ROW80 Round 2 - 9th Update

This week has been fairly good on both the academic and novel-writing front. Over the last few days I've been having some fairly persistent ideas for my novella, so I've been chipping away at that and managed another 800 words or so of that since the weekend. The scene I wrote is fairly dark, but it's one of those scenes that somehow came out exactly the way I wanted it to; some nice brooding on the protagonist's behalf without coming across as wanky. If only that happened more often...

I've also reached a milestone with my literature review, cracking the 5,000 word mark. I'm at 5,013 at the moment, so I only have another 987 to go and it's finished. I could probably crank out another few hundred before bed tonight, but I've been writing all day and I can't be bothered. I won't have time to work on it tomorrow because I have class all day and then I have to get some other stuff ready for my supervisor meeting on Friday morning, but after that meeting I'll have nothing on my plate til the following week; I'm aiming to finish it by Friday night, or Saturday afternoon at the latest (mainly so I can show it to my supervisor at least a week before the deadline and correct any mistakes she finds before I hand it in).

I also took some time out to read a new book (Hell's Bells by John Connolly), so I'll be posting a review of that on my good blog in the next few days as well (for now I'll just say that I quite enjoyed it).

Seems that Judgemental Dog is somewhat vain about his appearance:

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ROW80 Round 2 - 8th Update

Though I haven't really made any progress on my literature review or novella over the last week or so, I have nevertheless been busy. Along with my noir comic assignment and my statistics assignment, I've also been working on designs for my Flash eBook prototype, which I will begin making soon. The aim is to develop it over the mid-year break and then begin user-testing in the first week of the second semester. Since I'm doing user-testing, this means I also have to write up survey and interview questions, as well as filling out an ethics form (all 30 pages of it; anyone would think I was doing drug testing or something). I also got distracted for a while by the release of the final book in one of my favourite series by one of my favourite authors, which I reviewed here.

I don't know if I'll post again on Wednesday. It depends on how much work I get done and how much time I have. I have no assignments due this week so there's no immediate pressure, but I still have a lot to get done by the end of semester. But I will at least try to visit everyone else's ROW80 blogs, since I haven't had a chance to comment much lately (not sure if Judgemental Dog counts that as a nippable offence or not).

Be patient, Judgemental Dog. Be patient.

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ROW80 Round 2 - 7th Update

Bleh. That is all I have to say about this week. Or it would be, if I wasn't prone to vitriolic rants about the unfairness of life etc (melodramatic? Perhaps. But I've not had an energy drink in more than a week so everything Sucks with a capital S).

No new writing on either my literature review or my novella this week. That said, I have had other huge assignments, all of which were due this week, so in all fairness I haven't really had time for much else. I made a four page noir comic and wrote a 1,000 word report to go along with that, and also finished off a monstrous statistical analysis assignment.

If anyone's interested, here's the comic (hopefully it won't take too long to load):




(models sourced and arranged in Google SketchUp, post production work done in Photoshop)

And something in my upper back/neck/shoulder area seems to have gone out of kilter for no reason, because it now hurts whenever I move/sneeze/yawn/exist. On the bright side though, Rex (Judgemental Dog, to the writers out there), who was suffering from bad arthritis in his paw last week, seems to have responded well to the cortizone injection the vet gave him. He's back to his happy, bouncy, judgemental self, and he should keep getting better since he has to have another shot every week for the next month.

Now I have to finish some other junk I'm meant to present my honours supervisor tomorrow, as well as filling out 30 pages of ethics forms... *headdesk*

I think Judgemental Dog means business :S

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ROW80 Round 2 - 6th Update

Fairly short post this week, since I haven't got as much done as I'd have liked and I'm still not feeling well after a run-in with some evil biscuits earlier in the week.

Literature review is at about 4,300. Bugger all progress, but I lost the last two or three days due to illness. I got a bit done this morning, but after a while I started feeling crappy again, so I watched some Doctor Who DVDs. Feeling slightly better now - watching a goofball in a suit run around with a sonic screwdriver tends to have that effect - so I'm going to see if I can get to 4,500 words by tonight, so I can work on my other assignments (I have two big projects due next week, one of which is being a bitch because Google SketchUp keeps crashing and being a dick in general). Haven't even looked at my novella, and probably won't in the near future.


Could be, Rex. Could be. *backs away slowly, looking as innocent as possible*

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ROW80 Round 2 - 5th Update

Another Sunday update! Once again I've actually got a fair bit done this week so I'm doing an extra post. Also, I may not have time to do a Wednesday post because of assignment work later in the week, so if I don't, at least I'll have this one.

