ROW80: Toward the finish line
NaNoWriMo is officially over, and I managed to net 50,035 words for the month. I’m pretty proud of making that goal, because around 23K of them were fed into a project that is getting ever closer to completion.
My contemporary romance novel Drawn Together is my focus for the rest of December, and the rest of this ROW80 round. I would like to have the first draft of this novel complete by the end of the month so that I can work on edits in January and send it off to my crit partners in February. I feel pretty great about this project and really want to see it to publication in 2013, so I want to focus the next few months on getting it ready for submission…or even self-publication if I’m being really brave. 
I have a few other things I need to accomplish for this book–like setting things up for the pen name I plan on publishing it under–but getting the draft done is priority #1. I’m pretty close to the ending and I think I’ve figured out how to tie off all the loose ends. I just need to go back after I write “the end” and fill in a few holes along the way, then I can put it to bed for a couple of weeks. Ideally I’d like to be done by Christmas, but we’ll see considering how busy a month December is likely to be. I have a lot of social engagements and family responsibilities, so I don’t want to overload myself…I want to enjoy the holidays!
This week, though, I am going to focus my efforts on finishing up the critique that languished during NaNo so I can get my words. Then I’ll be turning back to Drawn and finishing up the adventures of my comic artist heroine and comic book shop owner hero.
Hope everyone had a great end of NaNo and is excited for the week ahead. Happy December!
ROW80: The end is nigh
Just a few days to go until NaNoWriMo ends! I’m at just under 12K left
to hit the requisite 50,000, and that is a daunting task. I feel up to
the challenge, though, and I plan on knocking out at least 4K tonight!
Sprints are my best friend when I am trying to write a lot and write
quickly. I can get up to about 650 words per 15 minute sprint, and
that lets me knock out big chunks of writing in just a couple of
hours. That’s how I managed to get 3K in just an hour an a half on
Monday.
I only got 306 words yesterday, but it was because my husband and I
put up our Christmas decorations. This is the first Christmas in our
house, and we have both been looking forward to making it look
festive. We decorated our mantel, put up hooks for our stockings, and
decorated the tree. I also hung a wreath on the back door…it’s nice
to see every time I leave or come home.
I will probably not get back to critiques before the weekend, but we
shall see…maybe I will have great luck on knocking out words and be
done sooner than I think!
Hope my fellow ROW80′ers are having a great week. Special thanks to
Jess Witkins (gotta love a fellow Jess and a fellow redhead!) for
her ROWmodel Award and kind words about my Sunday check-in. I appreciate the
encouragement. Now, to the finish line!
ROW80: Know when to fold ‘em
Well, I’ve already gone against my own advice. I know I said it’s important to keep going even when you hate your WIP, but mine got to be a little too much to handle. The more I write on it, the more holes that present themselves. At this point, I feel like if I continue to write it I am throwing away effort and words that could be put into another project. I don’t mind going back to edit, but if I’m going to do away with entire chapters because I need more worldbuilding, then it’s not worth it.
So, I’ve moved back to working on Drawn Together, my fun contemporary romance novel about an indie comic book artist and a lawyer-turned-comic book shop owner. It’s so much fun to write, and I really love the characters I created. That makes it an easy choice to see me through to the end of NaNoWriMo, and I might even make my 50K word count! I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again–I never thought I’d write a romance novel (instead of just a novel with romantic elements) and I don’t think I’ve ever had as much fun writing before.
I have about 20K more to write on it and planned to finish it in December, so I’m really just getting a head start. I was pretty easily able to write over 4,000 words on Saturday and plan on writing at least that many today. That leaves me writing about 2,800 words per day through Friday, which is tough after a long day in the office, but definitely doable.
As for my other goal, critiquing a novel for my wonderful CP, that is actually going really well. I got an app for my iPad that lets me edit and create Office documents and it features track changes, and that really makes a difference in my productivity. When I am not chained to my desk, I can edit in small portions here and there (and in a comfortable place!) rather than having to knock out 20+ pages per session in my desk chair. I should be done with that critique really soon.
I hope all my fellow American ROW80 participants had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, and good luck to everyone who is sweeping through this last week of NaNoWriMo!
ROW80: Finding what works
This week is going really well so far–way better than last week, that’s for sure! I’m going into day 14 of NaNoWriMo ahead of the minimum by 570 words…not a lot, but I’ll take them. It’s feeling really easy to make my daily quota, and it’s because of the writing I’m doing in the mornings and evenings when I’m riding the train.
