I FINISHED + bonus stream and book club + experiment poll!

QUICK EDIT: So sorry, y'all! Have to run out and help my partner's grandma. Moving our stream back a day, but at the same time. (Friday the 12th at 4:15CDT) Thanks and see y'all then!

I DID IT, I DID IT, I DID IT!!!

I finally did it -- I finished this draft of A Closet Full of Cauldrons and sent it over to my three alpha readers.

It's so funny, as excited as I am about the project (and I am), there's still a sense of relief with having it done. A weight off my shoulders, in a way. The self-imposed deadline had loomed large in my spirit, even though I'd crept past it a couple times bahaha.

It'll be a month and a half before I re-read ACFoC again and that seems like way too long. I want to be back with those characters, but I know I need the space in order to see everything with fresh eyes.

Unfortunately, I couldn't go forward with my plan to print it all off because it's now upwards of $65 per copy?! (I know EVERYTHING has gotten more expensive, but I swear it was <$30 just a couple years ago.)

Oh well! I'm going to try something out of The Last Draft (our first book club pick!) and, mid-May, read the project completely in a coffee shop or the library or somewhere that I didn't write a single word. I'm hoping that space will also help reinforce the "reader brain" rather than nitpicking things too early. Usually reading a paper copy does that for me, but I hope using an iPad and a new location will work just the same! :)

Speaking of our book club, thank you all for being so patient with me as I pushed back last month's stream in my quest to finish my draft. Now that I'm free, I'd like to host it as both a reading and writing stream, only this time we'll flip the order: we'll talk about WONDERBOOK first and then do some writing sprints!

That will be this Thursday, April 11th at 4:15pm CDT!

Bonus pic of Vin trying to read the book with me, lololol:

Now since I'm done with revision, that means we're back to Drafting Season!! Time to write all the words with wild abandon. Through the past six (seven?) years, I've discovered that this is truly the BEST time (and sometimes only time) for writing experiments.

So I'd like to present you with two options:

500 Words Per Scene Per Day:

Inspired by our resident Jocrazyface, think of this as another kind of Zero Draft. Only instead of moving perfectly chronologically, I'll take my outline and just write 500 words wherever I feel like writing them. Maybe at the beginning, maybe at the end, maybe in the middle. I'll jump around for each sprint and each writing session. That way, I'm sort of building out the draft. Also I can write more than 500 per day! Think of it as my minimum. :)

More Words Than the Day Before:

Inspired by silentgee on Twitch because they said "curse broken!! I got more words than I did yesterday!" I thought, wouldn't it be fun to see how many days in a row I can increase my word count? I've done variations of this before, but never just, open-ended, how long can I keep this up? I'd like to find out!

Let me know which you want to see! I love them both and think I'd be able to fit them both in before mid-May, but just in case, wanted to pick y'all's brains. :)

Finally, it's Total Solar Eclipse Day! We're lucky that our home is in the path of totality (at least for a minute) so we'll be staying put. But if you could please keep your fingers crossed for good weather for me, I'd love it! The past few days have also been "cloudy" but have cleared a little in the afternoon, so I'm still hopeful we'll be able to see this awesome event.

Either way, I'll keep y'all posted! :)

Alright, that's it from me. Hope y'all have a WONDERFUL start to your week and I'll see you on Thursday! Happy writing!