday...

Annie Laurie

ROW80 Mid-week Check-in Writer's Voice

ROW80 Mid-Week Check-in

I read my 1st draft of Feathers (Working title) while it didn't have big plot holes it didn't have a strong plot. I did find a few scenes that suggested a stronger (I hope a stronger) plot.

I need to get rid of the love triangle between heroine and two boys, just make it one boy.

I changed the heroine's name again. It's was Stormy Anne, than Hannah (which make me think Hanna from the T.V. show Pretty Little Liars [Love that show] and while my book is placed in a small town, the best friend is missing possibly murder and who did it anyone guess I don't want it to also share a character's name)

Add a little Switched at Birth (Love this show too) and me into the plot.  My heroine is now hard of hearing.  I'm hard of hearing and see/experience the world differently why not write about it.  It might help me find my writer's voice.  (So of course Switched at Birth is one of my favorite shows look at all the deaf characters and actors and part of the plot deals with everyday things people who are deaf deal with)

Speaking of writer's voice I found a blog post on YA Highway by the author of Divergent Veronica Roth about Embracing Your Own Voice not changing it.  After reading it and looking at the parts of my 1st draft I liked I realized I'm a sparse prose girl and not a lyrical prose girl.  But I have learning over the years of writing that I love symbolism in stories and it show up in my writing whether I plan it or not.  In college ( lit major) one of my favorite short story writers was Nathaniel Hawthorne.  I'm sure this symbolism is part of my writer's voice.

All that dealt with my editing goals now my writing goals.

 I woke up Monday with a head cold I thought for sure it would hinder with my writing.  Nope. I think I wrote more thanks to this cold.

Since I'm working on my 2nd draft I turned to writing in my notebook.  Something about the drag of the pencil helped the ideas and scenes emerge on the page.

Funny what you can learn while being stuck inside by rain, cold weather, and a head cold.

Annie Laurie