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Posts Tagged ‘word count’

ROW80 Update 2/19/14

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on February 19, 2014| 12 Comments »

Forgive me. It’s been seven days since I’ve confessed posted.

I haven’t posted a lot because getting ready for my FB party really took a lot out of me. I had so much to do to get ready for it. I’m still trying to figure out if it was worth it. I think so, mostly because it was a lot of fun, and several people attending the party bought Hearts of Evil, which was the book that the party was all about. But I haven’t been able to sustain the sales. It got up to #50 in a category, but then it fell away after the party. It has 1 4-star review and 3 5-star reviews, and I know at least three of the reviews came from people at the party. So we’ll see how this book does. I still would like to do a FB party for my next release. I have to try at least twice, right?

Now, on to my update. I wrote 720 words on Tuesday and 1360 words today, for a total of 2080 words so far this week. I seem to be able to write more words at lunch here at work than in the evenings, and I think it has a lot to do with the fatigue factor. So I might try doing a little more of that. We’ll see how that works out.

How are YOU doing?

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ROW80 Update 1/29/14

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on January 29, 2014| 4 Comments »

So here I am, sitting at home, having a “snow day”. I’m supposed to be working, and I actually am. But you don’t know how hard it is to be here at home at the keyboard working instead of writing. I’m in my office, surrounded by kitties (well, two), with the sun pouring in the big windows beside me. When I look outside, I see the sun glistening off the snow that fell yesterday. Want. To. Write. But I must continue to work.

Sometimes I don’t check in on Wednesdays since the majority of my writing happens Thurs-Sat. However, I did have a nice round of writing on Fire Wizard yesterday, coming in at 1127. This gives me a total word count of 3945 so far. I think I’m going to love this story. There’s going to be such nice conflict between the hero and the shero. *rubs hands together and laughs maniacally*

I plan on getting Hearts of Evil published within the next couple of weeks. The biggest holdup right now is gathering prizes and questions for the FB book release party. More on that soon!

So how are the rest of you doing so far for January?

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ROW80 Update 1/26/14

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on January 26, 2014| 14 Comments »

Is it really almost February? I’m so looking forward to spring. It’s been colder here this year than it’s been in 20 years!

So…about my goals. I set a goal for 5,000 a week, which is pretty steep for me, but I want to get this WIP done more quickly than the last one. I was really dragging my feet last year. I didn’t hit that goal this week, only coming in at 2812. But, I’ve also been working on final edits for Hearts of Evil, planning a release party, etc. So I haven’t been idle by any means.

About Hearts of Evil. I posted earlier that my two beta readers disagree on the inserted chapter. So I let my mom read it and asked her opinion. She said, “It works either way.” Grrr. She’s no help! LOL. So I’m waiting to hear from one more, who I let read it without the inserted chapter first, then I’ll send her that chapter. She’s the only one who will have read it without the chapter before reading the chapter. Maybe that will give a different angle.

I have no idea when Hearts of Evil will be released or when the release party will be. I need to make a decision about that chapter. After all, I make the final decisions, right?. Isn’t that the great thing about being indie? 🙂

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ROW80 Round 1 2014 Goals

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on January 6, 2014| 14 Comments »

I often list other goals besides writing goals on these ROW80 posts. This round, I’m going to focus on my writing goals. I might share some of my other successes from time to time, including weight loss, but my STATED goals are going to be writing related. I’ve been too lax on writing, which caused me not to publish anything but a short story for an anthology in 2013. If it’s in my power, I will publish this year. So….

1) Work on edits for Hearts of Evil based on beta readers’ suggestions. I have two beta readers who are VERY good editors AND proofreaders. I’ve heard you should never mix those and that you should have different people for these three jobs. However, this is working for me. Two of my beta readers are authors. One is an editor in her day job. The other is a well-known “seasoned” author. They kick my butt (in a kind way), so it works. My other two beta readers are, well, readers. One has the unedited version. The other will get the edited version. This last one catches typos that others sometimes don’t. Which is odd since she’s 79 years old and doesn’t see well. LOL

2) Work on plotting Fire Wizard starting today. I have a lot of questions already answered based on Susan Bischoff’s Story Toolkit. She’s a little more detailed than I want to be, but I use what works for me. I now just need to write out what will happen in every chapter.

3) Write 5,000 words per week. I’m not going to specify which days I’ll write like I did last time, I just need to make that 5,000 word goal.

