For the Win! : ROW 80 Round 4 Update #8

So I wrote an update on Wednesday - and somehow it never got posted.  My computer has been doing this bizarre selective thing where in some places it will tell me it's connected to a wireless network, but I don't have internet access.  And work, where I write on my lunch hour, is one of those places.  It's kind of driving me nuts.  So I've been writing my update in Word and saving it to a flash drive to upload when I get back to my work computer.  This Wednesday, I got back to work and got busy, and then I had a migraine, so it didn't get uploaded Thursday morning either.

Anyway, the point of telling you all that was, that even though Thanksgiving is over, and all the turkeys have been stuffed and all that, I still wanted to say Thank You.  I'm so grateful to have found the ROW80 writing challenge.  You all have inspired me to go after my writing goals, to keep challenging myself to be better, and you've encouraged me when I'm having a tough time.  Thank you.

And now, goal updates!

1) NaNoWriMo - 50,000 words 
Just in case you couldn't tell from the graphic at the beginning, this goal is complete!  I crossed 50,000 words yesterday around 5:30 pm and validated shortly thereafter.  I'm closing in on the completion of the storyline I was working on.  I learned a ton (I'm working on a blog post for what I learned this year) and it was just a really wonderful experience.  I'm practically giddy with my first NaNo win!

2) Post Writing-Post Round Up monthly
I've got a bunch of great posts collected.  Hopefully I'll get that list up tomorrow.


3) Visit and comment on at least 5 other ROWer's blogs per week
This was done for last week.  Now I just have to go see what you all are up to this week!


New Goals for December
4) Revamp Blog
While I do kind of like the basic look of my blog, I used an older template, and so far I haven't been able to figure out how to tweak it at all.  It won't let me add any widgets to the sidebar, and I can't rearrange blocks at all.  So I'm going to figure out how to do that, even if it means finding a new theme that's new enough to modify, or building one for myself from the ground up.  I also need to update my profile / bio section.

When I originally came up with this goal, I had also planned to evaluate what I want to use my blog for, and come up with some kind of regular posting schedule.  However, with my new-found insights from NaNoWriMo, I think I just want to focus on getting the writing flowing again, so for now, I'm just going to the keep the blog for ROW Updates and monthly Writing Post Round-Ups (and maybe a random post here and there if the spirit moves me).

5) Prioritize
I shoved a lot of things to the side to meet my NaNoWriMo writing goals, and the momentum was great for my writing.  It wasn't so great for a lot of other parts of my life.  And I realized I'm spending time some things (like Facebook games) that may be fun, but which are taking away time from stuff I really want to do.  So I'm going to take some time this month to really think about my priorities, and see if I can figure out how to balance the really important stuff so it all gets done, and what things I can set aside.

6) Writing - 10,000 words
I definitely want to keep writing in December, and keep the momentum going, but I'm shooting for a significantly smaller word count this month.  Holiday preparation (which if I'm going to do NaNo, I should really start in October, because now Christmas has snuck up on me and I'm feeling kind of behind) will probably take up a fair amount of my time this month, as will research on how to fix my blog.  So we'll try for that whole balance thing. :)

Fitness
My fitness & health goals for December are pretty much the same - go to the gym at least 3 or 4 times a week, continue to eat mostly healthy.  I'm giving myself a bit more leeway with food over the holiday season, and just trying to maintain at the weight I'm at.  In January, I'll try to get rid of the last of the unwanted pounds.  But basically I've been doing pretty well.  I've been going to the gym about 3 times a week for the last few weeks.  For Thanksgiving, I ate enough to be satisfied, but not stuffed.  And although I've been having a few more treats lately, I'm still eating pretty healthily over all.

Okay, this post is really long now, so I'll stop.  Happy December!  And Happy Writing!

Never Enough Time - ROW Round 4 Check-In #7

There is just never enough time in life to get everything done that we want or need to do, so we have to make priorities.  This month, I’ve chosen to make writing a priority.  There’s mail unsorted on the coffee table (I did sort out things that actually need to be paid), laundry gets done on an as needed basis as opposed to processing it all each weekend, our DVR is filling up with shows I haven’t had time to watch.  My e-mail is out of control – again.  My husband has been very supportive.  He asks me in the evening, “do you need to write tonight?” and is perfectly happy to play on his computer if I say yes.  I’ve promised I’ll clean the bathroom promptly come December 1^st.

And this is fine, for this month.  For the NaNoWriMo rush.  But when it’s over, I still want writing to be a priority, and I have to figure out a way to make it fit more sanely, so that other things get done, too.  It may have to take a back seat to Christmas preparations in December, but come January, I need to have a plan.

