ROW80 Round 1 Wrap-Up

I was going to post my check-in yesterday, but seemed to be in some kind of funk. Had no motivation to do much of anything productive after my early morning writing session. So, I just didn’t. I know when I get in a mood like that, nothing I do produce will be any good. Usually it’s because I really do need a break. So, I took it. Did some crocheting(finished a baby blanket for a baby shower next weekend) and that was pretty much it.

• Finish outlining Stained Snow –  finished scene cards and did a couple character cards to keep up on the corkboard so I don’t forget details about the characters. This way their eyes won’t change colors halfway through the story(it’s happened before).
• Finish 1st draft of Flames of Redemption  finished
• Edit Healing the Heart – print copy finished
• Work all edits on Healing the Heart into computer copy – I made it through Chapter 21 as of Monday and decided I wanted to add in another scene at the end of it. So, I started working on that scene. 749 words done on it so far. don’t think I’ll finish this by the end of the month like I’d wanted to though.
• Write at least 5k on Stained Snow – I have 3599 right now. I should have the 5000, or close at least, by the end of the month And hoping to finish the 1st draft for Camp Nanowrimo in April.
• Brainstorm ideas for #3 in Inner Demons series – got the brainstorming done on plot and characters earlier this week. Had some trouble figuring out my antagonist. Until I realized I was thinking about more of a minor antagonist. And realized there was a bigger one that was behind him. Once I started figuring him out, it went a lot smoother.
• Back stories for #3- haven’t started these yet.

• Read 20 books – I ended up reading 27 during the round. At a total of 32 so far this year.

Looking back at my original goals for the round, I didn’t do too bad considering I changed what my focus was going to be.

• Finish 1st round of edits on Slow Revenge
  
• Send to Beta Readers(if anyone is interested, let me know)
• Finish 1st draft of Flames of Redemption

I did the first and last from this group. Still haven’t found anyone to read over Slow Revenge.

• Finish plotting Connie’s Story(#3 in my series. Slow Revenge is #1)
• Find title for Connie’s story
• 2nd round of edits on Slow Revenge pending feedback
• Start looking into editors & cover designers

Actually didn’t do anything in this group. I decided to work on a different idea for story #3 in the series. and no feedback on Slow Revenge since no one has read it.

• Start drafting Connie’s story
• start 1st round of edits on Healing the Heart

I’ve got the edits started on Healing the Heart, but since I didn’t finish planning the story and decided to work on something else, obviously that hasn’t been started yet.

Now to work up my goals for the next round.

Writing Wednesday: Winding Down the Round

Seems like the round should be ending this week, but I guess with the late start in January and the short month of February, it’s not until next week. That’s okay though, because it gives me another week than I thought to wrap up some of my goals. Not sure what all I’ll get accomplished today. Slept in since my phone that I use as an alarm clock didn’t get plugged in last night because I didn’t think the battery was even close to dead. Guess I learned my lesson on that one. And my son has a follow-up appointment this afternoon to check his throat/tonsils again after being on antibiotics for strep. That throws my routine off, but I should be able to make up for it.

• Send Slow Revenge to Beta Readers – sent out another call on Twitter and Facebook for readers. So, we’ll see if I find anyone who will be interested. I’d like writers as well as readers who don’t write since they can give me different perspectives on it.
• Finish outlining Stained Snow – finished the blueprint and novel notebook last week.  I started working on scene cards this week and have the first of them up on my corkboard at my desk.
  

  1st part of novella planned out and on board.

• Finish 1st draft of Flames of Redemption – DONE! Finished this Monday morning. So excited to have it done. It came in at a little over 55000 words. So, that’s a little short for a novel, but too long to really be a novella. So, I need to decide what I want to do with it. But, I’m going to let it sit for a while first. When I read over it again, maybe I can figure out which direction I want to take it in. But, i’m glad to be “finished” with it. I started writing it last September, so about 6 months to write it even though I actually only wrote about 66 of those days. This one gave me a lot of trouble.
• Edit Healing the Heart – I finished marking up the paper copy on Saturday. I usually don’t write or edit on weekends, but I wanted to get this done.
• Work all edits on Healing the Heart into computer copy – And started making those changes to the computer file this week. Through the first 6 chapters, which were all pretty short. Want to get the next 3 finished today, but I don’t know if that will happen or not. They’re longer ones, and I won’t be here for my normal work time. So, we’ll see what gets done. Hoping to at least have it done by the end of the month.