4) Publish Fire Wizard by June 30, 2014. I downloaded a simple publishing worksheet set up by Ruth Ann Nordin. I’ve already filled it in with my projected timeline for this book, including word count goals and first draft. The 5,000 word per week goal won’t necessarily be all about First Wizard, although some weeks it might be. I have another project that I abandoned a while back that I might take back up. More on that later.

I hope your eyes haven’t glazed over yet. I tend to skim when people write blog posts that are really long (unless it’s really exciting!), and I try not to go overboard, but these are my goals, and I needed to talk about them. Now I’m going to pop over to some of the rest of my ROW80er’s blogs and see what they are doing this round. You know, in between doing what I’m supposed to be doing here at work. 🙂

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ROW80 Update 11/10/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on November 10, 2013| 15 Comments »

I feel really good about my progress last week. My word count goal has been 3,000 words per week, but since I set November 30 as the deadline for finishing my WIP, then I realized I had to write more like 5,000 words. The good news is that this week I wrote 5,777 words! I’m really close to finishing this book, and it’s getting exciting. I just wrote, Saturday, an action scene that I’m pretty pleased with. I’m really liking how this book is ending, but I’m almost afraid I’m going to end it a little too early. I need to flesh out some of the scenes, but that can be done during the editing process. I’m glad I’ve finally gotten excited about this book.

My other goal was to visit several of my fellow ROW80er’s blogs. I visited ten last week. I’m glad I got that goal done, too.

I’m really pleased with the way last week went. 🙂

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Deadlines

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on November 7, 2013| 6 Comments »

Today I was reading THIS blog post by my friend, L.S. Engler. She was talking about a quote concerning deadlines whooshing by. Her post made me start thinking about deadlines and how, as indies, we only have self-imposed deadlines. Although one of my favorite perks of being indie is that I don’t have to answer to anyone about deadlines, it also can cause me to be lazy about them. If I only have to answer to myself, what are the real consequences of not meeting them? Maybe this is part of the reason I haven’t published anything in a year (except a short story in an anthology). Because I don’t HAVE to. I’m not making even a quarter of the money I made when I first started, before this whole indie thing exploded, so THAT motivation isn’t there like it was. As long as I’m answering to only me, will I have the discipline to make myself meet deadlines? Wait…I haven’t even SET deadlines.

Okay, this has got to stop, right? So I went to my trusty Google calendar and I entered November 30 as the deadline for finishing my WIP. That gives me about 17 days to finish. I’m already about 80% done (see my nifty little word count widget over to the right), so that should NOT be a problem. This will make me have to up my word count per week a bit, but it CAN be done. If I finish by November 30, then I should be able to get it published before Christmas. My beta readers are super fast and they are also great editors and proofreaders. This should be NO PROBLEM. The only obstacle is me. I’m going to start treating this like a real job again with deadlines. And you guys out there need to kick me in the behind if I don’t do this. When I said the only person I have to answer to is myself…well, that should be the most important person!

Thanks, L.S.!

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ROW80 Update 11/3/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on November 3, 2013| 16 Comments »

My goal is to write 3,000 word per week. I did it this week. I wrote 3,875 on my current WIP. It’s getting really complicated and twisty, but I think I’ve got it under control. I think I’m just within a few chapters of finishing this thing, so I’m really hoping I’ll have a release before Christmas. It’s going to depend on beta readers.

My other goal is to visit several of my fellow ROW80ers each week. If any of you saw my apology post recently, you’ll know I’ve been very neglectful of that lately. I don’t know when I’ll get those visits done because I have a full day tomorrow after church. We’re going to a baby shower and to visit our son and his wife, and we’re going to church with them tomorrow night. They live about an hour away, so it will be kind of late when I get back. But I’m going to try to pop in on some people’s blogs Monday while I’m at work.

So how are the rest of you doing? Who’s doing NaNo? Not me! 😉

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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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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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Sunday Stuff 6/23/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on June 23, 2013| 9 Comments »

I’ve got my motivation back. I wrote 1410 words on Thursday. Since I skipped Friday and Saturday (Saturday I had stuff going on all day, and I don’t know what the heck happened Friday), I wrote today. Sunday is ALWAYS one of my writing days off. But I had to make up for the other two days. Before I knew it, I had churned out 2276 words! I had expected to write about 1000, so that was great.

I’m going to try to be more conscientious about what I’m eating this week. I’ve been stuck on this plateau for several weeks, so I need to do something to kickstart weight loss again. Sometimes, it just takes changing up the TYPES of food you eat rather than changing the amount of calories you eat. We’ll see what happens. And I need to drink more water!

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