On the writing front, I’ve continued to do my Morning Pages. However, the deeper I get into the revisions I’m attempting, the less patience I have in doing them. Plus side, revisions feel pretty good. I rewrote the opening scene on Friday, 1048 words, and rewrote almost three scenes Saturday, 2664 words. I know all these will need another run through but right now I’m aiming to clean up plot.
On the reading front, I have two stories to beta. Bad me, I haven’t started either. I will get them done soon, Melanie and Angela, I promise.
And I have a standing date with Doctor Who starting Saturday
The Health: Managed 4 glasses of water per day all days this week but Saturday. No dog walking. Bad fur-baby parent, bad. Sugar reduction is going well. I didn’t even cave with all the Easter stuff in the house…go me
Fur baby loving. (This is my phone wallpaper…we girls have to stick together!) Amy Shojai talked about why NOT to hug your dog today. (Edit: link fixed)
To support the awesomeness that is ROW80 you can go HERE
Can you believe it’s April already?! Happy Sunday everyone, today we kick off the blogiversary :throws confetti:
My MIL sent me this link, the video had me at Scotland but this cyclist is ah-mazing!
Goals for Round 2 are:
Writing: So I have a fantasy MS to finish a first draft on, a sci-fi MS to revise, a shiny to brainstorm and plot, and a contemporary MS that needs edits I really want to get back to. Instead of limiting myself to working on one or two, my goal for this Round is to write/revise 250 words (approximately a page) per day.
Reading: I have a yearly goal of 100 books. Of course, reading goes in cycles depending, to a degree, on the writing. I want to read two books on craft this Round, perhaps even plotting the shiny based off one.
Blogging: My blogging goals worked well for me in Round 1 so I’ll continue them in Round 2: write two blog posts in addition to a weekly check-in post, comment on three blogs per day, and comment on two new blogs per week.
Social Media: This is a struggle for me :sigh: For the most part, I think the goals I had last Round work, I just need to apply myself better. So my goals are: three updates (not including blog posts) to Twitter and Facebook each week, share ten blog posts each week, and have at least one conversation. (Started this week with @MarjiLaine and a fun Coke vs. Pepsi conversation, LOL)
Health: My overall goal this year is to get healthier. The plan was to add/change/lose one thing per month. Yeah, that worked last Round…not. Still I think it’s the right approach. January was to be water. February, dog walking. March was sugar reduction. In April I wanted to add yoga or something similar. Well, I need to go back and focus. For this Round my goals are to be drinking 8 glasses of water per day by the end of the Round, be walking the dog 7 days a week by the end of the Round, and to continue with the sugar reduction. If I master the dog walking before the end of the Round I’ll revisit the addition of yoga or similar exercise.
To support the awesomeness that is ROW80, go HERE.
The li’l ol’ blog is turning one in April :throws confetti: and you guys get the gifts. Come back on Tuesday for all the details.
August McLaughlin had fun comparing dogs and people in her Which Pooch are You? post.
So, I’ve been in a bit of a funk this week. No writing or revisions or even brainstorming of the shiny…blah. One thing this last round of ROW80 taught me was that counting words works better for me than counting pages or scenes or chapters. I was talking with Melanie Macek about tracking progress. She counts words even during revisions/edits and I think I’ll be trying that as I move forward.
The funk hasn’t applied to reading. I think I’ll make the reading of craft books more of a priority in Round 2. Roni Loren’s 12 Writer Woes & the Books to Cure Them post is full of great books.
Trying to maintain my ‘health’ goal this week has been laughable. Back to basics with A Small Guide to Big Changes from Tiny Buddha.
The writing: I’ve revised. I’ve searched and destroyed (though I’ll need to do at least one more of these). I’ve fiddled. I’ve deleted. I’ve moved. I’ve tweaked. I’ve revised again. OY! Yesterday, I sent the MS to the ol’ e-reader, read through it, and made notes. Hoping I’ve finally cut it down to where it needs to be for the sub call but as of typing up this post I haven’t had a chance to implement the notes.
I’d love to get at least one more beta reader. This is a SFR, 1st person POV, sitting at 36K as of typing this post (needs to be under 35K for the call). If you’re interested please drop me an email to BuriedNWords [at] gmail [dot] com. Thanks!
The blogging: still maintaining that week’s worth of cushion.
