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.

A Week Already? : Round 4 ROW Check-In #3

Has it really been a week since my last check-in already?  It feels like no time at all has gone by!  Writing still took a bit of a back seat to my fitness challenge this week, but hopefully I can step it up this week.

My goal report:

1) Some kind of Writing Activity at least 5 days per week
Meh.  I got the new version of Scapple installed on my computer - I've been trying it out for my NaNo brainstorming.  Not sure I'm doing it right.  And I did a little brainstorming.  I didn't enter anything into my spreadsheet for Friday, and I cannot for the life of me remember what I did with my lunch hour that day (supposed to be my writing time).  I may have done a little more brainstorming in Scapple.  Nothing over the weekend, despite having a nice quiet Sunday.  Monday I spent my lunch hour at the tech support desk as they had done something to the campus wireless that caused my computer not to connect.

Short version - NaNoWriMo is coming and I have not got nearly enough preparation done!  I am proud of myself for spending Thursday evening working on NaNo prep even though my writing buddy was ill and cancelled our writing date.  Too often when that happens, I watch TV instead.


2) Post Writing-Post Round Up weekly
Not posted.  Should have gotten this done on Sunday, but I didn't, and due to the aforementioned wireless issue, I wasn't able to get it posted on Monday either.

3) Visit and comment on at least 5 other ROWer's blogs per week
This, at least, I accomplished.  Now I just need to be better about responding to comments people leave on my blog.

Fitness:


My fit challenge is over.  I actually won a 6 month membership for being the biggest loser.  I lost 15 pounds over the 6 weeks.  More importantly, I started forming new habits of eating healthy and being active.  I feel way stronger and have more energy than I did 6 weeks ago - hopefully I can channel some of that new energy into writing!  So now I just have to keep up with those habits and not slack off just because I don't have a trainer prodding me along anymore.


So, my goals:

1) Go to the gym at least 3 times a week in addition to Saturday bootcamp
So far I've been to the gym once since the challenge ended - but that was yesterday, and the official end to the challenge was Monday night, so it's all good.  I will miss my bootcamp this Saturday, as I have a dress rehearsal for our choir concert at that time, but there's another class earlier in the day I think I'll go to instead.

2) Continue eating healthy most of the time (follow 80/20 rule)
That has been a challenge this week.  I don't think I'm doing too horribly, but I did get into the chips last night, and had cookies today at our office birthday party.  And I totally plan to have a piece of the Apple Cider Upside Down cake I made tonight.  But my breakfasts and lunches have been on track, and dinner has been mostly pretty healthy.

Anyway, that's the end of my lunch hour, and all my goals covered.  This week I really need to sit down and figure out where to schedule writing time so I can successfully complete NaNoWriMo.  Happy writing all!

New Beginnings : ROW Round 4 Goals

Already late and we're only one day into the new round.  Ugh.  Oh well - I'll just have to make sure it goes up from here.

Last round kind of fell apart for me.  Life hit me with change and chaos, and I wasn't able to keep up with my goals.  Our friend and his little boy have moved in with us for a while, which necessitated clearing out a bunch of stuff to make room for them and then getting used to having extra people and a small dog in the house.  It's been quite the adventure to have a four-year-old running around!  I also started a six week fit challenge in September, which has kept me busy with meal planning and working out.  But, we're settling into a new routine now, and I'm looking forward to a fresh new round of ROW and fitting writing back into my schedule.

Without further ado, my goals for the round:

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

I've been doing a lot of exercises with paper and pen lately as I try to get back on track with my writing, which makes getting a word count a little more difficult.  I'm also planning to do NaNoWriMo again this year, so October is my prep month.  Therefore, instead of a word-count related goal, I'm planning to try and do something writing related - either exercises, NaNo prep, or maybe even actual writing (gasp!) on at least 5 days out of the week.

2) NaNoWriMo - 50,000 words (November)

It was so exciting to see a fresh new NaNoWriMo website at the beginning of the month.  I have more than enough unfinished novels lying around my computer, though, so this year I'm planning to be a rebel and write short stories.  Still shooting for 50,000 words though.  I've started brainstorming and making notes for some of the ideas I have and I'm pretty psyched for November!

3) Post Writing-Post Round Up weekly

I'm going to try to get this blog feature back off the ground again.  I think I'm still going to shoot for Sundays, but I have to figure out a new place and/or time to write, since I don't have the quiet Sunday morning before my husband gets up anymore.

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

I really fell down on the job on this goal last round, but I'm going to do better this time.  I really do want to keep up with what you all are up to!

5) Revamp Blog (December)

I've been meaning to clean-up my blog design for a while (it's currently just sporting a theme I grabbed off the internet - nice, but I can't seem to make any changes or add widgets or anything), and coming down off of NaNoWriMo in December seems like it might be a good time to tackle that.  I also want to get my bio updated and do some thinking about what I want to use this blog for, besides ROW updates.

I've also got some fitness goals on my mind after participating in the Fit Challenge, and since I've noticed that a lot of folks include those with their ROW goals, I'll post mine here as well.

Fitness:

1) Go to the gym at least 3 times a week in addition to Saturday bootcamp
2) Continue eating healthy most of the time (follow 80/20 rule)

That's all folks!  I hope you all are getting a great start on Round 4!

