#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.
I had a very odd conversation with a fellow writer this last week. It revolved around things I can’t yet talk about, family issues, drama and social stress. There’s a lot of stuff going on, basically, and the heart of the conversation revolved around the question: How do I keep writing with so much stuff going on?
My answer is basically: I dunno.
I’ve always been a do’er. Growing up, the important thing to my parents was what you did. It always annoyed me because I thought the most important thing is who you are. But that’s a whole other can of worms. What I can take away from the values my parents tried to instill in me is that even when things are tough, you still have to do.
For example, growing up we had livestock, horses, cattle, dogs, probably a buffalo or a donkey every now and then. They all had to be taken care of. It didn’t matter what bones were broken, if I had stitches, was sick with a 100+ fever or if it was sleeting, those animals had to be taken care of. It’s what you did no matter the circumstances.
These days, it’s only a few steps to the food bowl to pour food in the cat’s dish. It’s more about writing, even when I don’t feel like it or when I’d rather obsess about my email. You put one word in front of the other and make it work. Sure, the words might be crap, but at least they’re there and I can polish, shine or even rewrite sections once I know what doesn’t work.
All this said, I’ve had a solid writing week. I didn’t make my daily goal every day. This weekend I went to do a hay ride and maze, and some days the time just wasn’t there to make all the words happen, but my two books are progressing wonderfully, and I’m almost back on track word-count-wise with where I want to be. It’s a good feeling, but not as good as it would be if I were on track!
So where am I at with this #ROW80?
- The second Good Guys Wear Black book is rocking right along. I ran into a hiccup last week when I realized that for the very first time ever, I didn’t have enough plot going on, so I’m now fixing that with a no-brainer solution. I could smack myself for not seeing this sooner!
- The second Bayou Bound book is just awesome. Really loving this one!
- The Midnight Ink release is getting closer!! I’m super excited about it.
- How Zombies Stole Christmas is done with line edits, we’re nailing down the corners and very soon, it’ll be out for all to read!
- My possible other Christmas project is contracted, Kinky Bells is in the Holiday Spice anthology to be out in early November!
Keep writing! Keep going!
Hi, Sydney,
Interesting how your parents viewed action and person. I can’t speak for what they miht have been thinking, but my guess is that they saw a person as the sum of their actions. Or as the old saying goes, “actions speak louder than words”. So they probably saw a truer reflection of the person inside from the acts a person committed.
As for the animals… makes sense. It’s the same as having children. Once you accept the responsibility for another person’s or creature’s life, you have to take care of that animal. Farm animals… they’ve been domesticated to the point they cannot survive without human help. We “owe” them, especially when we use so much of them to live.
Sounds like you have great parents, Sidney, and a busy, but good childhood for learning how to “get things done”. 😀 Keep at it, and keep smiling.
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