Sunday, January 9, 2011

ROW80 - Week One

ROW80 updates today.  I hope everyone feels like they're doing well - if not, no worries, tomorrow is a brand new week.  Make a fresh start next week if you have to and keep making an effort at your goals, doesn't matter if you don't always meet your goals as long as you have a go.

I haven't done a great deal of work this week.  I haven't worked on Verity since my last update, but I'm getting a few hours to myself late tonight so if I'm awake, I'll work on that.  I'm using my ereader to make notes and such, then make the changes in my document when I'm done.  It's slow work but I find I do my best editing this way.  It's something I can do around the kids but not while I'm feeding the baby (or if the kids decide they want to scribble on my ereader too) so I generally have to wait until I've a child-free block of time.

I have around 4k of Taunt written, or rather rewritten.  It sounds okay until I tell you it was the part of the story that needed the least amount of work.  I printed out a hard copy of the document, went at it with a red pen, switched around the sequence of events and typed up the new first three chapters.  I took a quick glance at the entire first draft I had - it's not as awful as I thought but it needs a lot of tightening, better organisation of the time line and one particularly long conversation needs to be destroyed.  :)  I also realised I had forgotten a character or two and need to create some character sheets on them.

I only have the beginning of Taunt replotted but it's much better - I feel more focused on what's happening and yesterday some very important backstory showed itself for the first time.  I've been worrying about a certain storyline and feeling like the motivations weren't portrayed very well so now I have a new dimension to that which helps make it clearer and helps me with the portion of the story I'll be working on next week.  It wouldn't have occurred to me if I hadn't been thinking about the story every day so thank you, ROW80.

I feel like I didn't work very hard this week but tomorrow, the schools are open again so I'll have two less children at home in the mornings and the whole family will be back to a getting up at the same time every day routine which might actually help me with ROW80.  Hopefully, I'll be able to organise my time a bit better next week.  I have made an effort to do something every day so if that becomes a habit, I'll be very pleased.

Week One Update:

  • Taunt - 4k (re)written
  • Verity - 3 chapters edited
  • Plot - First section done.

My reading challenge hasn't gone too well but that's normal for me.  Next week I could read ten books then the week after, nothing at all.  The fifteen minutes a day bit isn't happening.  Maybe next week.  :)

ETA:  Forgot to add the update link.  *And is typo queen today*

17 comments:

  1. Thank goodness it's not only me. I haven't felt like I've done much either. Next is going to be better...I hope...lol.

    The good news is we got something done. That's important.

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  2. Exactly, we did something. We're tryers. We rock. ;)

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  3. Hey, that's the whole point for this thing. Creating good writing HABITS. Kudos to you for getting ANYTHING done with kids around!

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  4. Sounds to me like you're working hard. That seems like a lot of editing projects to find time for around the kid. I hope you get some time next week to unwind a bit as well.

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  5. It's instructive to me to read your thoughts on your own writing process, the ups and downs and ifs and ands of it And, it seems to me like you have words to show for the week - editing and restructuring count as far as I'm concerned.

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  6. Most of you are all working on more than one project at one time. I am lucky to be able to concentrate on just the current work in progress.
    And Claire, you are doing all this with young children in your household...many kudos to you for being able to multi task like you have been doing.

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  7. Who cares if you got the EASY part of Taunt rewritten? That's more Taunt than you had last week. Awesome!

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  8. Seconded what everyone above me said. I think you've done marvelous.

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  9. You're doing well. As we all know, life happens and you're working well with it. Keep it up!

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  10. Hello from a fellow Claire! :D

    I don't know, it sounds like you got a LOT of good work done. I'm impressed! And just the fact that you're getting into the habit of working on SOMETHING every day is pretty awesome. I'm finding that's the best part of ROW80 for me, too -- the fact that I'm getting into the habit of sitting down, no matter what, even if I'm busy and even if I can't accomplish as much as I'd like, is SO great and EXACTLY what I was looking for.

    CAN I possibly emphasize ANY more WORDS with ALL-CAPS? ;)

    Good luck with your writerly efforts this coming week!

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  11. Thanks everyone for the comments - I'm way behind on visiting everyone else and I haven't really had a chance to go on Twitter much so I feel like I'm missing out on all the action. :)

    Thanks for the support & encouragement and good luck to all this week.

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  12. Hey, your the one that's done an amzing job! woah, I'm not sure i could cope with kids running around. Keep it up the fabulous job and you stop being so hard on yourself ;o) P.S Thank you for your amazing words. YOUR right. WE ALL ROCK ;o)

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  13. *you're. Hands up i'm a typo queen too! ;o)

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  14. regypsy, that's a title I've never been able to avoid, no matter how careful or how many times I proofread.

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  15. Congratulations on your progress. :)

    My ROW80 novel storyline jumps around a lot, hopefully it will make sense at the end.

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  16. Your progress is amazing with so many kidlings.
    Even chunky bits of sporadic work all add up in the end. Something every day, no matter what, is a little further down the path...

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  17. Thanks everyone - I suppose at the end we'll all feel a much bigger sense of accomplishment when we look back. Think maybe I'm just a bit frustrated because I'm not finding as much time to work as I expected.

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Feel free to have your say.