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Posts Tagged ‘ROW80’

ROW80 Check In and iPad!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on April 18, 2012| 19 Comments »

Yesterday, I spent my lunch hour here at work editing The Gnome. I did this because I knew I wasn’t going to get to do it last night. Because I went to get an iPad! I’m so excited! I have the brand new one with the awesome graphics. I’ve never seen such a crystal clear display. I’ve already downloaded Words with Friends and a Bible app. Oh, and I loaded the iBook app and downloaded samples of my books to check the formatting. They looked great!

Here was one of my biggest concerns. I really wanted to be able to write on the iPad, too, so I could take it instead of my computer when I went out of town. But I didn’t know if I could export from the iPad to a Word document on my PC. I LOVE YouTube! I found a tutorial that showed that I could do just that. So I figure what I’ll do is export to a word document, fix any formatting problems, then copy/paste into my current WIP. What do you guys think? Do any of you work on the iPad sometimes, then on a PC sometimes? This process is probably easier if you have a Mac instead of a PC. 🙂

I hope to finish edits on The Gnome tonight or tomorrow night.

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ROW80 Check In 4/15/12

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on April 15, 2012| 23 Comments »

I think things at work have finally slowed down for me, so I’m not quite as tired every day. I plan to start getting back to more blog reading and commenting this afternoon.

I don’t know how many of you read my post about time vs. word count, so I’ll go over it quickly again here, since many ROW80ers don’t read blogs except for check ins on the linky tools. I’ve found that I need to change from word count goals to time goals. This came about because I sat in front of the computer the other day and couldn’t do anything but write a few words then change them around. I ended up with somewhere between 250-300 words that day instead of my 700+.So I decided I would start making myself sit down for at least 45 minutes a day and write…or at least try. I’m going to sit there no matter what happens. That time will be my writing time. I started that yesterday. I ended up writing for an hour and 15 minutes and wrote 1577 words (yeah, I know I’m not supposed to worry about word count, LOL). I think this method is going to work for me this round. I’ll do my 45 minutes whether I’m on a roll or whether I feel like I’m being imprisoned and tortured. 🙂

So how about the rest of you? Have you had to make any adjustments for this round? How did things go last week?

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Stephen King’s 11/22/63

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on April 12, 2012| 4 Comments »

I was at the library today at lunch, looking for an audio book. I HAVE to have audio books to listen to in the car or I go crazy. Driving is boring! I went to the new release shelf and guess what I found? (I know you know because of the post title, LOL.) Stephen King’s 11/22/63! It was just sitting there on the shelf. It wasn’t checked out; it was there for ME all shiny and new looking. What incredible luck! I’m a happy little camper right now. Because it’s STEPHEN KING! *does the happy dance*

Ok, I’m all calmed down now. I didn’t check in for ROW80 yesterday. Bad me. I intend to get back on track checking in and visiting other blogs. I’m just feeling a little overwhelmed right now.

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ROW80 Check In 4/8/12

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on April 8, 2012| 10 Comments »

I just have a few minutes. I’m on my way soon to a birthday party for a one year old little girl. That ought to be fun! Then, tonight, my oldest son and his wife are coming for a visit. So this will be a busy day. But a good kind of busy. 🙂

I had a pretty rough start with Round Two, but that’s because I was writing the WRONG STORY. I posted about this a couple of days ago. The story I was trying to write wasn’t working for some reason. Then, suddenly one morning, this other idea started coming to me. THIS was the story I was meant to write. So things are going much better now. I managed to write 1247 words Friday and 843 words Saturday. I’m still behind because my goal was 700 a day, and I’m still counting those first four days I was struggling with a different story, so I was four days behind before I started this story. I’ll have to admit, I’m once again writing about a vampire, but that’s what came into my head, so I have to write it. And the title came to me as soon as the story did. That has only happened to me once before, and that was my short story, The Beast in the Mirror. I usually struggle a lot with titles.

I actually had an idea for my next scene on the Christian romance, so I’ll be writing that at lunch on Monday.

