Halfway!!! (+Excerpt)

Christmas candy is amazing for getting writing done. Especially since my younger siblings gave me writing snacks as a gift. 😀 (Also, some sibs and I went to our favorite Christian coffee shop last weekend, and that really helped me get some words in too.)

In other news, today I passed 15k words, which puts me at halfway through the first draft!!! Let’s celebrate with a [very rough draft] excerpt. 😀

Kylee’s art class is quite unusual…

I joined the tearing down, setting up, and arguing over placement crew, and soon we had two large round tables set up in the middle of the room. No chairs allowed. Miss Appleby directed us to set two ancient totes full of random wood pieces on one table and every paint we could find on the other.

Crystal entered the classroom and raised an eyebrow at the setup. Esther and I moved to make room for her at the table.

“What are we doing today?” she asked.

“I’m not sure,” I answered.

“It looks fun, though,” Esther shrugged.

Miss Appleby walked up to the table and was immediately pelted with questions. She held up both hands to stop us but her eyes were smiling. When we finally fell silent, she began her instructions.

“Good afternoon class! As you can see, today’s class will be quite different than usual. As an artist, I believe children are some of the most inspired and inspiring people. So we are going to make dolls. In these totes, I have everything you need to assemble a doll, and I’ll bring you wire and hot glue in a minute. At the other table are the paints. I’m still looking for it, but I believe there’s a box here somewhere with yarn for hair…” She trailed off and disappeared into the storage closet.

“Should we start?” a student called after her.

“Go ahead and start,” her muffled voice answered, and I shook my head and grinned to myself.

One of the boys dumped out a tote, and we began sorting through it for likely pieces. I choose a round bead, four straight sticks, and a block for the body. Esther proved handy at making dolls, and she helped Crystal and I with our messes of glue and wire. While they took a turn at the hot glue gun and yarn hair station, I decided to start with my doll’s face.

Green eyes. Light pink lips. A line here for her nose. Another two for eyebrows. I waited to let it dry some before I could add a few more details.

Joss joined me, and I scooted my palette over to share.

“Thanks, Holmes. What type of doll are you making?”

“She’s going to be a redhead, so that’s why I’m starting with green eyes. I told my mom once when I was little that if I could be anyone else, I’d be a redhead.”

Joss smiled, and I knew he was trying to picture me with red hair.

Man, I love these characters. 😉

I’d appreciate your prayers as I try to clearly present my message and get these words written. With intense, sad scenes like the one I wrote today, that can be hard sometimes, though fortunately, this draft has been going really well overall. 😉

Junior Mints or Butterfinger Bites? My little sis gave me both so I didn’t have to choose, but I’d love to know what you would choose. 😉