I have 28 minutes to do nothing but try to ignore the crazy people and block out the screaming children, so I just pop on my earbuds and fire up Writing Kit on my iPhone. I don’t really have the room to pull out my iPad and type most of the time, so I decided to try my phone instead and it works much better than I thought it would. Even though I’m typing with my thumbs, I’m able to get between 500-750 words per ride. My progress gets synced to Dropbox, which then syncs back up to Scrivener when I get home and open up my novel file. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing my session target bar almost complete and knowing that I can relax for the rest of the evening!
The struggle to write after a full day at work has always been tough for me, so I am more than pleased that this strategy is working for me so far. I’m going to keep it up throughout the month and seek to write on the train at least a few days a week after that (it’s also great reading time!) so that I can keep some great momentum going on my upcoming projects.
Hope you are having a fantastic week too, my ROW80 and NaNoWriMo friends!
ROW80: Better late than never
Well, I missed a few check-ins here and there, but I have a very good reason…I was writing! Let’s check in on my goals:
- Keep my momentum going on NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo is almost halfway over, but I’m doing pretty well with my word count. Right now, I’m sitting at a few hundred words over the daily minimum. I had a couple of days last week that were absolutely not productive at all, and some where I could only squeeze a few hundred words out before my brain refused to cooperate anymore. I ate into the margin from last weekend and entered the weekend a little behind, but I was able to easily make up the difference. I was stuck on a scene and I let it get to me far longer than it should have, but after the prolific weekend I had, it was frustrating to have the story grind to a halt. I’m not super happy with the plot right now, but I’m pushing ahead and it is proving to work well.
- Continue to work on finishing my last critique. I’ve been bad about keeping up with this daily, but I’m getting back to it this week so I can turn it in. It’s been hard to do both NaNo and critiquing at the same time, but I need to buck up and do it.
One of the things that is really proving to help me in NaNo is writing on my way to and from work. I take the light rail and it gives me 28 minutes of uninterrupted time in the morning and early evening. This morning I was able to knock out over 750 words, and then on the way home I got almost 700. That was almost my entire daily quota! I think if I can keep that up, it will not be hard at all for me to stay on track. My problem is that I’m usually exhausted by the time I get home, have dinner, and sit down at the computer. Getting my writing done early means that my evenings can be mine to relax.
Hope you are all doing well on your goals, fellow ROW’ers!
ROW80: NaNoWriMo begins!
So I missed out on checking in for ROW80 last week. It was a busy one, with a weekend guest for my college reunion, lots going on at work, guests on Halloween, and then me feeling under the weather starting Thursday night (leading to an abysmal start to my NaNoWriMo novel). These weeks happen, but I am pretty proud of how I am pushing through.
Here were my goals:
- Finishing up critiques for my crit partners. My goal was to finish the critique I had left to work on before NaNoWriMo started. Well, I am still going on it. That was a pretty lofty goal, considering this is a long book and I have a lot to do for myself. But I plan on getting it finished just as soon as I can.
- Planning out my NaNoWriMo project. I am actually pretty proud of the planning I did for my project. I didn’t get to the very end, though I know what that ending is going to be…and it actually sets me up for two more books, which I am pretty sure might make me crazy. I have the first 25 scenes planned out in decent depth, and that crazy ending to shoot for. I doubt I will get to the end during NaNoWriMo anyway, so that is OK.
- Getting the house clean. This was a win! The husband and I tackled the place and got it looking nice for guests (and ourselves). I still need to tackle Mount Laundry and the Secret Spare Room Closet of Doom, but otherwise things are nice and neat.
- Blogging at least once a week outside of ROW80 check-in posts. I am failing on this for now. I am okay with that. I have a few things I want to type up for this week and beyond, but I am going to take the pressure off myself and just roll with my NaNo writing.
So, my goals for the coming week are a little bit shorter:
- Continue to work on finishing my last critique. I want to at least tackle 20ish pages a day on this. I will try that today and see what happens.
- Keep my momentum going on NaNoWriMo. One of the beautiful things about feeling under the weather this weekend is that I have been resting a lot. That rest has consisted of periods of writing interspersed by naps when my head started to hurt too much. My writing post in the bed has been quite productive. Thursday night I tried to write after work but I was running a fever, so I only clocked 548 words for the first day of NaNo. Friday I did some work from home, slept a bit, and eventually felt better enough that evening to do some writing. I ended up catching up and slightly exceeding where I needed to be on Day 2. Saturday, well, that was a good writing day. I slept in pretty late, got up, met my daily goal pretty quickly, and then kept going throughout the day. By the time I went to sleep I had clocked over 6,000 words for the day and bumped my word count up to 9501. I would like to get up to 12K before Sunday is over, but we will see what happens.
That’s it! Those are my goals. November is going to be pretty focused on NaNoWriMo, as well as the things in my real life like work and family events (I have two Thanksgivings). How did your week go, fellow ROW80ers? Hope those of you participating in NaNo are having a great time!