The social media: sorry folks. Number one on the ol’ list has been monopolizing my time. Hope to catch up soon.
That evil brilliant Jenny Hansen convinced me to join Triberr. (Be sure to check out Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 because Jenny is a master at navigating the techie waters.) I’ll probably start a Tarot Tribe once I’m more comfortable with the site
And we’re back to normal, well, as normal as it gets with four wild and crazy wee beasties, one faithful but bored dog, and a schedule no sane person would volunteer for!
The writing: somehow I managed to get through the first round of rewrites. Cutting the MS down from 45+ K to 37,500…goal was closer to 30K but I’ll take it. In doing these rewrites I have realized a number of scenes need to be moved and a lot more summary type passages need to be cut or rewritten into action scenes. That is my next hurtle. I probably need to tighten up the timeline too. So I’ve printed this bad boy out and am playing around with the plot, because I’m on a deadline, I’m only giving myself this weekend to complete this step in the process. Gasp. Then for full-on revisions. I’m hoping to be ready for critique and/or beta readers in a week to 10 days so if you’re interested drop me an email at BuriedNWords [at] gmail [dot] com.
Stating I’m hoping for critique and/or beta readers just gave me heart palpitations, LOL
The blogging: somehow managed to stay on top of my posts here. Spent some time yesterday getting more scheduled so I again have about a week’s grace on posts except for these Sunday ones. Whew.
And ROW sister Marcia Richards did a fab post, Blog Better and Faster, on how to improve what I’ve already been doing. :high five: Marcia
The social media: I’m slowly climbing back on that horse. I got around to a few blogs, made comments on some, even retweeted a couple. The other aspects of social media were so-so. But at least I opened them up.
The health: oy, fail this last week. No dog walking. Even the water intake dropped. Tomorrow is a new day
August McLaughlin gave me a nice kick in the arse with her Groovy Moving post. Thanks August
And my fantastic mentor, Joely Sue Burkhart, brought up an interesting point in her Dressing for Success post. What do you think?
I apologize. Blogger is not playing nice for me. For some reason, perhaps my Google profile is set up wrong, Blogger asks me to set up a Blogger blog whenever I try to comment with my Google account. Sorry, not doing that. Normally, I’ve posted under the OpenID WordPress option, however that hasn’t been working consistently since December. If your blog offers the Name/URL option I’ve been able to post comments. If not, it’s hit and miss. So I apologize if I’ve missed you.
It’s almost Christmas — I’m not ready — and it’s the end of the fourth round of ROW80 for 2011. With Christmas falling on Sunday, there won’t be a Sunday Summary this week, so we’ll call this my final check in for 2011.
Write 250 words per day, 5 days a week, on fantasy piece. — Mostly a success, with NaNoWriMo I managed to get about 15K shy of finished with the first draft. However, there has been some major slackage in December that not even joining Jenny Hansen’s NaNoSlackMo could salvage.
Blog twice a week, not counting ROW80 updates. — Definitely a success. I even got in a guest post over on Maria Zannini’s blog (giveaways are open through tomorrow) as part of her DIY Christmas. I had some fantastic visitors here, with Jenna Reynolds talking about tarot, and Piper Bayard and Kristen Lamb here as part of their Bayard/Lamb in 2012 Campaign Tour.
Comment on 3 blogs per day. — Mostly a success. Definitely had more hits than misses
Update Twitter and Facebook 3 times a week, not counting new blog posts. — I had some great weeks. I had some bad weeks. I even had some epic fail weeks. This will continue to be an area I need to work on in 2012.
I’ll definitely be joining again in 2012. To watch for the details of round one in 2012, go HERE.
I have a regularly scheduled Tarot post for tomorrow, and next Thursday, plus a post scheduled for next Tuesday. Otherwise, I’m kicking back and enjoying the holiday.
I wish you all a very happy holiday with the ones you love!
Holy crap! 50,048 NaNoWriMo wordage!
Admittedly, I discovered 1608 words that I’d forgotten to record earlier in the month that helped push me over the 50K mark. Either way, that’s two years in a row for a NaNo win. Yep, in shock.
Thank the universe NaNoWriMo is over! Now my family can stop staring at me like I’m crazy, LOL. I’m not crazy enough to say “never” but…not tackling it again any time soon, and yes, November 2012 would be TOO SOON.
