The Lake Projects eight-week summer writing project wrapped up last week, and it was a success! Some of our participants checked in for one last time with a final project statement. Here’s what they had to say:

Anne: I didn’t get what I wanted done this session mainly because life kept turning too chaotic for me to be able to write anything. I did get something written back in June but once July hit everything went down hill. (Anne wrote our week four guest post, and she did a lot of journaling, so, Anne, I think you did a great job)

Bev: I did pretty much finish my journal of my vacation (26 pp), did four blog posts on it, tweaked my query letter, and got potential agents in a spreadsheet.
My Big Picture goal is to get my memoir published, continue my letter writing, and start working on the next memoir from the 15 months I lived in Logan, UT, tentatively titled In the Shadow of the Temple. (Bev wrote our week six guest post; make sure to follow her blog, Fiacre’s Spade)

Laura: I didn’t reach my “big picture” goal (to finish a short story and start another), but I got a lot of work done on a story I started years ago, and I’m almost finished with the first draft. I wrote a lot of blog posts this summer, and that’s thanks to this group. On a whole, I feel great about the writing I did and I loved having a group to be accountable to. (Keep following the Lake Projects blog right here!)

Lisa: I can’t really remember what my big picture goal was for this summer session. I think I wanted to work on a few chapters of the children’s novel I’ve been wanting to start and I wanted to revise an old story. I never actually got to the story, but I did write the beginning of the novel that I’ve thinking about forever. That’s a pretty big accomplishment. I actually got words on paper and started fleshing out some characters. Wow. More importantly, I’m really excited to continue working on this, which is amazing. So, I’d consider this summer a success! Woo hoo! (Lisa wrote our week eight guest post. Good job, Lisa!)

Mike: I didn’t achieve my big picture goal from the start of the group, but I’m happy with the progress I made. It’s been a while since I tried to break up the writing process into manageable chunks (outlining, drafting, dividing-and-conquering on edits), and I was successful at those parts. I’ve also never tried to meld what I thought were two separate stories together and not let the seams show too much, and I think I’m closer to a finished product with that than I would have expected otherwise. The bonus was this past weekend, while cleaning out old files in preparation to pack up and put our house on the market, I found two pages of a draft version of one of the two stories with which I was working. I don’t remember writing them, but they actually function quite well within the revised version I have now (and provide dialogue and do a lot of connective work that I was missing), so I have even more material to edit together than I thought. I even have a possible new title, but I’ll hold off on sharing that till the draft is done, and I can make a careful decision on that. (That’s big progress! Read stories about Mike and his family’s experiences with Rett Syndrome on his blog, The Big Deal – Living With Rett)

Robert: I could only participate in the last week, but I exceeded my goal. I planned to write 2,000 words this week and I wrote 3,565. Yay! (Follow Robert’s progress on his writing blog, ROBBLOG)

I asked our group if they’d be interested in a shorter session, four weeks, beginning after the new year. I know that after the fall semester ends and the holidays wrap up, I’m going to want something to motivate me, and I thought others might feel the same way. And the writers are interested, so it will run! Mark your calendars and let me know if you’re interested in participating!

Coming Soon: Winter 2016 Online Writing Group, Monday January 4, 2016 – Saturday, January 30, 2016