#FirstLineFriday Things Are Looking Up!

*I tried to post this on Friday, but it disappeared into the ether.  Poof!  This Saturday morning, it’s back.  A sign?  Perhaps!

What a difference a day makes!  I’ve got newer tread on all four of my tires.  The car’s running right.  Check engine light is off.  Got in an eight-hour shift at work today.  And…I’m WRITING again!  Woo Hoo!!!

I used make writing goals for myself.  I needed to write a certain amount of words per day or I needed to write for a certain length of time.  I believe writing goals are important.  I also know that when things fell apart in my life, I couldn’t maintain these goals.  And then…I felt like a big failure.  If things weren’t going a certain way, I couldn’t write.  Period.  The more I felt like a failure, the less writing I did.  But now, I’m learning how to write, even when things aren’t going well.  I’m learning how to be productive under less than perfect circumstances.  I’m keeping my writing goals manageable.  One new sentence per day on my WIP.  That’s it.  If I write more, great.  If I only get one sentence written, I’ve met my writing goal for the day

It seems strange to have only one sentence per day as a writing goal, but it’s working.  My WIP is getting attention each and every day.  Most days, I’m writing several pages, but if I write less, I don’t feel bad about it. Julia Cameron claims she wrote 30+ books by sneaking writing into her busy day, one sentence at a time.  That alone gives me hope!

I thought I’d share a line or three from my WIP for First Line Friday.  I haven’t participated before, but Joleene Naylor has been posting lots of fun stuff.  You should check out her site.

Chloe froze in place, startled.  And then, to my chagrin, she spoke those three famous words, a line uttered at some point by EVERY teenager, “I can explain.”

Not a first line, but I think it’s a fun place in the story I’ve been scribbling at.