Chugging Along - ROW 80 Round 4 Update #10

Well, my grand plans for the last week kind of fizzled. Our concerts went well - one on Saturday night, and one on Sunday afternoon. The Holiday Pops concerts are the most popular of the Symphony’s season, and were sold out a month in advance, so that was cool. It’s also always fun to sing with the orchestra. I spent some much needed time with the keyboard on Friday going over some parts I’d just never been quite sure of, with the result that I felt much more confident in the concerts and they were a lot more fun. Walking to and from my car was less fun - it was seriously cold in Zootown (aka, Missoula) this weekend.

I didn’t get a lot of writing stuff done - as in, I didn’t write at all. We dealt with a frozen pipe (and by ‘we’ I mostly mean our roommate, as my husband was at work and I’m less than handy at that sort of thing).  I also got a few things done for Christmas - bought some fabric for a couple of projects and called my mom for some gift ideas. I watched some TV and I had a little downtime with my busy concert weekend. Which is fine.

I did get a bit of writing in on my lunch hours during the week, and I have a writing date with my friend tonight. This weekend I have to get my Christmas gifts and baking that are being mailed ready to go, so I probably won’t get a lot of writing done this weekend either, but that’s okay. I took the week between Christmas and New Year’s off of work, so I’m hoping for a lot of good writing time then.

Anyway, my update, such as it is. :)

1) Writing - 10,000 words

So far, I have written a grand total of 506 words that were actually on a writing project and not a blog post. I’m trying not to count the blog posts, because the purpose of this goal is really to move my stories forward, not just to put words on the page. Not that blogging isn’t important, too, just not my focus for this goal. Maybe next round I’ll set different goals for different kinds of writing.

2) Post Writing-Post Round Up Monthly

The November round-up is not yet posted. The lack of internet access at my workplace is starting to seriously bug me, since that means I can’t work on this goal during my lunch hour writing sessions. And if I don’t get it done first thing in the morning on the weekends, it just doesn’t get done. So - this Saturday, I’m going to really try to knock it out before I go to my fitness class.

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

I did this! It’s been the bright spot in my week seeing what you all are up to and having a bit of dialog.

4) Revamp Blog

No progress on this. I may have to push this goal back to January, but hopefully I’ll be able to work on this some in my week off between Christmas and New Years.

5) Prioritize

I thought about this some, and I wrote down a few notes related to where I’m at in my creative journey and some things I want to articulate further. I need to make a concentrated effort to work on this in the coming week. Part of this is the post I’m composing about my NaNo experience, because I really want to take those lessons and apply them to my continuing writing progress, as opposed to the generalized floundering about I’ve been doing up to this point. It’s taking a while to collect my thoughts though.

Well, that’s it for me! Hope you all are having a great week!

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!

ROW Update : Getting Back On Track

So it's been, what, three weeks since I last checked in?  Four?  And my last check-in post - I decided I needed to edit something and managed to delete it instead.  That will teach me to edit when I'm too tired to see straight.  And then I just fell off the face of the earth.

Anyway, I've mostly finished my cleaning, decluttering, packing project.  I still have some stuff to do - 3 or 4 boxes of paper to be dealt with in the living room, a bunch of clothes and things to clean out of my bedroom - but I can slow down and work on it at a pace that will accomodate other activities now.  Like writing.  Yay!

So I don't have a lot to report this week, but I'm working on getting back on track.  I've been doing a lot of reading, and I just got Bonni Goldberg's Room to Write book through interlibrary loan (I wanted to see if I liked it before buying my own copy.  I'm also kind of short on bookshelf space at the moment.) so I'm going to dive into doing some of those exercises.  I've also been thinking about adding morning pages to my routine before work, but we'll see how it goes.  Anyway, my goals:

1) Write 100 words per day.
Have not done this for a while.  I just didn't have enough mental energy with everything else going on. (I hate that - it sounds whiny and defeatist, but it's also true.)  But, this week I intend to get this goal moving again, and hopefully increase the word count in the weeks to come.

2) Visit and comment on at least 5 other ROW blogs per week
Not done.  Again, hoping to pick this back up this week.  I want to see how you all are doing!

3) Writing Post Round Up blog post on Sundays
This I actually did this week.  It's brief, but it's posted.  And I've found more time to read writing blogs this week, too, so I've been collecting material for the upcoming Sunday.


So that's it.  I know eventually I need to develop tools to help me keep going during times of business and stress.  This time I didn't make it, so all I can do is pick myself up and start again.  Here we go!


Wishing you all a wonderful and productive week of writing and life!

