Vitality Stories

What’s Up?

What I’ve been working on

2017 is off to a busy start. I’m still on track to complete the first craptastic draft of In the Doghouse by the end of March, and I’m looking forward to telling you more about this story at that time*. And thanks to feedback from Author Accelerator** and Kelsey Browning’s Big Creative Project*** course, I have a concrete plan of action to address the final edits of Tiger Drive. And when I say final, I mean I will have written Tiger Drive to the best of my current capability, and it will be time to seek out and receive guidance from an experienced agent and/or editor so both Tiger Drive and I can continue to grow to our full potential.

I’m also learning that the more creative projects I try, such as drawing, painting, children’s books, and sewing, the more I want to write. So I’m currently taking the Storytelling Flow comics course with Tom Hart. In his course, cartoonist Tom Hart is sharing his process for coming up with an idea for a comic, and while I went into the course thinking I’d work on a strip about my writing life, or even about my relationships (which I’m going to call Relationship Matters), thanks to Tom, I came up with a new idea involving a society where gum chewing is illegal, but bootlegging Gumsters are on the rise, and protesters are begging for lip-smacking changes. This is cathartic for me because I have a sound sensory disorder, Misophonia. When someone is chewing gum near me, I go into Fight-or-flight Response and start kicking and screaming–at least in my mind.

Now, normally, I would never share my first scribbles or drawings, they are horrible and embarrassing (in other words: they make me feel vulnerable), but this class is teaching me that even a drawing can be a craptastic first draft and so I’m going to share Stop Smacking! with each of you:

 

And here is a first draft digital sketch that I’ve started for Relationship Matters:

 

Finally, the Dear Me letters are starting to come in. If you’d like to write a letter to your younger self and have it included in a future newsletter, let me know.

Well, this newsletter was all about me, wasn’t it? I could have left all the above out and just said I’m trying some new things so if you don’t see a weekly newsletter from me, all is okay. I’ll probably be posting future sketches and more steps in the above processes on Instagram as @terilcase, if you’d like to follow me there, too.

I’m still learning what works best in my newsletters and when I say best, I mean what you, my dear subscribers, like to see. I am so grateful for your support, and I value your time. I certainly don’t want to abuse either one.

What are you up to? I always love to hear from you.

Until next time, thank you for being you.

Teri

* When writing a first draft, if I talk too much about the story idea, I freeze up.
** If you ever decide to try Author Accelerator, tell them I sent you. They offer a small credit for referrals, but I’ve worked it out with them to give YOU credit, not me.
*** Kelsey is amazing. I’m getting ready to start her Collage Book Discovery & Recovery course. I will be sharing my progress on Instagram.