Dust Bowl

July, so far, has been a month of flux for me. There are many things in the works and the dust is still in the air.

Some things that are happening:

• Still (mostly) plugging away at the Whole30. Results on that front next week. And I'm starting the 21 Day Fix on the 20th. *Big Scared Grin*
• Graduate school has been applied to, interview had, and acceptance letter hopefully in the mail, along with a financial aid package, likely chock full of student loans. Yay? 
• Spiritual stirrings are afoot. My personal belief system is not something I like to discuss publicly. I will happily talk religion and spirituality, in fairly general terms, all day long, but the depth of my beliefs and how they work aren't something I really like to discuss, at least not in this public of a forum. However, things have been happening my heart, and it would seem dishonorable to not mention them if I'm going to list things that are "happening." 
• My mom and I are working on a project together. We are meeting once a week to work on it. If I say any more my mom will kill me. But, okay, I will also mention it's awesome. 
•  I have started teaching my summer classes. I am teaching a legit, several student, need a lesson plan, have to write stuff on the board math class (if you took a math class with me in high school try not to laugh to hard). I'm also pulling together three reasonably individualized novel studies and trying to get a handful of students through as much of the HiSET as possible before mid-August. God help us all.
• I ran two miles yesterday without stopping. I haven't done that in about a year. I love my body and all it can do. 

I'm looking forward to the dust settling and seeing the lay of the land. Until then, keeping my face covered and hoping for the best.

So Board

I often feel like I'm a Type A person stuck in a Type B's...something. I love a good plan, but I'm not always so great at sticking with it (ahem, blogging...). I recently came across this sort of fabulous new way to plan my fiction writing, though. Obviously, a new method to do something doesn't, by any stretch of the imagination, mean I'm going to stick with it, but small portion of me that is Type A revels in this practice. 

Behold, the Plot Board:

 

So, this is totally not my own creation. I mean, the board itself totally is mine, along with the $12 investment, between the tri-fold poster board itself, sticky notes, and retractable sharpy (my love affair with office supplies is eternal), but the concept is not mine. I found this little gem of an idea here and fell in love with the concept. I like things I can manipulate, and the idea of moving stickies around and rearranging scenes as necessary and being able to visually keep track of plots and subplots appeals to me. I am not usually a kinesthetic or visual learner, but I think tapping into those skills help me see the big picture. I'm a details girl and pulling back to see the full picture is a tough, but this definitely helps. So far so good, so I'll say if you're writing and you have a hard time seeing the forest for the trees, this is worth a try.

Currently I'm moving back and forth between writing scenes, small, intimate things, which I love to write, creating characters and the world they inhabit, and hammering out major plot points. It's like a jigsaw puzzle, and rather than attacking it in a way that would make sense, maybe working on one particular part or piecing together the edges, I have all these little islands of connected pieces that will hopefully flesh themselves out eventually. I'm hoping the plot board will keep me on some sort of path, even if I periodically meander off - to watch Real Housewives.