ROW80: Gearing up and preparations
I can’t believe it’s Wednesday already…this week is going fast! That’s probably because I have a lot to do. This weekend will be really fun–I’ll get to see friends from college, go to a football game, go to a cocktail party, and go to a CD release party–but incredibly busy, and I am in the thick of preparing for it.
Here were my goals for the week:
- Finishing up critiques for my crit partners. I got one big crit and another small read-through knocked out this weekend, which felt great. I’m working on a much bigger project to critique and I’m about 50 pages in. I’ve made great progress but I need to step up the speed a bit if I’m going to be done by the time NaNo starts.
- Planning out my NaNoWriMo project. I’ve done a little bit of planning so far this week, and I plan on really hitting it tonight. Generally it will only take me an evening or two to really outline and solidify my plot, so I’m pretty sure I’ll get to cross this off my list by the end of the week.
- Getting the house clean. I’ve been working on one thing per night and we’re almost there. The house wasn’t terribly dirty or cluttered to begin with, so that helps. Oh, the joy of living in a place where I have enough space to put everything away!
- Blogging at least once a week outside of ROW80 check-in posts. I have a post ready to go up all about my writing space tomorrow, so I’m doing well on that for the week!
How are you doing so far, fellow ROW80 writers? Hope you’re having a good week!
ROW80: Jumping in!
I’m jumping in on ROW80 this week so I can get back in the swing of my weekly/monthly goals! Things are pretty simple for me for the next couple weeks until NaNoWriMo starts, but I do have a few key things I am concentrating on:
- Finishing up critiques for my crit partners. I have one that is just about wrapped up, and then another one due back on November 4. I want to get that one done prior to November 1 so that I can start on NaNo free and clear.
- Planning out my NaNoWriMo project. I have figured out that my process starts with about 25% plotting, then I pants about 50% of the book while plotting the other 25% as I go. For this one, the plot is a bit complicated and technical, so I want to do a little more plotting ahead of time and planning out some of the backstory that gets things to the point where the novel starts.
- Getting the house clean! I have company coming this weekend for my 10-year college reunion (yikes!) and then people coming over on Halloween night, so this week I want to clean the things that need a deeper scrubbing so that we can just do a quick pick up here and there before guests arrive.
- Blogging at least once a week outside of ROW80 check-in posts. I want to do more than this, but I’m going to have to work up to it and make myself an editorial calendar. I’m lost without one.
Hope everyone is gearing up to have a fantastic week! If you’re going to participate in NaNoWriMo, leave me a comment with your NaNo user name and we can be author friends on the site. I’m divajess.
ROW80: Wrapping up
We made it! This round of ROW80 is over and it has been insanely productive for me.
I’ve hit all my goals–I’ve worked on the research for The Recollector (so I have tons more reference material when I pick that project back up), I’ve sent Burn off to friends who can help me figure out the right direction to take on the plotting, and I’m almost done writing Drawn Together!
I may not write “The End” on Drawn by Sunday as planned since this is an insanely busy week, but I will be close. It feels good to have accomplished so much in this round, especially when I have a ton of things going on outside of my writing. I hope to do the next round too, but I may be taking a slight break in between projects so I might jump in after the round starts.
Thanks for a great run ROW80!
ROW80: The home stretch
The end of the round is almost here! I can feel my motivation flagging…it’s been a busy weekend and zero writing time, and now that I’m trying to write, the scene is not working. The story is at a critical, difficult turning point, and I think I’m just getting stuck on the action that needs to push the narrative forward. I’m opting to go to bed and wake up refreshed tomorrow, but this week I am kicking it into high gear to catch up! I can see the end in sight.
I’m glad this project is nearing completion, because real life is going to have to take a bit of a front seat for a while. I need to start sorting and packing for our move–it’s going to be a beast, so I want to start now. I have a feeling my closet is going to get filled with boxes very soon (to keep them away from the kitties, who enjoy their cardboard scratchers and think boxes are for claw sharpening)! I also need to start gathering the necessary painting supplies…all the wallpaper at our house is gone (they removed it rather than texturing over) and the walls are retextured, so things will be ready to paint as soon as the estate sale is over. I want to be prepared to get in there and get it done as soon as possible, because I am ready to move!
For this week:
- I’d love to get 3K a day on Drawn Together. I’m still behind from being sick, and I want to get ahead early in the week so I can sail through the finish line.
- Take one day of breathing room and start edits on Drawn. My submission deadline is April 15!
Head on over to the link list to cheer on your ROW80 compatriots! Let’s cross this finish line together!
authoress of urban fantasy and paranormal, grammar nerd, serious geek
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