I hope everyone is having a great day, and I hope I can get to some of your blogs in between all the stuff I have to do today. 🙂

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New Idea Excitement!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on April 6, 2012| 11 Comments »

I started a story for ROW80, and I’ve just been frustrated with it. I’ve written on it two days, and it was all I could do to get my 700 words out each day because I just wasn’t enjoying it. I had no idea where I wanted this story to go other than this vague thing in my head. But this morning, an idea for another story hit me and it just started flooding my mind. I knew exactly where this one was going. THIS is the story I was meant to write, NOT the one I was struggling with. And most of you know I have a lot of trouble figuring out a title for my books. The title to this one came almost immediately after the idea. I’m going to do a search and see if there are other books with the same title, but even if I find some, I’ll probably stick with it. Because there are LOTS of books out there with the same title. I said I wasn’t going to do another vampire story in the near future and that I was going to stick to ghosts. But a vampire got into my head and said “You have to write about me. Now!” So I have no choice. This is SO exciting. I haven’t been this pumped up about a story since Haunted Lake! Woohoo!

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ROW80 Check In 4-4-12

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on April 4, 2012| 8 Comments »

Those of you that have been following and commenting on my blog know by now how much I HATED, DESPISED, ABHORRED trying to outline my new story. I was using Scrivener and the little note cards on the corkboard. I have discovered two things…1)I don’t think Scrivener has anything to offer that I can’t do other ways, and 2) I can’t outline the same way other people do. Or I can’t outline the way I “thought” other people do. I’ve found, by reading blog comments, there are vastly different ways to outline . What works best for me is to have a basic synopsis of my story with some main points, but not necessarily in outline form. The problem is that I’ve always just had this basic “outline” in my head. What I’m going to do is try to be a hybrid pantser/plotter for now and see how it works. That means WRITING DOWN my synopsis (for lack of a better word to use) instead of having the idea roll around in my head. As I get used to doing this, I might be able to plot a little heavier with each project.

All that being said, I’m either 95 words ahead of my 700 word count or 605 words behind. I have a little spreadsheet (I’m all about the spreadsheets) where I keep up with my word counts. I just haven’t decided whether to count the first day, since I was doing nothing but outlining and cursing (not really because I don’t curse) or start my word count on the second day when I really started writing. For now I’m counting the first day because I think I can catch up. 🙂

On the exercise front…I didn’t get up at 5:30 and walk on the treadmill this morning. I just couldn’t. I stayed up too late last night watching Final Destination 2 (for about the 3rd time) and then I had to watch a little of something else to get my mind off FD2 before I went to sleep. So I was up until about 1:00 or later. But I plan on making up for that tonight. And I’m NOT giving up on the morning walks. Also, I’m learning to eat 1/2 to 2/3 (depending on how big the serving is) of my meals and having the rest for another meal. Cheaper in calories and dollars! Oh, and I’ve lost 8 lbs. 🙂

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Beginning of ROW80 Round Two 2012

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on April 2, 2012| 27 Comments »

I’ve been with ROW80 since it’s beginning, and I can’t tell you how much it’s helped me learn discipline in writing. I’ve published three novellas and am about to publish…well, it’s either a short novel or long novella. Anyway, I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot.

So my goals for this round? Since I’m shooting for a novel instead of a novella, I’m going to up my word count goal from 500 to 700 words per day. We’ll see how that goes and if I need to change it or not. Okay, this thing starts today, right? I sort of feel lost because I don’t have a good outline. I’ve always been a pantser, so the ideas come as my fingers fly across the keyboard. Since I was going to try to be a plotter this time, I’m full of anxiety. Because I can’t THINK of an outline. I have a vague idea of what’s going to happen in the book, but it’s not concrete. Okay, so I need to outline my vague ideas, right? I may end up being a pantser/plotter hybrid. LOL

Exercise goals are going to start out at 30 minutes five days a week. That’s actually what I’m doing right now, getting up at dark-thirty every morning and walking on the treadmill. (I actually did some light running on it once.) I plan on upping that goal as my body gets used to the exercise.

Those are my two main goals for this round. I may add something later, but these are the two I’m focused on right now. I’m going to do some writing on my Christian romance, but I’m not setting goals for that. It will happen as it happens.

Good luck everyone!

