Wowing Past 80K

In February, I enjoyed participating in WOW month with the Women’s Fiction Writers Association’s (WFWA). WOW stands for Work our Works in Progress. It was a great opportunity to interact with daily WFWA Facebook posts and to create online connections between writers of women’s fiction.

I hoped to break through 80K words on my current project, a dramedy about a broke and broken twenty-something woman, Indigo Costa, who returns home to Key West after failing at her dreams of Broadway stardom. In unexpected circumstances, she reluctantly enrolls in professional bridesmaid training at a swanky Key West resort, locking horns with its domineering director and finding her own surprising path forward. Think The Devil Wears Prada meets 27 Dresses. There is plenty of humor and tears to go around in this story.

During WOW, I pushed past 80K and am currently past 82K on the first draft. Like the horse sensing the hay in cozy stables just ahead, my writing accelerated throughout WOW and continues to pick up speed as I get closer to the completion of my first draft. I think I’ll finish a first draft in March with another 10-12K more words…then back in the saddle for the long revising process. Yet really happy about my progress in my first WOW!

WFWA Authors – Front Row: Randa Kayyali Privett, Bridges DelPonte, Tracey Enerson Wood; 2d Row: Pamela Raleigh, Cheryl J. Corriveau, Kyle Ann Robertson, Micki Morency, Regina Buttner

I also had a great opportunity to meet other wonderful Southwest Florida WFWA members at a gathering at the beautiful home of WFWA member and author Kyle Anne Roberston (pen name: BB Walsh). So fun and stimulating to talk with fellow authors about their back stories, current books, and future projects. Plus there were snacks! Being with such creative and interesting female authors in SW FL was an unexpected Wow during WOW. Looking forward to our next gathering in May.