#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.
Another week, another page!
I’ve been hard at work, or as much as I can with birthday celebrations going on around me for a few people. All in all, I’m happy with the progress I’ve made. I think it’s not so much the sum of the numbers I’ve accrued since the beginning of the month.
Yesterday I watched a National Geographic documentary about the impact stress has on baboons and how it relates to humans. It was a fascinating, biological and socially relevant piece about how our self worth and perceived level of importance impact our lives. I’ve been on a “less stress” kick for a while now for my own benefit and health reasons. That said, I feel like whenever I enter the editing stage with a book, my stress level doubles.
Don’t get me wrong, I highly enjoy editing. The whole process of sculpting, scraping away and adding bits to make the picture as a whole more pleasing. I often find that to be more enjoyable than slapping the first words on the page, though that process is more emotionally draining. The last full length book made me cry. Twice. The whole crying thing never happened before I wrote the last two So Inked books, so I guess they don’t suck, right?
I’m highly goal driven, and it shows in my daily activities, how I keep myself on track and it’s a hard thing to turn off, but I’ve been managing to do a lot more this year as far as putting aside the writing and the stress and the crazy, and just have fun. That doesn’t mean I don’t stress about OMG WRITING DEADLINE! It just happens a little less.
Being able to say the word, “No,” every now and then actually helps as well. I had to tell myself no on a really cool potential project this week because I’m at my commitment limit for the remainder of the year. I’m pretty sure I have enough stuff to do to carry me into 2014, but that’s not why we’re here. We’re here about this week and #ROW80!
Last week I revamped my goals to look a little like this:
- Finish editing So Inked #3
- Complete the anthology short story
- Send anthology short story out for edits
- Finish expansion on Dream Vacation (this would be the short story I got the rights back on)
I’m hugely relieved to have finished the first pass of edits on So Inked #3, as of last night. It’s not complete. I need to add some scenes, do a tad more research and then it’s off for first round critiques. It’s exciting to see a series half finished!
The anthology short story is near submission ready. I was really lucky to have several people look over it, and I feel confident saying it’s going to be a good little gem. As soon as I’m done with it, I’ll be able to move onto Dream Vacation. Wondering if I should target a winter release, or wait a while longer for a more appropriate, seasonal release since it’s a beachy story.
Plenty of irons in the fire this week, but I’m not stressing about it! What’s the point? 🙂
I think being happy with your progress is possibly the most important thing we can reach for. Happy on our journey is the best feeling!
I love your desription of editing–“sculpting, scraping away and adding bits to make the picture as a whole more pleasing.” That’s fantastic!
I don’t know if it’s something that would work for you, but when I found myself way too stressed over goals and to-dos, I changed how I was phrasing them. I reworked my goals and lists so that everything was small and accomplishable and so I could fairly quickly start feeling a sense of accomplishment in my days. Feeling like I’m getting somewhere really helps me keep going. Anyhow, I thought I’d mention it in case a change in wording might make your editing goals feel better.
Keep up the great work!
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