I had a blast with Ciara Knight’s blog hop Thursday and added quite a few new blogs to the ol’ Google Reader. The author found my book Actually, most of the authors found their books. You can stop by Ciara’s blog to find out how others did.
Blog: Sent off a guest post this weekend, I’ll let you know the details of when it’ll go live when I have it. Still need to sit down to finalize and schedule a chunk of blog posts, crossing fingers that’ll happen later today. Even with the craziness of the last days of NaNo, I managed to comment on at least 3 blogs per day, except maybe yesterday.
Social Media: Another week of post and run, but I got my minimum of three updates.
Wordage: *cough* see above No, new words Thursday through Saturday though. I figure I’m about 15k away from the end of this first draft and my goal is to get that done by the end of ROW80, or at the very least by the end of the year. So, I guess we’ll call this a goal revision
The halls, and rooms, are decked. The tree is up waiting for presents. The Santa cookie jar is full of home-baked deliciousness.
I even reclaimed my writing/crafting room yesterday. Whoot. Hopefully, that will increase productivity.
Still shopping? Check out Marcia Richards’ Buy American post. Let’s keep our dollars here this year.
We hardly ever get snow in the Vegas valley so I added it to the blog for the holidays {But be sure to let me know if it messes with your visits. If enough people have problems I’ll take it down.}
Per our holiday tradition, we’ve begun to deck the halls. This will continue all week concluding with the tree next weekend. Aw…I love Christmas decorating
And then there’s the music and the movies…
:happy sigh:
Okay, on to check-in stuff. Facebook and Twitter updates went pretty well this week with me doing “post and run,” LOL. But at least I got them in there.
Blog commenting on a minimum of three blogs a day continues to go well though, for obvious reasons, I didn’t do this on Thursday. I have quite a few posts in various stages of drafts and need to spend a day replenishing my stash of scheduled posts. I do have this upcoming week already scheduled so still working with a cushion.
Word count…I’m afraid to look, LOL. I was doing well until Tuesday when the wee beasties succeeded to giving me their cold. :peeks through fingers: 3308 between Sunday and Monday which would be awesome if I’d done any writing since! (I’m scheduling this post Saturday afternoon, so there’s still a slight chance for more words this week. Slight.)
This also means I’ll likely be settling for Scrivener’s 20% off for participants carrot, instead of the 50% off carrot for winners, of NaNo. Aw…well, I’m that much further in my draft, so all good.
This coming week is full of fun stuff.
We have Ciara Knight’s (be sure to come back Thursday to check out which book I choose)
and Jenny Milchman’s
Okay, I’m not sure how to rate this, so watcher beware I found this over on Sloan Parker’sblog earlier in the week.
Coming December 1st, Ciara Knightis turning her weekly “Did I Notice Your Book?” feature into a blog hop.
Be sure to stop by to see what book I choose.
We had a bit of the sad this week. Our long-haired piggy, aka the Mountaineering Guinea Pig, passed away. It came as a shock. One morning he’s scurrying around in the cage with his pal and by afternoon he was gone. We had an appropriate funeral. We’re undecided if we’ll try to find another one with our smooth coat piggy being so established.
I’ve continued to be good about writing and scheduling blog posts ahead. Wasn’t a ROW80 goal but I’m glad it has worked itself into one. I’ve maintained my goal of commenting on three blogs (usually more) per day and I’ve tried to make at least one of those not a regular.
Twitter and Facebook…still struggling to find my groove. I’ll have a good day then a lot of bad, if not complete avoid, days. Definitely must find a balance here. So another update where I’m not sure I made my goal of three updates (not including blog posts) per week.
The turkey is thawing in the fridge for Thursday If you want to try a new recipe, or two, Tiffany White has a delicious Thanksgiving Mash-Up.
There’s this place in me where your fingerprints still rest, your kisses still linger, and your whispers softly echo. It’s the place where a part of you will forever be a part of me.
The amazing Melanie Macek awarded me the Illuminating Blogger Award on the same day I awarded her the Sunshine Award and Fabulous Blog Ribbon. I swear we were channeling each other, LOL.
so it’s nice seeing it applied to crafting characters. And if that isn’t enough character deliciousness, Roni Loren also posted about 
and read two fiction stories. Now to decide which craft book to start next.
I found this over on 
is steamy deliciousness 