ROW Check-In - Regrouping

This round just isn't going so well for me.  The sorting and repacking I'm doing at home is emotionally, mentally and physically exhausting, and the deadline for when I need to be done just moved up.  But I'm going to get through it and come out better on the other side, I hope.  I didn't even manage to post an update last week - mostly because I was just too depressed by my lack of progress - but I'm regrouping this week, tossing out a couple goals and picking out a new, more manageable goal to replace them.

Without further ado:

1) 15,000 words for CampNaNo (July)
This goal is being scrapped.  I've only managed to write 1183 words on the project so far, and I don't see that I'm going to be able to pick up the pace on that before the end of the month.  Likewise, my goal to write another 15,000 words for the remainder of the month doesn't seem realistic anymore, so I'm scrapping that one also.  New goal:


1) Write 100 words per day.
Thanks to Beth Camp for this idea.  Since I started trying to do this on Monday, I've managed it every day.  It seems like something doable that will keep me writing while I try to navigate the current chaos.  I've actually made some pretty good progress on the first short story idea I started for CampNaNo, so I'm pleased with how this is going so far.

2) Visit and comment on at least 5 other ROW blogs per week
I did not accomplish this either last week or this week.  Sorry fellow ROWers!  I'm keeping it though, because it really should be doable.  So I'll try to do better in the coming week.

3) Writing Post Round Up blog post on Sundays
These have gone up every week, although the last two have posted on Monday instead of Sunday.  Late is better than never, right?  I'm posting less links each week than I used to, both because I just don't have as much time for reading blogs right now and because it's helpful to have less blurbs to write if I actually want to get it posted on time.


So that's my regroup.  I may up the word count goal when things settle down a bit, which they hopefully will in the latter half of August, but until then, I'm just happy to be able to carve out a little bit of writing time.


I hope your writing is going well this round!

ROW Wednesday Check-In - Ugh

The title of this post pretty much describes how my writing has been going so far this round.  I'm in the middle of a giant sorting, organizing, moving project at home and it's taking up a ton of my time and energy right now.  It wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't saved everything I've ever acquired in my 36 years of existence (okay, that's an exaggeration, but only a small one - I've been shredding bank statements from 1995 for a bank I haven't banked at for like 8 years!).  And letting go of things is hard.  Ugh.  So yeah, not a lot of writing going on. 

And I usually write on my lunch hour - which is generally a nice change of pace from my job and makes me feel refreshed and energized.  But right now, I'm so mentally and emotionally exhausted from going through all my stuff that all I want to do on my lunch hour is play Facebook games.

But... I am going to post this update, such as it is, and then go try to put in a couple hundred words on my CampNaNo project before I go back to work.

Goals:

1) 15,000 words for CampNaNo (July)

So far I have written a grand total of 603 words for CampNaNo.  I am so far behind.  I'm hoping I can grab a little time this weekend to catch up.

2) Visit and comment on at least 5 other ROW blogs per week
I visited (and commented) on a whole 4 blog posts by ROW bloggers this week (not all of them were ROW posts, but they were all by ROW folks).  I hope to do better this week.

3) Writing Post Round Up blog post on Sundays
This got posted!  It's a shorter list than I usually post, but I got it done (and I suppose shorter may actually be nicer for the poor souls who actually read it).



So it's not completely horrible, except for the CampNaNo goal, and I should even be able to meet that if I can get some good writing sessions in.  Things will get better when my living room isn't full of boxes anymore.  I hope you all had a better writing week than I did!  See you next week.

Rocky Road - ROW Round 3 Goals

I was so looking forward to this round.  I had a bunch of goal ideas I was really excited about and I was all psyched to take my ROW progress to the next level.  Then life happened.  I have a major project I have to get done in the next couple of months, and as a result, the goals I originally planned have become unrealistic.  I guess that’s what this challenge is all about, though, right?  A writing challenge for people with lives.

So, I’ve reworked and pared down my goals, and I’m not sure I’ve pared them down enough, but I guess I’ll just dive in and see.  

I signed up for CampNaNo this month, so I’m breaking my goals into sections – sort of by month.  Here they are:

July

• CampNaNo – I set a 15,000 word goal and I’m going to be a rebel and write short stories instead of a novel.  Some might be flash fiction, some will be longer, but I hope to write at least 3 stories, possibly more, depending on length. 

August - September

• Write 15,000 more words.  On anything – blog posts, short stories, journaling, whatever.
• Start playing with ideas for NaNoWriMo (probably won’t start working on this until Sept.)

Whole Round

• Writing Post Round Up blog post on Sundays
• Check-in for ROW on Wednesdays
• Visit and comment on at least 5 other ROW participants’ blogs per week

I'm actually feeling much better about things today than I was yesterday, so I'm glad I waited to post.  Let's get some writing done!  Happy Round 3 ROWers!

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!