The Things I Do

Sometimes, the things I do distract me and I forget to hop over here and do a post or a ROW80 check-in.  Oops!  But I’m here now, so that’s something.

I have pretty good reasons for not being here last week, too!  I was busy making this:

WYS Yellowtail 2

I’m also working on creating a couple of classes and a retreat, so it’s all sorts of exciting in my world! It’s distracting, though, as I mentioned.  I’m not getting to as much of my personal story writing as I had hoped.  But I’m learning how much I can fit into a week, and I hope that’s going to help me make regular space for writing again.

Meanwhile, even though I’m still not finished with outlining and planning, I intend to start writing Inheritance on February 2.  That was the plan, and I’m going to stick with it.  If I don’t have an outline, I’m okay with that.  I at least have the anchor scenes planned out from doing Sufficiently Advanced Magic with Alastair at StoryWonk.  It’s probably enough.  It’s definitely enough to get me started, especially since I’ve been spending some time getting to know my characters better.  With them feeling more like real people to me and a basic view of my biggest scenes, I think I’m ready to go.

Next week I’ll be putting up a word counter for Inheritance.  If you see that it’s not moving, give me a nudge! We can all use that little helping hand, right?

So what about you?  Where’s your writing life right now?  I hope the words are flowing!

See you next time with a report on actual words written!

Getting Started

Once Upon a Time

Jumping in for a quick ROW80 check-in.  I just set my goals on Monday, so I’m not quite up to speed yet, but I am getting started.  I’ll be working on the planning stuff tonight to see if Wednesday is a good day to schedule as a writing day.  Not that writing or writing-related stuff doesn’t happen pretty much every day.  I just want to have a few dedicated days each week where I know I intend to spend at least an hour diving in.

I think my writing practice days will be Mondays and Fridays.  Those are the easiest days usually to fit in a quick free writing session because, while they both can be busy days they both tend to be a little more flexible for some reason.  We’ll see how that goes.

For now that’s really it.  I’m still setting things up for my year, so there’s lots that’s still amorphous (I love that word and probably use it too much), but it feels pretty good.

Oh, a quick geekly thing.  We watched Agent Carter last night.  It was so good, I’m thinking of rewatching the episode just to catch any little tidbits I missed!  We also watched Galavant which I was sure was going to be stupid and which absolutely isn’t.  It’s funny and charming and lots of fun.  Also a great way to time something in the oven if you’ve downloaded the episode, because it’s about 20 minutes.  Double-bonus!

Okay, really that’s it for me now.  Tons to do, not much time left before the evening commute, all the usual stuff.  I’ll be back next Wednesday for ROW80 (probably going to stick with that once-weekly check-in schedule rather than the Sunday and Wednesday check-ins although I don’t know that for sure yet).

Drop me a note and let me know what you’re spending time with–I might need to add it to my mix!

A New Year, a New ROW

ROW80 BadgeI’m actually glad the holiday season is wrapped up.  I am so glad to be getting back to a regular schedule again, although all those extra days off were pretty nice.

One of the things I’m getting back to is ROW80 (I’ll be getting back to sharing my geeky delights, too, just not today).  I did a few weeks at the end of the year to dip my toes back in, but now I’m ready to jump all the way in.  And this post on The Myth of the One True Way is a great kickoff to the new round.  I have fallen into that trap so many times, thinking I need to find the right way to write a novel.  Even when I’ve qualified it with “the right way for me,” it’s just been a stumbling block.  The right way to do it is to jump in and find what works as I go.  The right way is to actually get it done.

I’m not saying that I don’t want to do any novel planning.  This is about going beyond plans and doing the real work.  I just have to remind myself–probably over and over and a million times over–that it doesn’t have to be right.  There’s no such thing.  It just has to be done.

My ROW80 Round 1 Goals:

  • Finish working through K.M. Weiland’s Outlining Your Novel Workbook.  How I’ll do it: post updates on Twitter daily to announce what I’ve done and then post here weekly with a round-up of all of those posts. (This “how I’ll do it” thing is something new I’m trying out to see if it helps me stay on task.)
  • Write 30,000 words on Inheritance.  How I’ll do it: once again via daily Twitter updates and weekly updates here.
  • Twice-weekly writing practice for free writing and working on craft. How I’ll do it: take to Twitter once again and invite people to write with me and share their progress and maybe snippets of their writing; I’ll also mark these sessions on my calendar to see if that keeps the intention fresh in my mind.