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Posts Tagged ‘goals’

ROW80 Update 10/27/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on October 27, 2013| 12 Comments »

My goal for each week is 3,000 words. Last week, I only made it to 1,663 words. That was kind of discouraging, especially since I had written well over 4,000 the week before and thought I was on a roll. Anyway, I didn’t quite make my goal this week, but I did write 2,789. That’s pretty close, so I’ll take it. My story is ending up with some more twists I wasn’t expecting. That’s always fun. Even when I have an outline, new ideas keep popping up, so I just change the outline. So I’m still plotting. Just sometimes after the fact. 🙂

Also, I want to mention that I took part in a Halloween anthology, contributing a short story called “The Third Wish”. The anthology is only $1.00, and the proceeds (minus PayPal fees) all go to UNICEF. This anthology was the brain child of Joy Kamen. She remembered that as a child, she Trick or Treated for UNICEF. She thought this would be a good way for adults to do the same. Joy worked really hard on this project. So if you’re interested in downloading the pdf file for $1.00, just click the pretty cover over to the right, which goes to the download page on Joy’s site. Thanks!

So, how did the rest of you do this week?

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ROW80 Update 10/20/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on October 20, 2013| 14 Comments »

I’m a little disappointed this week. My goal is 3,000 words per week. I only wrote 1,663. And I did it all in one day. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are my writing days. I was all fired up on Thursday when I wrote those words. On Friday, I couldn’t wait to get home from work and get some writing done. But my mom called and wanted me to go out to eat with her, my son, his fiancee, and their little girl. I couldn’t say no because I wanted to spend time with them. When I got home, it was late and I was tired. I don’t know WHY I didn’t write yesterday. I THINK it might be all those spooky Halloween movies I was watching. LOL. I had to go into work for a couple of hours, which kind of ruined my day, but had to be done. Then I went to the grocery store. Spending all that money kind of depressed me because you don’t get many groceries for a huge amount. 😦 But it was mostly the movies.

I’m going to have to rearrange my schedule, I think. I wanted to have those three writing days so I could get other stuff that needed to be done over with at the beginning of the week. But now I’m thinking I might ought to just write when I get a chance, no matter what day it is so I won’t sabotage myself at the end of the week if something comes up. I’m going to try that this week and see what happens.

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Sunday ROW80 Update 10/13/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on October 13, 2013| 19 Comments »

My goal for this round is to finish my WIP by writing 3,000 words per week. This week…drum roll…I wrote 4,552. Yay! I hope I can continue this way. My characters threw a couple of surprises at me this week, so I’m going to have to rearrange things a bit. 🙂

That’s all.

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ROW80 Goals for Round 4

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on October 7, 2013| 10 Comments »

To finish this stinkin’ WIP!!!

Oh, maybe I shouldn’t have said it quite like that. But I’m kind of frustrated with myself because I’ve let other things take precedence over my writing. Some things SHOULD have taken precedence, but not everything. I did do some writing on Saturday. I churned out over 4,000 words on a short story for an anthology I was invited to participate in. All proceeds go to Unicef. More about that later.

I’m going to try to write at least 3,000 words per week until I get this book finished. I have the last few chapters figured out, but there are about six chapters in the beginning of the last half of the book that I have no clue about. I’ll get there, though.

Here’s hoping this round will be more productive than the last two. I’ve been with ROW80 since the very beginning. I was one of the first sponsors. I’ve loved this writing challenge for the almost three years it’s been in existence, and I plan on sticking with it as long as Kait keeps it up. I used to be so much more productive, and I really hope I can get that enthusiasm back. I think part of my discouragement is book sales. I’ve talked to other authors, and most of them are really struggling with sales. There are so many more ebooks to choose from than there used to be. I think the key is to just keep writing and publishing so I’ll have more books out there. I think another thing that’s keeping me from churning out words like I used to is that my plots are getting more complicated. This is all an interesting journey, isn’t it?

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ROW80 Check-In 9/8/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on September 8, 2013| 22 Comments »

I didn’t post last week because I was on my anniversary trip. Here’s how I’ve done on my goals this past week.

1) Write at least three hours this week. This didn’t happen. However, I started from the beginning and reread my whole WIP, which is about half finished. I added a little scene from my male main character’s point of view. And I’ve done some plotting for the rest of the story. So I’ve been fairly productive.

2) Do at least 15 minutes of housework per day using the FlyLady challenges. Major fail. But I did do a little housework, mostly picking up things from where they don’t belong. I’ve been slowly getting rid of some things. It’s hard to let go of things, thinking I might use them again. But if I haven’t used/worn it in a year, it needs to go away.

3) Get back to my healthy eating habits. I’m actually doing better. I haven’t made any drastic changes…that usually leads to failure. But I’ve gradually worked on eating better. And I’m still walking on the treadmill every day, so that helps.

This week, I’m keeping my friend’s ten-year-old son while she and her husband go on a business trip. This is an interesting experience. My boys are now men, so it brings back fond memories, although this child is a lot different from my sons. It’s going to be a fun week. I’m looking forward to playing games and watching kid’s shows. 🙂 (I’m being serious, not sarcastic.) The biggest problem is he and his parents are late to bed, late to rise. I’m early to bed, early to rise. I woke him up early this morning by making noise walking on the treadmill. I told him he would just have to adjust. LOL

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ROW80 Check In 8/28/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 28, 2013| 12 Comments »

In my last blog post, I stated my three main goals for this week. They were:

1) Write at least three hours this week
2) Do at least 15 minutes of housework per day using the FlyLady challenges
3) Get back to my healthy eating habits. (I’ve been doing great on exercise, but my old eating habits are sliding back into my life.)