• Read 20 books – I’ve already surpassed this goal. Over the last week, I’ve read 3 books. The last one, The Darkening by Myndi Shafer was excellent. It had me feeling everything and I loved the roller coaster it had me on. I’ve read 30 books so far this year. According to Goodreads, I’m 10books ahead of schedule to read 100 books this year.
• Workout 5 days a week – We ended going shopping Thursday morning while our daughter was in school, so didn’t get my workout done then. Friday I walked on the treadmill for over 30 minutes, Saturday we went to a roller skating birthday party, and that was definitely a workout(but I didn’t fall even once! and that’s saying something). Over the weekend, I got two workout DVD’s. One is Gold’s Gym Sculpt & Burn, which has 12 5 minutes workouts so you can customize it for what you want to do/how much time you have. The other was Yoga for Weight Loss. Did the Sculpt & Burn onefor 30 minutes on Monday and I’m still sore from it. Did yoga yesterday for about 45 minutes. And today I shoveled snow(seriously, isn’t it supposed to be Spring? Oh yeah, not around here) and walked on the treadmill for about 25 minutes. I think I’m going to alternate between the three of these. Instead of doing the same thing every day
  

  This was a year ago today. Where is this weather?

   

Novella or Novel

This morning, I finally finished the WiP I started back in September of last year. It took me a total of 188 days to finish it. But, I actually only wrote on 66 of those days. Which is not normal for me. I only spent 35% of the last six months writing this WiP. The novel I worked on from May-August I spent 72% of the time writing(83 out of 116 days). And the one  wrote for last year’s NaNoWriMo(and finished in December), was 84%(42 out of 49 days). So, that shows how much more I’ve struggled with this one. And I think I know the reason why. Fear. Mostly that I’m going to totally screw it up, particularly details involving the fire department. Which is such a big part of my life, with being married to a fire fighter. I didn’t want to get anything wrong, so I was afraid to write anything it seemed. I forgot what I’ve always told myself, just get it down and it can be fixed later. I usually don’t worry about all the details so much in the first draft. But, because of this fear , there were a couple times when I put it aside and wasn’t sure if I’d even finish it. So, just finishing the first draft is a victory for me.

But, now that is is finished, I have a decision to make. It came in at 55,502 words. Most of mine are between 80-90,000. It’s too long to really be considered a novella. But, it’s really pretty short for a novel. So, I need to decide if I can cut at least 10k from it and still leave the story whole, or if there’s somewhere I can add like another 20k. Of course, I’m not going to start editing it right away. I’ll let it sit for about a month before I look at it again. Get some distance from it. But, I’d still like to know going in which direction I’m going to take it. I guess I still have some time to figure it out though.

 

Writing Wednesday: Getting Back on Track

This week has been calmer than the last one. We took our daughter in for her CT scan on Thursday, which came back clear. So, we’re still not completely sure what’s causing the neck issues. She is moving it more than she was, but is still reluctant to do that. Thinking it’s more a mental thing right now. Since she knows it did hurt before when she turned it, she’s afraid to do much because she thinks it will hurt. We were home except for Sunday when we went to a pancake brunch after church and then did some shopping, so weren’t really home until dinner. And Monday we did some running in town, but were still home for a late lunch. Hopefully the rest of this month should be pretty laid back for the most part. So, I’m working on getting back on track. Now, for what I did get accomplished:

• Send Slow Revenge to Beta Readers – We’re not even going to discuss this. No excuses, I just haven’t done anything. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.
• Finish outlining Stained Snow – Almost done with the blueprint. Should have it finished later today. And will hopefully be ready to write by Monday.
• Finish 1st draft of Flames of Redemption – Getting closer on this one. I’ve written 5067 words in the last week. I raised my daily goal up to 950 words for this week. I managed to surpass that Monday(1025) and Tuesday(1398). Not so easily today, with just 987 and over 250 of those after the kids were up and my daughter off to school. Usually I get them in before they wake up, but fell back asleep after my alarm went off so got a later start. I’m up to about 52,000 words and only have 2 more scenes once the one I’m working on is finished. So, I should be finishing it this week as well. Of course, one of the side characters now seems to think I should tell his story too.
• Edit Healing the Heart – I had wanted to do at least 2 chapters a day on this. Which means today I would be through Chapter 26. Which would mean editing 10 chapters today. Yeah, I’m kind of behind. Didn’t do a whole lot last week. Finished going through Chapter 8 over the weekend and am through Chapter 16 as of last night. So, I’m catching up to where I want to be. And another side character, really she was in one scene, seems to think she needs to have her story told too. And I just had an idea for that. Like, as I was writing the sentence before. Maybe I should take some notes on that.

