You guys. There is WAY too much going on in my life right now. I feel like a hamster on a wheel that someone rolled down a very steep hill.

Anyone relate? Anyone? Bueller?

“Hang on, Jill,” I tell myself. “Almost there.”

Where “there” is, however, I haven’t a clue. What I do know is that I need to set better boundaries. I will (undoubtedly) write a post about that soon. For now, let me tell you about my week.

Last Thursday I subbed in a kindergarten classroom. We learned to read “It is a blue bed,” which I think is going to change the lives of those kiddos. Seriously. We also learned words that rhyme with “cat.” Like hat, sat, fat, and mat. Good times. Thursday night I got to hear Lauraine Snelling talk at a local writers’ group I belong to. She was AMAZING. Wisdom for you from Lauraine: Get a writing buddy and encourage each other. (Err… she actually said to “kick each other in the pants regularly.” So yeah. ‘Nuff said.)

Friday I subbed in a fourth grade classroom. We read about arthropods and learned to use a comma with a conjunction to divide a run-on sentence! I was (totally) excited to be the one to teach them that. (Sometimes it’s the little things in life, you know?)

Saturday I went to a little one-day writing conference where I taught a class on writing for young adults. The keynote speaker was Kathi Lipp, and she was brilliant! Wisdom for you from Kathi: “Write first thing! Before you make the decision not to write.” And this one: “Perfect is the enemy of hope. The happiest authors are the ones who don’t expect much [out of that first draft].” I liked Kathy so much I bought one of her books. It spoke to me. I had to have it. I also had to have a cookie.

My children had friends over Friday night (for my son’s birthday) and Saturday (my daughter’s friend). Then Sunday it was my daughter and my turn to teach the kindergarten Sunday school class where we learned to draw pigs (my daughter is an artist), and I was also a door greeter. Sunday night was ladies’ group and my kids went to a Glowfest Halloween party, so we had to dig up some costumes. Cupid Shuffle, anyone? Aww yeah.

Monday I got up determined to write first thing. And I did. I got up at 5:00 in the morning, sat in the living room, and wrote about 300 words while nodding off about 50 times in the space of an hour.

Not my best work.

Then I needed to set up the Go Teen Writers cover reveal. (Coming to you in just a few paragraphs.) And that took a couple hours. Then I tried to write again, but I realized I needed more work first. The scene I was trying to write required brainstroming a list of classes my protagonist could take at the school she is attending and a list of new very minor characters who she can meet in her classes. Three hours later…

I had to quit because Grandma was coming over to celebrate my son’s birthday with the family, and I had pizzas to make.

Tuesday morning I got up at 5:00 a.m. again. I managed to write for about 30 minutes and this time wrote 698 words. But since this was my son’s actual birthday, I stopped writing and made him breakfast. ♥ ♥ ♥

Tuesday was the cover reveal for the updated Go Teen Writers book. So after breakfast I spent quite a bit of time posting my own cover reveal posts on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, then sharing all the ones I could share or like or comment on.

In case you’re like, “What Go Teen Writers book?” Allow me to explain. Stephanie and I realized that Go Teen Writers: How to Turn Your First Draft into a Published Book was five years old and had some content that was outdated. So we thought, “Let’s update it!” Not only did we revise and update the book, we added a few new chapters (one on historical fiction and one on self-publishing), we gave it a new (simpler) title (Go Teen Writers: Edit Your Novel), and we gave it a new cover. Roseanna White designed this cover for us. Isn’t it fun?

The book releases on November 6, but you can read the first three chapters by clicking here. 

Back to my crazy week… Wednesday I was scheduled to do a guest chapel at a local school. It was also my Go Teen Writers blog day, so on Tuesday I had to write my blog post and a twenty-minute chapel talk and PowerPoint to go with it. I had an appointment that morning to go to before I could start, and by the time I got home, it was almost eleven. I buckled down and got to work.

And that was just a recap. I left out a ton of stuff. But notice that if I hadn’t gotten up at 5:00 a.m. on Monday and Tuesday, I wouldn’t have gotten any words written yet this week. Kudos to Kathi for her “Write first thing” mantra. It’s already working!

Still. All in all: too much going on. Which makes me think of…

Bad guys closing in.

Okay, so most of my To Do list things were not bad, but the tension in my life is really high right now. And this is the same kind of intensity you want to create for your hero in this part of your story. You’ve passed the midpoint of your novel. The conflict should really start escalating. The bad guys should be getting closer to your hero. They should be causing more problems that keep your hero from achieving his or her goal. But it’s not just “bad guy” external forces that should be closing in. Your hero’s internal conflict should be rising as well. Things are likely harder because your hero is doubting himself big time right now. In fact, he’s not even sure he should have signed on for this goal in the first place.

Strangely, I keep having those same thoughts about my work in progress. My, what an interesting coincidence… 😉

This kind of self-doubt brings your story to a new level in that now you must test your hero’s resolve. Will he be strong enough? Can he stand up to his own past and the lies he believes about himself? Can he triumph over himself?

If you can plant these internal doubts well, you will have set your hero up for the All is Lost/Dark Moment that is coming up next. You will set him up to fall hard. And that’s what you need. That’s what he needs to be able to rise again in Act Three, stronger, living in truth, and ready to stand against those external bad guys and save the day.

How does your hero doubt himself in the second half of Act Two?

How have you set him up for the dark moment that is coming?

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