Sunday 10 July 2011

ROW 80 Check-in 10th July

Week One has gone well and I have achieved all 3 goals! Yay!

On Thursday I spent 32 minutes (yes those two extra minutes are important!) doing some research for the second children's book story I am starting. I now have 6 pages of notes about this one with a rough outline of the sequence of events and even a really badly drawn map of the location. I think tomorrow's task will be starting to actually write this one down.

On Friday I changed the name of the goldfish in the pet story (pivotal I know!) and then completed the fiction friday prompt from 'Write Anything' and wrote 948 words for this which is the most I have ever written when following one of these prompts so was pleased with that. Although I did kill off all of the characters which was a new and morbidly thrilling experience!

Yesterday I felt poorly so brain wasn't up to much so I sorted my writing bag. I have a bag where I stuff magazine articles and clippings that I think may come in useful one day. However I have been lazy recently and stuffed whole magazines and newspapers in it so I went through these and took out what I actually wanted and put them in a nice folder. I am ALL about the stationary! I also looked at the few notes I have made over the last year or so for a longer piece probably best described as chick lit and feel there may be some hope in the ramblings somewhere.

Today I went back to the pet story and it is now at 716 words. Is amazing that every time I leave it I am happy but when I go back to it straight away I can see things I want to add or change.

So week one big fat ticks next to all my goals! I have made a table I can literally tick. Is this normal?!

As mentioned yesterday I have a busy week coming up so I am going to have a little think now about how I can fit everything in. Need to crack on with my work work then spend some quality time with my book club book!

ps. apologies for how long my check-ins are but at the moment I feel I need to account for my half an hour of writing related time so I don't slope off and distract myself with other people's blogs etc!

16 comments:

  1. You've had an excellent week :-) The pet story sounds interesting. What age group is that for? I also find it easy to wonder off around blogs when I should be using the time to write.

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  2. Thank you! I hope I can cope be half as successful this week, think it is going to be one of those weeks though!

    The pet book is for 3 to 5 year olds probably, as will the other one if I ever start writing it!

    As a reward for doing my work work I am not going on a blog reading expedition!

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  3. Congratulations on achieving all of your goals! I concur, the pet story sounds interesting!

    And yeah, that's the amazing thing about writing...you can feel like you did a perfect job one day, and then the next day wonder, "Did I even write this?!"

    I think the idea of having a table you can tick is wonderful. It sounds like me and my to-do lists. It's just so satisfying to cross off (or in your case, check) a task...

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  4. Congrats! I also just killed off a character in my book last week, for the first time also. It really is morbidly thrilling!

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  5. Sounds like you had a great week! It's all about planning and balance--even baby steps add up to progress.

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  6. Yay you! Hope you have just as much success this week!

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  7. Tick boxes, charts, tables. Normal? Probably not. Being a writer, yeah definitely. I think it's to do with procrastination. You should see my awesome table from Round 2. I have yet to make round 3's table. I'm sure I'll get round to it when I get stuck this week.
    Hope you have a great week :-)

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  8. Congrats on doing so well this week! Isn't it wonderful to feel yourself inching forward? I think tick boxes are totally normal, but then again some people think I'm absolutely nuts, so I dunno what that really says about the whole thing?!? Good luck with your busy week - just stay positive :)

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  9. Yay for you Em! I write children's books also. I have one finished and in the querying mode,and am working on #2 right now. The first draft of it is almost finished.Good job staying on track and I look forward to hearing more from you!

    KP

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  10. Woo hoo! Congrats on a great week :) Hope this week is just as spectacular!

    Marie

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  11. GOLD STARS!!!!

    GREAT JOB EM! One of the few check-ins I've seen 100% goals met. Gold stars to you! Keep it up! :)

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  12. I LOVE GOLD STARS!!!

    Thank you everyone for your comments, really motivates me to try and work around all the work commitments of this week and not simply hold up my hands and say I can't do it!

    Also, tonight I need to work out how to reply to your comments individually....did I mention I am not so hot at the technology side of things?! Am sure I will work it out.

    Have good mondays!

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  13. I LOVE making lists and checking off everything that I've managed to do! There's something that feels really gratifying about seeing that series of 'finished' items on the to-do list, so I will say that, yes, creating a table with checkmarks is totally normal! Glad to hear that you've reached your goals for the week. Good luck in the days to come!

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  14. Oooh a table for tick marks? That sounds like a fabulous idea! Shoot, now I have another thing to do to procrastinate from actually editing :P

    In all seriousness, great job. Congrats on reaching your goals and good luck on this week!!

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  15. Congrats on your goals! This is my first ROW80 and it's great so far. Even if we don't hit all our goals, we can always try again (and adjust those goals if needed).

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  16. I really like the idea of a table that you can check off. Any kind of encouragement you can use to keep writing is a great idea!

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