Into the Home Stretch - ROW Update

So I meant to post some more about MisCon, and get my writing-post-round-ups posted, and check-in for ROW in a timely fashion.  And visit other people's blogs (I have actually read several, I just haven't left many comments). 

But.  It's now been two weeks since I last posted.

Sometimes life happens, I guess.  I got sick - just a cold, and a fairly mild one at that, except for the exhaustion.  And then, just as I thought the cold was about licked, a three-day migraine.  That was fun. (Not.)  I managed to pretty much recover by the weekend and got back to my workout routine and got a bunch of housework done.  Then there was the pit of depression I fell into this week.  Still trying to climb out of that - some days I try harder than others.

So anyway, I don't have a whole lot to report on the writing front.  Here 'tis:

1) Write 25,000 words

I wrote 2098 words in the last two weeks, which is actually more than I thought, but not as much as I'd hoped before the whole cold/migraine/depression thing.  That brings my total for the round to 21452.  I think I can still hit 25,000, but I will have to bust my butt this week.

2) Post on Blog once a week - besides check-in posts
Epic, epic fail.  And I was so proud of getting the last one in on time, too.  Technically, I did write part of a blog post last week, but I haven't posted it yet because it needs a boatload of editing.  Oh well - Onward!

3) Write first draft of short story 
Yeah.  It seems unlikely that this is going to happen this round.  Although if I suddenly figured out where I'm going with it, I do still have almost 4000 words to write to hit my word goal.  I could use them on this.  So it's possible, just highly unlikely.

4) Make progress on Last Words
A little bit of progress on this.  I had some really good thoughts about my main character, and did some brainstorming on ways to bring this back to its original spark (I seem to have meandered off the path).  I was really hoping to get more done on this, but I think I need a better plan for organizing my time.

So, that's my lack of progress for the two weeks.  But - tomorrow is another day, so here's to moving forward!  Hope you all are making fantastic progress as we head into the final stretch of the round!

Late Check In

So I'm late checking in this week.  I had a pretty busy, but also really good weekend.  It was, however, largely filled with non-writing activities - and I am so tired now!  Please forgive me if this post seems a little disjointed.  I know I haven't been very good about responding to comments - I'm going to try to do better - but I want you all to know that I really appreciate your encouragement and support.  My foot is all better, and I've also recovered from the allergic reaction caused by the antibiotics.  Yay! 

Better than that, though, is that for the first time in months I actually feel motivated.  For the last three months or so, it has been like swimming uphill through molasses to do anything other than read a book or watch TV.  Even making plans to hang out with my friends has felt like work, nevermind tackling anything on my to do list.  But that's finally over.  I don't know how long it will last, but I'm going to enjoy it. :)

Without further ado, my updates:

1) Write 25,000 words
Since my last check-in, I have written 1619 words, for a total of 9179 so far this round.  I'm pretty pleased with this, although I haven't actually done the math to see if that's on track for hitting my target.

2) Post on Blog once a week - besides check-in posts
This didn't get done this week.  I have my list of links all ready to go - I just have to add commentary and post.  I'm not really unhappy about that - there were a lot of other things I got done this weekend that I've been putting off for a while, so missing a blog post doesn't feel like a big deal.  I'll probably have it up by tomorrow at the latest.

3) Write first draft of short story
I still haven't done any actual writing on this project, but I did spend a little time thinking about what I want to do with it.  The concept came from a writing prompt that turned out kind of cool, but I'm not sure how it ends or where exactly it's going.  I do have a couple more ideas though.

4) Make progress on Last Words
Most of my words this week were spent on getting to know my main character better.  This novel was my NaNoWriMo project last November, and although I did spend about a month plotting and figuring things out beforehand, it wasn't enough to make it through a whole book, and I ended up feeling like my main character was kind of flat.  So this week, I've been doing a lot of brainstorming about her background and what makes her tick, and also just writing random scenes from her life.  It's been kind of fun.

That's all folks!  I hope you're all having a great writing week so far!

Goals 2010

I've been thinking (and reading) a lot about goals this month. I don't usually make New Year's resolutions, but I do want to make some changes in my life and I like the idea of goals, and plans for achieving goals.  I didn't come up with goals in time for the new year, but today is my birthday, the start of MY new year and it seems like a pretty good day to start the rest of my life.  So here are my big picture goals.  I've already broken down some of these into smaller pieces and started trying to create habits to make them a reality.  I'll talk more about that later, but I wanted to get these posted now.

1) Get Healthier/Have More Energy

I work a full time job and attend graduate school.  I also participate in several theatrical productions every year in conjunction with our local community theater, the university, and most recently, a newly formed professional theater company.  I get sick a lot, and don't have time for that (who does, right?).  I hope that developing a healthier lifestyle will help me avoid illness better and have more energy to cope with my hectic schedule.  I'd also really like to lose a little weight.

2) Unclutter My House/Life

My house is a mess.  I have way too much stuff and I can't find things I need.  Also, I know that I'm happier when things are clean and organized.  But the physical clutter is only part of the problem, so I want to unclutter my life as well.  Obviously, this is a really big goal, so I want to set several smaller goals and I won't beat myself up if it's not complete at the end of the year, as long as I can make continuous progress.

3) Start a Happiness Project

I've been reading Gretchen Rubin's blog The Happiness Project and I've decided I'd like to have one of my own.  To that end, I've signed up for her 2010 Happiness Challenge and I plan to pick up her book for my eReader.  I think the first two goals I've set will feed into this one as well.