Climbing Boot Camp Mountain

For the last four weeks, all I’ve been doing is A.) writing like mad and B.) driving back and forth to our camp in Confluence.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m taking part in a critique boot camp. We’re three weeks into it, and the experience has been amazing. What I THOUGHT was a nearly ready-to-go manuscript has undergone a huge transformation.

Week #1 was what I’d call “the rude awakening.” Like me, all of the participants went in thinking we didn’t have all that much work to do. Ha! WRONG.

Week #2, we presented our attempts at correcting the problems we’d found out about in week #1. Let’s just say, I stopped at the store on the way home to buy some conciliatory chocolate.

Afterwards, I had something of an epiphany… a way to possibly fix the pesky problems that just weren’t going away. It was one of those head-slap moments. Why didn’t I think of that before? Like six years ago???

Week #3 found some of us still scratching for a toe hold, while others were succeeding in climbing the mountain. Thankfully, I think I’m one of the ones who are a little closer to the peak. Not there yet, but it’s in sight.

Now for our final meeting, we’re supposed to turn in a completed synopsis of our story. The problem for me is so much has changed in the last three weeks that many of my clues and plot points don’t work any more.

But the assignment is a good one. I’ve felt a yearning to put aside the manuscript for a bit and focus on the outline. And that’s exactly what I plan to do.A

When I’m not driving back and forth to Confluence.