• Read 20 books – Finished Murder on Black Friday on Friday, which met this goal. And read Earth Tones by Angela Wallace on Friday and Saturday. Started reading Kiss Me by Jillian Dodd on Sunday. I’m about 75% through it right now. Should finish today or tomorrow.
• Exercise 5 days a week- I’ve worked out twice in the last week. So, not too good on this one.

WritingWednesday: Crazy Week

This week has been kind of crazy and it is only Wednesday. On Monday, we had my son’s 2.5 year check-up in the afternoon. Well, we decided to go in and do a little running around first. And then we actually ended up being early for his appointment. I’ll save all the details of that appointment for another post other than to say a simple well-child visit turned into a diagnosis of strep throat and enlarged tonsils(for the boy) and a possible referral to an ENT if the tonsils don’t go down after antibiotics and an appointment for a CT scan for the girl tomorrow because her neck is still stiff after a month. We’re hoping it rules out anything major being behind this and it’s more her just not wanting to move it because it did hurt. We did more running around after the appointment, including eye exams for my husband and me. But, by then it was late, so our glasses wouldn’t be ready until the next day. So, we had to run back up to the city yesterday to get our glasses and a few other things. Then, we’ll be going back there tomorrow morning for the girl’s CT scan.

One good thing is that I was finally able to get a new computer over the weekend. It’s amazing how much easier it is to write when the screen is not jumping around. Much easier on the eyes. Still getting used to it and using Windows 8.

As for my progress over the last week:

• Send Slow Revenge to Beta Readers – put out calls for readers on Facebook and Twitter, but no takers. I know of at least one person, who may not have seen my posts on Facebook, that will probably read it. Just need to send her a message. And I could probably get some takers on Facebook if I posted from my personal page instead of sharing the post on my writer’s page. But, I don’t just want friends/family to read it.
• Finish outlining Stained Snow – making progress on this. I finished my steps of the snowflake method last week. And started working on the blueprint. Haven’t made as much progress on it as I would like, but getting there.
• Finish 1st draft of Flames of Redemption – moving along here as well. Last week, my goal was 500 words a day. Didn’t really have a problem meeting that. So, I took my daily average and added 10% to it for this week. So, my goal now is 750 words a day. I easily surpassed that Monday and Tuesday. Today, not so much. I did finish the scene I had started working on yesterday though. So, I was happy with that. I have written 4221 words in the last week, with 2684 of those being written this week. I only have 6 more scenes planned before I reach the end of this, and right now I only have a little over 47,000 words. Most of my scenes seem to average around 1000 words(often more and sometimes less though). So, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be much over 50k when the first draft is finished. I’m going to have to figure out if it would work better as a novella or if I need to flesh it out more.
• Edit Healing the Heart -been making some steady progress on this goal as well. I have marked up the first seven chapters of it so far. Will be working on this some more this afternoon.

• Read 20 books – I finished reading Shift by M.R. Merrick on Thursday, read Dark Waters by Shannon Mayer on Friday, and started Phoenix Feather by Angela Wallace over the weekend. Finished reading it this morning. And I started Murder on Black Friday by P.B. Ryan today. Not too far into it yet. Once I finish it, this goal will be reached.
• Workout 30 minutes a day/5 days a week – Today is the only day so far I’ve gotten a workout in. Walked on the treadmill for 50 minutes. I probably won’t get one in tomorrow either since we have to leave the house early to get the girl to the hospital for the scan. But, I’ll shoot for a longer walk on Friday.
• Track calories during week: Have not been doing good at all with this one this week. We’ve eaten out for three meals so far this week. Most of the time we only do that once a week, sometimes not even that. Need to get back on track.