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ROW80 Check In 3/21/12

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on March 21, 2012| 21 Comments »

Wow, I can’t believe this round is already over! It’s been a different kind of round for me. The last three rounds of 2011, I had a novella written and published by the time each round was over. The first round of 2011 was when I started my gnome story. My mom had a heart attack in the middle of the round, and I had to do a lot of things to take care of her before she got back to normal. I decided to put that work aside and do my three Libby Fox novellas for the next three rounds. In Round One of this year, I decided to take the gnome story back up and see what I could do with it. It’s pretty much finished except for the proofing and the tweaking. But is it good enough? It’s really different from the other things I’ve written. The first beta reader (the one that sees it before I edit) liked it. But the real tell will be when it goes to the others. Because each beta reader is different. I will get different points of view. So we’ll see. I still have to expand on that crazy fight scene at the end. I wish I was as good as Kait Nolan in writing fight scenes. 🙂

On the exercise front…most of this round has been a flop. However, for the past two days, I’ve gotten up at 5:30 and walked on the treadmill. This has more than health benefits. I’m habitually late for work. No one really cares here, but it bothers me. Since I’ve been exercising in the mornings, I’ve been early. I was here 20 minutes early this morning! And I feel soooo much better.

I can’t wait for Round Two. I hope I’m back to my old self, writing every day and getting things done! Maybe my full time job will slow down and things won’t be as crazy. So, how do the rest of you feel about Round One? Did you accomplish what you wanted to? Did you learn anything?

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ROW80 Check In

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on March 18, 2012| 13 Comments »

I almost didn’t check in today. I’ve been so busy with my full time job, and I’m just exhausted. I just finished doing some work (I can clock in and out from home and also access my work computer), and after church tonight, I’ll have more to do. So there won’t be much time for writing. I’m hoping this will only last a couple more weeks and I’ll be free to, you know, breathe. Anyway, there’s not much to report. I’m still waiting on the cover for the Libby Fox trilogy. That should be almost done. I’m interested to see if it will sell better or worse than the individual novellas, so this is kind of an experiment. I was going to do the trilogy together in print eventually anyway. I’m just not understanding why my back list still sells better than the newer Libby Fox books. There are vampires and werewolves….

I’m still in the editing process for the gnome story. This will be the first time I’ve ever written something that was not ready for publication at the end of an ROW80 round (except for this same story last year, LOL). I hope it’s not jinxed. I could probably get it edited and proofed in time, but I want to send it to my beta readers and get their opinions before I do anything. But, I can still work on something new for the next round while I’m waiting on betas, right? 🙂

Exercise is tanking because I’m just spending all my time doing other stuff. I really need to make myself a schedule so that exercise doesn’t fall behind. I think I exercised one day last week. Not acceptable!

How are the rest of you doing? Is anyone as busy as me and wishing they could write full time?

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ROW80 Check In 3/14/12

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on March 14, 2012| 14 Comments »

Monday night I got the three Libby Fox novellas combined together into one book. I’m going to price this at $2.99, which is less expensive than buying the three separately (which would be $4.97). All I’m waiting on is a book cover and a title. I’m racking my brain for a good title for this trilogy. I could just call it the Libby Fox Trilogy, but that doesn’t really tell anything about the book if you don’t know who Libby Fox is. The three novella titles are Dark Relic: Vampires’ Curse, Secrets of the Wolf, and Search for the Vampires’ Curse. In each of these titles, there is the word “vampire” or the word “wolf”. I did that on purpose to make the books more searchable for those looking for vampire or werewolf books. I would like to do that with the trilogy, but I can’t figure out a title. Did I mention that coming up with a title is the hardest part of my writing process? Hey, guys, any suggestions would be welcome. When the right title comes along, it usually clicks and I know it’s right.

Speaking of titles, I’m still trying to figure out a title for my gnome book. The book is about a garden gnome who comes to life (this isn’t a spoiler, it’s pretty clear from the beginning what’s going on) along with a couple of other “lawn ornaments”. There is magic involved, a witch, a sacrifice along with murder and mayhem. And just a little romance. 🙂 If any of you have suggestions for this one, I’m open. At some point, there will be a title that hits me as the right one. I just don’t want to hold up the book for lack of a title. Not that I’m done with editing yet….

Who else is close to publishing? Will this be your first or your tenth published work? 🙂

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