Row 80: round three goals

Row 80 is officially underway.  I'm a bit late on stating directly exactly what I hope to accomplish with this challenge.  Maybe not the brightest idea on my part to start a challenge while on vacation through the fourth of July. However, I have been doing my writing, just not on a computer.  I'm currently working a new YA book idea that I had last Friday.  I don't know where it will go at the moment, but I wanted to at least get some of it down before it disappeared into the ether of my brain.

My goals, what I want to accomplish this round:

1) restart my Artist's Way morning pages every morning - this is a habit I miss

2) write at least 250 words a day

3) This one is mostly mental, but I want to allow myself to make mistakes and try to get better with the idea that perfection is highly unlikely, especially in a first draft.  I often spend so much time fussing over one paragraph that I never move on.

I think if I can accomplish these goals, I'll be able to get myself back on track with my writing.  I'm not sure when or how I fell out of practice and just stopped doing it, but it's time to rectify that situation.

Row 80: a newbie try

I heard about Row 80 a little while ago, but between life and the fact that it was already in the middle of a round, I figured it was better to put it off (I know, story of my life and something I'm working on). Round 3 starts on July 2, 2012 and I've decided to take part.  I've done writing challenges before and I do find that the accountability and goal-setting tends to help me more than it harms me.  Over the years, I've learned to keep it challenging but reasonable, based on what is going on in my life and what I can honestly undertake.  I've learned the hard way what unrealistic goals lead to and it's never pretty.

I'm still percolating on the specific goals that I want to accomplish and I have a few days to finalize, but overall I want to:

• write every day
• get back to my Artist's Way morning pages (which would be in addition to my write every day word count)
• write at least two stories

Writing Progress - 18 days in...

Since January 1st, I have made my writing goal of 250 words a day.  There were a few days where I managed a lot more words, even finished a story or two, but mostly, I'm just aiming to make my goal and writing for at least 30 minutes a day.  I know to a lot of people that's not a lot, but getting back into the habit of this and making room for it along with my other obligations including working out, chores around house, etc, has meant that I just need to allot a certain amount of time. 

It's been hard some days, like pulling teeth to get any words out, let alone decent words, but I'm also trying not to worry so much about the quality in the first draft.  I don't want it to completely suck, but it's so easy for me to get caught up in trying to perfect one paragraph that I accomplish nothing else.

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Aside from that, I'm reading, but not as quickly as normal.  Partly because I was attempting to read George W. Bush's book, which made me want to cry from boredom and anger at various moments and I've been trying to see all the possible Oscar movies and rediscovered the show Fringe and have been watching that from season one to present.  I'm sure, at some point, JJ will mess this up as he does all of his shows I have loved - Alias, Lost - but for now, I shall enjoy it.  Plus, Joshua Jackson with scruff?  Not sure one can go wrong there.

first writing update

I know we're only three days into the new year, but I'm quite proud of myself for making my writing goal every day. Today, I'll admit, was quite tough.  I just didn't want to do it.  My sinuses are killing me - eye goo is never pleasant - and it's my last day of vacation with a very inviting bed of warmth.  Finally, I picked up the first season of The Wire on dvd and have become sucked into the world of Baltimore detectives.  It's so good.  While I enjoy television, I'm usually not the girl who can sit and watch episode-after-episode of a tv show, but I watched six episodes today.

Still, I got my 250 words in and I didn't worry too much about edits.  I'm still a bit OCD when it comes to making sure every sentence is perfect, even in my first drafts, but I'm trying to catch myself and let it go. 

2011: Year of the Writer

At least I'm hoping that I can become more prolific with my writing.  I'm so glad that this past year I began blogging here and delving more into things that were bogging down my brain on a daily basis.  Things like the weekly intentions and wishcasting have helped me immeasurably and I plan to continue with those.  But I also want to get back to one of those passions of mine - writing.  I put it on the back shelf for almost two years while I grieved and mourned and tried to make sense of the universe and where I fit in.  The thing is - I'm a writer.  It's how I best communicate with the world, with myself, and I miss it.  And all this blogging this year, this unloading of fears/hopes/anger, it has all made me feel confident enough to say that 2011 is the year of my writing.  There is no reason to avoid something that makes me happy.

To better help me get back into a routine and to stick with it, I signed up for two different writing challenges I discovered through another site.

On January 3, 2011, the a Round of Words in 80 Days writing challenge begins and I signed up.  My goal is to write 250 words a day.  I'm usually able to do more once I get myself going, but I don't want to put too much pressure on myself as far as a number goes that I lose sight of the point of the exercise - to write every day.  

My Writing Goal:  250 words a day

I also signed up for author Kelly L. Stone's 80 Day Writing Challenge.  So between both challenges (250 words a day for 90 days), it works out to be a total of 22,500 words written.  Three months!  I can do this!  I've written more in less time when I put my mind to it. 

As for what I'm working on, I've got a current to-do list of pieces that need to be finished as well as a new young adult novel with a character that's been running amuck in my brain.  And I've been thinking about taking a screenplay I wrote awhile back and turning it into a novel instead.  So there are plenty of current projects that I need to work on and finish.  

My plan is to (hopefully) post updates on a weekly basis, more to keep myself accountable.  I'm also hoping that my own need to make things perfect can be contained.  I have this terrible habit of not allowing myself to get first drafts out without too much over-thinking and it's one of the reasons I get stuck.  So that's my not-so-measurable writing goal:  to leave editing for that portion of the process.