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Posts Tagged ‘word count goals’

ROW80 Update 2/23/14

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on February 23, 2014| 10 Comments »

Hello all of my fellow ROWers, as well as those who are not ROW80ers but still loyal blog followers! I appreciate you all so much! 🙂

I’ve had a really good writing week. I hit my 5K goal for the first week since this round. I wrote 5,213 words this week. I’m really getting into this story, and I hope my momentum continues.

A word about page fright. I’ve noticed I’ve had that with the last few books I’ve written. I’ve finally figured out why I didn’t have it as much before. I’m not afraid of novellas, so when I was writing those, I wasn’t scared. It’s these full length novels that scare me. I don’t know why. I think there’s a part of me that’s always afraid I won’t be able to write enough words. Honestly, there’s nothing wrong with writing novellas. My only problem with them is they’re not really long enough for a paperback. And I really like having copies of my book I can hold in my hand. And I have a few readers who still read that way. I have some more thoughts about novellas and short stories, as well as genre, but that’s for a different post.

I’m trying to revamp my website just a little bit. For my book page, I want just the covers, then a link to another page when you click on the cover. Then that page will have the blurb and the first chapter of the book. I never dreamed this would take so much time. But I think it will be better once I get it done.

Have the rest of you met your writing goals this week? If not, are you fired up for next week?

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Goals for ROW80 Round 1 2013

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

The last round ended up during a time that was very difficult for me in many ways. I won’t go into all of that since most of you know what all happened. But it’s time to move on and get my writing mojo back. 🙂

This round starts at kind of a hard time since I’m out of town on business for the next three days. But there’s absolutely no reason I can’t write at night after all the lectures and receptions and networking. I have nights to myself here in my room, so there’s no excuse not to write.

My main goal is to write one hour per day, five days a week. Some days that might be 250 words, some days it might be 1,000. I’ve worked better with time goals rather than word count goals, although I will be keeping up with word count on a spreadsheet. I would really like to finish my WIP during this round.

My secondary goal is to get Soul of a Vampire out in print. This should have been done already. I think I already have it formatted (it’s been so long, I forgot if it’s finished), and Anya already has my cover ready. So this goal should be easy to achieve. I don’t rush the print versions because they don’t sell nearly as well as the ebooks, but I do have one reader that always waits on the print version. I would put it out in print for that person alone.

My non-writing goal is to keep my blood sugar at the proper levels through diet and exercise. My MAJOR goal would be to no longer require insulin shots, but that might possibly be out of my control. My doctor says it doesn’t happen often, but it DOES happen. We shall see.

I wish all of you a GREAT Round One and hope you all meet your goals. 🙂

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Yet Another NaNo Post

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on November 2, 2012| 6 Comments »

There are so many posts going around right now about NaNoWriMo. I can feel the excitement in the air. I remember that excitement from the two times I did NaNo. And I finished both times! But, alas, I no longer have the desire to participate in it. Since I’ve been doing ROW80, I’ve found that it’s the best fit. I know there are many people doing both, and that’s great. Just not me. There’s nothing wrong with DOING it or NOT DOING it. I’ve realized, since reading so many posts, that each person is different in how they approach NaNo and what they want to get out of it. I fully support all my writer friends who are participating in NaNo this year. I’m glad to cheer them on. It looks like it’s causing some people to be more productive. Yay. But I did want to share some reasons I’m not doing it anymore.

1. When my husband heard I was doing ROW80 the first time, he said “Oh, no, is it going to be like when you did NaNo? You were crazy.”

2. I would HAVE to write 50,000 words. Some people are saying they are doing other stuff, but it’s really not WINNING NaNo if you don’t do your 50K. And I’m so anal about this that I would drive myself crazy to get those words in, no matter what else I let go. (See number 1)

3. NaNo is supposed to be where you just throw 50K down, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s good or not. You’re just spouting words. Well, I just can’t write like that anymore. I’ve been doing this writing thing long enough that I usually have a pretty clean manuscript. When it goes through beta readers and gets edited, there is very little to change anymore. I CAN’T make myself write any other way.

4. Writing that many words in a month causes me a LOT of stress that I don’t need. (Again, see number 1)

If I didn’t work a full time job, I would consider it. I could easily write that many words if I had more time. But you guys who are working AND doing NaNo? Oh man, I ADMIRE you. I remember how hard it was! I’m behind all of you NaNoers 100 percent. Go for it, and have fun! And please don’t whisper about what a wimp I am. LOL

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Final ROW Update for Round Two 2012

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 20, 2012| 16 Comments »

This has been a strange round for me. In the last three rounds of 2011, I wrote and published a novella for each. That’s when I did the Libby Fox series, which consists of Dark Relic: Vampires’ Curse, Secrets of the Wolf, and Search for the Vampires’ Curse. I loved writing these novellas, and I hope the sales of them pick up someday. My older works still do better than these novellas, or the compilation of them, Vampires’ Curse. I have yet to figure out what makes some books sell better than others, even when the ones that are selling aren’t quite as good as the ones that aren’t. Anyway, I digress and ramble. This round, I just couldn’t get my motivation together. I would have some days where I wrote, then many other days when I didn’t. This was so foreign to me, because I had always stuck to goals and written most days of each round. I don’t know what happened to me. I felt like I was so busy with other things in life and didn’t have the energy for writing, I guess. I really envy those who can write any time of the day because they’re not burdened by a time-consuming day job. I want to be in that situation someday. I WILL be in that situation someday. So I didn’t finish my current WIP in this round. But that’s okay because I can continue it in Round Three. No one is going to beat me with a stick for not meeting the goal I had of finishing this round. I LOVE ROW80. The word count has been good the past two days. Monday – 1119 and Tuesday – 1061. I think it’s really helped to stop focusing on a certain word count every day (usually 500) and just focusing on spending a set amount of time with my WIP. This has actually led to higher word counts, as you can see. 🙂 So I feel like I’m really back on track.

Exercise and eating habits are going well. I planned to only report specifics about this on Sundays, but since this is the last check in for the round, I’ll do it here. I walked at lunch both Monday and Tuesday, and I rode my bike Tuesday evening. I’ve been leaving food on my plate and stopping when I’m satisfied. If I feel like having a burger, I have one, but leave off the french fries. Sometimes it takes just changing little things to make a difference. I buttoned a pair of shorts today that I usually leave unbuttoned and just zip up. Yay!

I look forward to Round Three, and I hope the rest of you will join me again. It’s been fun!

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Switching from Word Count Goals to Time Goals

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on April 13, 2012| 12 Comments »

In order to keep my sanity, I’m going to have to change my way of thinking about writing goals. This is why.

This new story that I was so enthusiastic about was going well, my word counts were above my goal every day that I wrote on the book. But I was skipping days because I WAS LAZY AND COMPUTER GAMES WERE CALLING MY NAME. It’s time to buckle down. I sat down one evening to write my 700 words…and they wouldn’t come. I wrote maybe three paragraphs, and I had to keep changing words around (which I almost never have to do), and I got frustrated that I couldn’t get my 700 words. But I did sit in front of the computer long enough to have done that if I hadn’t had such a hard time writing that night. So I’m going to switch my goals. I’m going to make myself sit down at the computer 45 minutes a day. If I write 500 words, 700 words, or 1000 words, I’m going to write SOMETHING. And if I get frustrated and can’t even manage more than 200 words, I still have to sit there in front of the computer until the time is up. It’s a matter of discipline to make yourself sit and write for a certain period of time. It’s not so much discipline, but inspiration (or lack thereof) when you’re shooting for a certain word count. Does that make sense?

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