I’m not sure why I’m thinking about this today – maybe it’s the overflowing e-mail box, or just the nature of life and its mix of things I can and can’t control, or the result of a relatively sleepless night.  But I think in December I’m going to add a goal to take stock, see what I need to do, and what I can let go of, so that writing can be a bigger part of my life.  I’ve really enjoyed this month of focus on writing, and I’ve learned a lot.  Soon it will be time to take what I’ve learned and apply it to a new writing life.

Anyway, enough random philosophizing – on to goals:

1) NaNoWriMo - 50,000 words

NaNoWriMo is actually going swimmingly.  I’m learning a ton about myself and my writing, and having a lot of fun.  It’s been a long time since writing was actually fun for me – too much worry about whether or not I was good enough, or smart enough, or original enough.  This month I’ve been able to let go of that, and it’s been wonderful.  I am presently at 31,786 words.  That puts me a little behind today, but I have a writing date tomorrow night, and Friday off work, so I’m hoping to actually get ahead over the weekend.  I’ve been loving the writing sprints on Twitter (follow @NaNoWordSprints) – I think I’ve used my Twitter account more this month than I have in all the rest of the time I’ve had it combined.  Another thing I did last weekend was to participate in the DIY-MFA weekend writing sprint, which was a great motivator.  I think I’m gonna make it for the win this year!

2) Post Writing-Post Round Up monthly

I’ve changed this goal to a monthly post, since I’m not collecting as many blog posts while I’m busy NaNoing.  So it will go up December 1^st.  (At least that’s the plan!)

3) Visit and comment on at least 5 other ROWer's blogs per week

Argh!  Failed again!  What was that I was saying about never enough time?  I need to find something to cut out so I can move this up the priority ladder, because I DO want to make time to encourage my fellow ROWers.

Fitness Goals:

I’ve been back in the gym again this week, though not as intensively as when I was doing the fit challenge.  I’m also still feeling a little under the weather.  But I’m still trying to get there at least 3 or 4 times a week, and making relatively healthy food choices.  I haven’t lost any more weight, but I haven’t gained back any that I lost during the fit challenge either.  I will be a happy camper if I can maintain that over the holidays!

I hope all of your goals are going well, and that you’re closing in on 50,000 if you’re doing NaNoWriMo.  Happy Writing, all!

ROW80 is the writing challenge that knows you have a life.  Check out what other ROWers are up to here.

I’m Having A Day – ROW80 Round 4 Check-In #6

I’m having a day. The kind of day where I feel like I can’t do anything right and I pretty much suck at everything. Some of it’s do to with things at work where I don't feel I'm doing my best. Some of it’s things going on in my personal life. Mostly it’s probably lack of sleep - everything seems so much darker than it really is without sleep. After all, I did get up and go to the gym this morning (even though I was late and only got to workout for 20 minutes) and I’m keeping up with my NaNo Word count (even though most of it is probably worthless drivel that will never see the light of day). Actually, the fact that I can even come here and post about it instead of curling up in a weeping ball of depression somewhere gives me hope that tomorrow will be better. But still, I’m having a day, and I just had to acknowledge it. Maybe that robs it of some of its power. I can hope.

So, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get on with goals.

1) NaNoWriMo - 50,000 words

NaNo is actually going surprisingly well for me this year. My current word count is 20,127. That’s almost as much as I got last year, and in comparing my stats chart for this year to last year, the profile is much better. I’m actually keeping up with that little rising line. I’ll fall behind a little today because I’m going to a show with some friends tonight, so I won’t have time to write, but tomorrow I get my lunch hour AND have a writing date with a friend in the evening, so hopefully I won’t have to much trouble catching up again. I haven’t written anything I’m particularly proud of so far this month, but I’ve been writing something I think I need to write to get through to a place where I can write things I am proud of. I feel like there are some barriers breaking.

2) Post Writing-Post Round Up weekly

This post did go up this weekend, so yay! However, due to NaNoWriMo, I’m just not spending as much time reading blogs, so I’m not collecting a lot of posts. I’m thinking of turning this into a monthly feature, at least for now.

3) Visit and comment on at least 5 other ROWer's blogs per week

I’m sorry to say that I once again failed horribly at this goal this week. I read a few other ROWer’s blogs, but I don’t think I commented on a single one. Mea culpa.

Fitness:

I have really sucked at keeping these goals this week. I’ve been feeling a little under the weather lately, so I decided to take a couple days off from the gym last week and get some extra sleep. I think the extra sleep really helped a lot, but then my hiatus from the gym extended, which is probably actually contributing to my current lack of sleep and general bad mood. Today’s the first day, not counting Saturday boot camp, that I’ve been to the gym since last Tuesday.