I was a miserable failure at 2 and 3. No housework to speak of. I’m still struggling with the eating habits. Not TERRIBLE, but not that good, either.

Let’s talk about that first goal. Honestly, I can’t say I succeeded or failed since the week isn’t over. However, I’ve been reading all of Susan Bischoff’s notes on plotting (using the term “notes” is putting it mildly) and figuring out how to apply them to my current WIP. So I HAVE been working on writing stuff, but not actually writing. I’m planning on doing the actual writing on Thursday and Friday, when I’ve got some things sorted out. I usually write more on Saturdays, but since hubby and I are doing our anniversary trip on the weekend, I’m going to try to get my three hours of writing in on those two days.

More writing news. I’ve been tossing around a paranormal romance idea (no vampires or ghosts this time!) for awhile, and I think I’m going to start doing a little plotting with that. I want to see how I do with Susan’s method on something I’m just starting rather than something I’m halfway through. I’m excited about this idea because, like Soul of a Vampire, the title came in my mind before the story. And the cover for this one can be awesome considering the subject matter. Curious yet? 😉

So, how are the rest of you doing so far this week?

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ROW80 Update – Regrouping

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 25, 2013| 25 Comments »

Yesterday, I spent several hours with Susan Bischoff. This is always fun, not to mention that she always inspires me to write. We talked about a lot of things. First, she helped me expand on the plotting I was trying to do, giving me lots of good advice about plot points and where they should be in my story. And I finally admitted to someone (Susan!) that I had been finding excuses not to write because every time I thought of my WIP, I got this scared feeling in the pit of my stomach. I’m AFRAID of my manuscript. (And Susan GETS this.) There, I admitted it to all of you. Honestly, this is very new to me. I used to be able to churn out words with no problem, they all made sense, and I wasn’t afraid to publish them. This fear of my own work is SO not me. But I guess it IS me, isn’t it? I’ve never understood writers that were afraid. Now I get it. You know what, though? I’m not going to let myself be held back by that fear any longer. I’m tired of it, and I’m stronger than this. So there! *blows raspberry at the fear*

So my goals for this week (baby steps, no long term goals):

1) Write at least three hours this week
2) Do at least 15 minutes of housework per day using the FlyLady challenges
3) Get back to my healthy eating habits. (I’ve been doing great on exercise, but my old eating habits are sliding back into my life.)

After this week, we’ll see what needs to be done next.

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Late ROW80 Check In – I Need Focus!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on July 15, 2013| 12 Comments »

It’s unusual for me to miss the Sunday check in, but I just didn’t really get on my computer yesterday. I can tell that by all the emails I had waiting in my inbox today. I was just kind of unplugged yesterday. Not my normal day.

I really didn’t get much done last week. Fewer than 1,000 words. I finally figured out what my problem is, I just don’t know what to do about it. I can’t FOCUS. Every time I sit down to write, all these things are going through my head. Stuff I need to be doing. Like Saturday, all I could think of was that I needed to go to the pharmacy and get the needles for my insulin pens. And sometimes I’m thinking about the housework that needs doing. Or something. If any of you have any good ideas on how to stay focused on my WIP instead of my brain flitting around to everything else, PLEASE let me know. I used to be able to churn out a story in no time, my fingers flying over the keyboard almost every day. Of course, my plots are becoming more complicated, too. Anyway…HELP!

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ROW80 Sunday Update 7/7/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on July 7, 2013| 18 Comments »

I hope everyone had a nice 4th of July holiday. If you’re not in the US, I hope you still are having a great weekend! I had a lot going on the last few days, especially since my boss decided to close on Friday (unpaid day off) instead of just Thursday. We were able to fill those days with food, family, and fun.

I missed my three days a week writing goal, only writing two days. But my word count was 2831, so that wasn’t too shabby. I would really like to hit over 3000 a week, but I’ll take what I got. It’s been a busy week. 🙂

I haven’t walked on the treadmill for the past two days. I have a problem with my foot sometimes where a sharp pain will shoot through the top of it when I’m walking, and it’s so bad, I almost fall. This is a problem that usually lasts two or three days. The odd thing is that this time, it’s the other foot. I didn’t go to the gym, either. I have no excuse except that the gym is about 20-25 minutes away. I live out in the boonies. The reason I use that gym is it’s conveniently close to where I work, but I haven’t worked the past few days. I’ll get back on track tomorrow. Hopefully, my foot will be well enough to walk on the treadmill today.

How did the rest of you do last week?

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Final ROW80 Update 6/20/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on June 20, 2013| 17 Comments »

Well, this has been an interesting round. Life has dealt my family and me a few blows, but we keep coming back fighting. How has this affected my writing? It’s really made it hard to write, to be honest. I’ve felt so emotionally drained for the past few months, which also makes me feel drained physically. But I keep trudging on with most things. Just not so much the writing. It doesn’t help that I have a complicated plot, and I’m trying to figure out how to tell the back story. Which is really a story within itself.

I’m not going to take time off from writing between rounds. I’ve had enough time off. And due to the financial situation we’re facing with my husband’s pay dropping, I’ve got to produce more work. Book sales are in the toilet right now (I’m lucky to make $100 a month lately), and I know I’ve got to produce LOTS of work to make any decent money. I know I can’t make enough to live on right now because the market is glutted with self-published books, but I would like to make enough to have a good supplement to our income. So it’s time to stop whining about my plot or how little time I have and start getting to work like this is a real job. You know, like I USED to.

How was YOUR round this time?

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