#ROW80 is A Round of Words in 80 Days. It’s a quarterly writing challenge where you define your personal goals and blog each week about your progress. It’s made to be flexible and allow for tweaking.
Welcome back! At least I’m hoping you’re back, or you’re here for the first time. Regardless, you’re here and I’m glad you made it over. 🙂
I’m feeling really good about this first week back in ROW80. I’ve really been trying to find a balance between writing and the rest of my life. I’m not there yet. There’s plenty of stuff that’s not really in balance, but at least it’s under some sort of control.
Here’s a breakdown of this last week:
Snow Maid
This is my Christmas book, it’s part of a self-pub project my critique partners and I are working on. So far I’ve managed to write 9,229 on it, and I’m beyond happy with this. Would I like to have written more? Sure. But this is what I got and I’m happy with it. My end goal for ROW is to finish writing and editing this novella and I’m well on the way to having this done.
I knew edits for this book were coming, but my heart still skipped a beat on Sunday when the email showed up. As far as large scale issues, there aren’t many, but it’s such a big book that it’s going to be labor intensive to get it where it needs to be. I have three weeks to finish these edits and turn this book around so my goal is to do a third of the book a week. This should allow for me to both edit and write so I’m making progress on both projects.
I managed to do the line edits between Sunday night and Monday, so that was really good. This frees me up to do content things. So far I’m thinking about doing 10 pages of content edits between Wednesday and Sunday to knock off 50 pages. After that, I want to get 100 pages done each week, so around 15 pages a day after this.
Other Things
My goal this year was to find some balance in my writing life, and I’ve been incredibly lucky lately in that I’ve been figuring it out. It’s taken me three months to figure out a schedule, but I think I have it. I write during my lunch break, wrap up the word count after work, break for dinner and then do edits. It’s working! It’s not totally perfect, I’d like to do more, but it works.
Last weekend I had a conversation with some other authors in a chat room I frequent. It was about science-fiction romance, or SFR. There’s not a huge audience out there for it. Yes, people buy it, but not everyone will read it. The fans are awesome, but you don’t write it for the money, you write it because it’s a genre and a story you love.
I had A Kiss for a Cure release in February and people really enjoyed it. I have another series in mind, but I’m beginning to think about self-publishing this. It’s a ways off, but it’s still in mind.
How do you balance writing and life? How do you make decisions about your writing career?
My first time here and pleased to meet you. A fellow ROWer here. 🙂
I wish to be even half as productive as your have been. I’ve had three months of house-guests. I’m just about to visit family for two weeks, then I’ve got more houseguest for two weeks! Sorry, I find myself moaning a lot lately 🙂
Well done to you though. 😀 X
Shah Wharton recently posted..It’s an ‘Indie Life’ for me #ROW80 #ISBF
Wow! Visits really cut into writing time, and as much fun as they can be — they are exhausting! I totally understand. Hope you find some peace amidst all of the excitement though. Thanks for stopping by!
Sidney recently posted..Compelling Stories
You seem to have a good system established. I’m trying to write blog posts or articles in my lunch breaks, and then get home and stop from collapsing before I get in the door! (silly full time work).
Was listening to an interesting interview with a successful blogger who said it wasn’t so much about balance as boundaries. You say ‘I’m writing between this time and this time’ and don’t let things distract you but also let other people know so they know when they can count on you. As I’m forever being side-tracked by friends wanting to meet up, or family asking me to do this now and write some other time, this was really good advice for me. Hope it helps you too!
Buffy Greentree recently posted..Rush Hour Writing Challenge and ROW 80 Check In
Boundaries are super important. I know I’ve had to learn those entering into a new relationship and how to write. Thanks for stopping by!
Sidney recently posted..Compelling Stories
Though you say you haven’t found a sense of balance, it sounds like you’re still working in the right direction. Something balance looks more like 80/20 than 50/50. Perhaps it’s the same for you… (and of course, these numbers might change weekly). Life happens, but you’re still pursuing the muse.
I wonder if your Science Fiction Romance is close to what we used to jokingly call Space Opera in the 80’s. If so… I love the stuff, but you’re right… It’s not something that appeals to the diehard Science Fiction enthusiasts.
Eden Mabee recently posted..Apologies for Missing Yesterday