My eating habits haven’t been the best either. I desperately need to do some actual meal planning (and we need to go grocery shopping), because while I don’t think I’ve quite fallen back to my previous levels of unhealthy eating and excessive snacking, this week has not been a good one for mindful eating. But I will do better this week, and not let one week of setback derail me from my healthy journey.

That’s it for me. I hope you all are having a great week!

Go Left, Young Writer: ROW Round 4 Check-In #5

It’s a new month! It almost feels like a new, shiny round, since I broke my main goals out by month this time, mostly due to NaNoWriMo. I woke up to about 3 inches of snow on my car this morning, and the unexpected feeling of gratitude that I’d had a flat tire on Sunday. I wasn’t particularly happy about the tire on Sunday, but if it hadn’t been flat, I wouldn’t have had to change it out for the donut spare. And if I hadn’t had to put on that donut, I wouldn’t have made the time to go out to my father-in-law’s house to have my snow tires put on. It took me, my husband AND our roommate to get the tire changed - apparently, the summer tires were not original to the car, and the tool provided to loosen the lug nuts didn’t fit. After going through three of our socket sets to find one that would work, we finally had to ask our roommate, and thankfully, he had the right size in his toolkit. So yeah, not really the way I wanted to spend my Sunday afternoon, but I’m so grateful I had my snow tires on this morning.

Anyway, writing. Here’s how my goals shook out this week:

1) NaNoWriMo - 50,000 words

The good news is, I’ve written over 10,000 words already this month - I got off to a great start by taking the 1st of November off work and banging out 3200 or so, and then another 2000 on Saturday. The bad news is, over 5000 of the words I’ve written this month are on a project completely unrelated to my NaNo project. I guess I’d call it a fan fic of sorts, since it involves a character I created for a Star Wars roleplaying game I played in a couple of years ago, and at least a couple characters from the Expanded Universe (that’s the mass of books, comics, etc that have been created outside the official Star Wars movies, for those of you who are not Star Wars nuts). On the one hand, I’m somewhat irritated that I’ve spent this much time on a project the will never see the light of day instead of my original work that I may actually have a chance of publishing someday. On the other hand, I haven’t felt this compelled to write something for a long time. I wasn’t actually sure I could feel that anymore.

The more I think about it, I think the thing to do is just keep writing the thing, since it’s insisting upon being written, dump it into my NaNo project, and count those words. After all, I’ve already declared myself a rebel - writing short stories without even a theme to tie them together instead of a novel - and plenty of people write fan fiction for NaNoWriMo. I think ignoring this impulse to write would be a mistake. And maybe being so passionate about this piece will spill over into my other stories once it’s finished.

2) Post Writing-Post Round Up weekly

Fail. I’ve been feeling like I’m about to come down with something for a couple of weeks now, and after my super productive Friday and Saturday, I decided it was completely okay to have a lazy Sunday morning. I fully expected I’d still have time to put the Round-Up together and get a couple thousand more NaNo words in on Sunday afternoon (loving the NaNo word sprints on Twitter, by the way!). Enter the flat tire. C’est la vie. That will teach me to do important things first and be lazy second I guess.

3) Visit and comment on at least 5 other ROWer's blogs per week.

Failed you again fellow ROWers - that was another thing I should have done Sunday morning. I think I did manage to actually respond to most of the comments on my own blog though, so that’s something.

Fitness Goals:

Still going to the gym about 4 times a week - either to a class, or to workout on my own (I’m using the workouts I got during the Fit Challenge, with some modifications like adding weight or reps as needed). On Friday, since I had the day off from work, I broke up my frantic NaNoing to take in a yoga class, which was amazing. I haven’t been to a yoga class for a long time, and it’s just really good for my body and soul. Thanks to the fit challenge and consistently getting stronger, I was actually able to do a back bend. The last time I tried that, I couldn’t even lift myself off the ground, so I was really pleased.

Healthy eating - well, I’m trying. I think I’m doing okay. I try to follow the 80/20 rule, where 80% of what you eat is for health, and the other 20% can be things you just enjoy. Sometimes I think it turns out more like 60/40, but I’m still doing a lot better than I was.

Anyway, that’s my week! I hope all of you are doing fabulously with your own goals, and having a great week!

If you want to see what other ROWer's are up to, you can find them here.

NaNoWriMo is Coming! : ROW80 Round 4 Check-in #4

I'm going to try to keep this update short, because I want to get back to my NaNoWriMo planning, and the sands measuring my lunch break are quickly running out.  Yes, like many of you, I'm preparing for NaNo - and it's coming in only 2 short days.  Eek!

So, without further ado (do I say that every week?), my check-in:

1) Some kind of Writing Activity at least 5 days per week

I think I actually achieved this this week, though I don't think I got as much done on any of those writing activities as I would like.  As previously mentioned, I'm mostly using this time to prep for NaNoWriMo, but I am so far behind!  I'm planning this year to write short stories instead of a novel (go rebels!), but so far I only have notes for three stories, and I'm not sure I have enough figured out for any of them.  And strictly speaking, I don't think three stories is enough to get 50,000 words, unless I'm really stretching the definition of "short" story.  Oh, I have more ideas in my idea file, but most of them are little more than sparks. On another note, though, the story I'm currently working on planning for looks like it could be stretched to novel length, so maybe I'll turn out to not be a rebel after all.  Who knows?  One thing's for sure - I'm going to be doing a lot of pantsing this year. 

2) Post Writing-Post Round Up weekly
This is posted - two days late - but it's posted.  And it's a special NaNoWriMo edition!

3) Visit and comment on at least 5 other ROWer's blogs per week
Failed this week - I only made it to two.  Sorry y'all.  I have to figure out a better way to get this done.

Fitness:

I'm making it to the gym about 4 days a week right now (assuming I haul myself out of bed and go tomorrow and hit the yoga class I'm looking at on Friday), which is not as much as during the fit challenge, but still better than what I was doing before. 

As far as healthy eating goes, I'm doing okay.  Not adhering to the diet as rigidly as I was during the challenge, but I'm still eating better than I was before.  I have slipped more than I wanted to though - it's so hard when every one around you is completely uninterested in any kind of healthy eating habits.  And this time of year is really difficult, too, because there are just treats everywhere.  But I'm going to keep trying - I don't mind if my progress slows down a bit from what I was doing on the fit challenge, but I do NOT want to go backwards.

That's it folks!  I'm off to do more NaNo prep.  Happy writing!

Writing Post Round Up – NaNoWriMo Edition

November is fast approaching, and with it NaNoWriMo (that’s National Novel Writing Month, for the uninitiated).  This will be my second year participating, and hopefully my first win.  So I thought I’d dedicate one of my post round-ups to NaNoWriMo advice.  Some of these posts are actually from last year, and some are brand new.  Enjoy!

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/10/08/welcome-to-nanowrimo-prep-school-word-nerds/

Here’s one from Chuck Wendig.  He has some great tips, as well as links to other helpful posts.

http://musecraftonline.com/writing/nano-planning-2013

This post is from fellow ROWer Kim Switzer and she’s been adding to it all month.  Don’t forget to check back to see if she’s left new tips – these are great!

http://blog.nanowrimo.org/post/32671611607/10-reasons-you-should-do-nanowrimo

Still on the fence about whether or not you want to participate?  Don’t even know what NaNoWriMo is?  Here’s ten reasons you might want to pick up the pen this November.

https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/2013/09/could-you-draft-a-novel-in-a-month-here-s-how-to-nail-nanowrimo

And here’s some fabulous tips on how to get the most out of your NaNo experience from Roz Morris.

http://writerunboxed.com/2012/10/13/pre-plot-for-nanowrimo/

Although “no plot, no problem” seems to be a favorite theme for NaNoWriMo, plenty of writers do pre-plan their novels.  This post is from last year, but it’s all still good advice.

http://nailyournovel.wordpress.com/2012/10/07/how-to-outline-your-story-for-national-novel-writing-month-checklist/

Roz Morris again (what can I say, she has great stuff) with a checklist on outlining your novel for NaNoWriMo.  Another older-but-still-good post.

http://writingishardwork.com/2012/11/14/nanowrimo-tip-14-scrivener/

How could I resist a post that contains two of my favorite writing things – Scrivener and NaNoWriMo?  A short, to-the-point tip on using the Project Target feature in Scrivener.

http://thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com/2012/11/6-12-things-i-learned-from-nanowrimo.html

This post is a recap of things learned from participating in NaNoWriMo, shared so we can all use her insights in our pre-NaNo prep.

http://blog.nanowrimo.org/post/64961638752/roadtrip-to-nano-creating-3-d-characters-by-people

People watching tips for writers – flesh out your NaNo characters!

http://www.scribblecode.com/author_ehaynes.html

And lastly, here’s one from an author who does most of her drafting during November.  This interview is by the creators of Aeon Timeline, a cool writing tool that helps keep track of timelines and story arcs (and newly available for Windows PCs, just in time for NaNo!), so there’s a few tips in there for using that as well.

That’s all folks!  If you’re diving into this crazy November writing adventure with me, good luck and have fun!  If NaNo’s not for you, there’s still some good stuff in the posts above for writing in general, too.  Happy writing, whatever method you choose!

Note: this is a list of blog posts and articles on writing that I collect weekly.  Inclusion on this list does not necessarily mean it was published this week, just that I read it this week and thought it was cool, interesting, and/or useful.