Friday night saw me once more reaching for my trusty bottle of Baileys. I then randomly wrote an entire scene for the third book of Exile, my high fantasy trilogy, which I haven't even touched in more than two years and wasn't supposed to touch until my dark fantasy novella is finished. And it was a dark scene, with lots of torture and dismemberment and death, but when I re-read it later, it was still quite good. To the point where I actually felt sorry and mildly horrified by what I'd put the characters through.

Does this make me a mean drunk?

Yesterday I also decided to set up a blog over at WordPress:

http://rebeccajfleming.wordpress.com/

Part of this was because I just think WordPress looks cleaner and more 'writerly', somehow. It was also because I thought that my Blogger site was kind of disorganised and pretty much cluttered with ROW80 updates and useless gadgets; anyone trying to find something specific would have a pretty hard time doing so. I've decided I'm going to keep using Blogger just for ROW80 updates and for any personal rants, whereas WordPress will be my 'professional' (I use the term loosely because I'm an immature idiot at the best of times) site, which will have more structured updates on my progress and will also be easier to navigate to find my current/planned projects.

Anyway, as far as my ROW80 Round 2 goals go: So far I've sort of met them, sort of haven't. I've got 4,000 of the 6,000 words I need for my literature review (well, probably 3,800 once I take out the reference notes) and I've kept up with all my other assignments so far. And I have added a lot more words to my novella (a good few thousand now), but I haven't been writing 500 words a day - it's been more like "write 1,500 words a day and then don't touch it for a few days" - which was meant to be my goal. So that earns me a nip on the bum from Judgemental Dog. But we have this week off uni, so hopefully the extra time will allow me to get back into the 500 words per day habit.

Once again I didn't have time to look for a good Judgemental Dog photo and caption it, but I did film another Judgemental Dog video (quality's a bit crap because it was filmed on my phone)! Here he is playing with my dad:

This has almost become a nightly ritual in our house; every time Dad gets home from work, he sits in his chair and Rex goes over to him for cuddles and ends up doing what appears to be a failed backflip before plopping onto the floor, all the while yowling like a cat being murdered. It never stops being entertaining :D

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ROW80 Round 2 - 4th Update

I think I may have burnt up most of my creativity/productivity last week, because the last few days have been a bit slow. Monday was spent visiting my nan and for most of Tuesday I was at uni, so I couldn't do much then anyway. I had planned to get back into it on Tuesday night, but then my computer was all like, "haHA! NO productivity for you! I'm going to crash every ten minutes and make everything take half an hour to open!"

But then I was like, "NO ONE MESSES WITH BEC'S PRODUCTIVITY!" and I body slammed that bastard computer before hurling its sorry arse through my window, showing it who was boss.

Yes, that is how it went.

Today has been better, with my computer behaving itself (okay, so I lied about throwing it through my window), so I've managed to get a bit more done on my literature review, bringing my word count to about 2,800. I want to have at least 4,000 words of it written by the end of next week, or earlier if I can manage it. I haven't had time to touch my novella this week, but with the Easter holiday and mid-semester break coming up, I'll have a bit more spare time, so I should be able to squeeze in some Dark and Silent Waters/Astyrion (I still haven't decided which title works better) writing in between slaving away at the assignments I have due first week back... *headdesk*

As usual, Judgemental Dog is giving me the guilt trip:

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ROW80 Round 2 - 3rd Update

I know I was only going to post on Wednesdays because I figured I wouldn't have enough to say each week to fill out two blog posts, but I had a bit of a productivity rampage over the last few days - both academically and authorly - so you all get to witness two doses of my writerly ramblings. TWO! Aren't you lucky? :P

First, my writing. Since my last update I've added around another 1,500 words to the story (I wasn't drinking this time so I don't know if it will be as good). Most of this was for chapter 5 (even though chapter 2 still isn't finished) but it's better than just staring blankly at my screen. I've also been refining the outline even more (I'm starting to realise I'll probably still be doing this until the last page of the novella is written) to smoothe out some plot holes, inconsistencies and other dodgy bits, as well as adding more little details that I think will enrich the story in terms of the world, the events and the characters themselves. The timeline and research on horse travel etc I did last week has helped a lot.

Second, my uni work. Since I hadn't touched my Literature Review for a while, I was feeling a bit guilty about it, so yesterday I forced myself to open the document, and - after a generous helping of energy drinks - managed to knock out another 1,000 words on that too. I've written another 100 or so today already, bringing my total to about 2,000. I'm a third of the way finished :D But I have some stupid statistical analysis assignment due for my IT Research Methods subject just after the semester break, so I'll have to start working on that soon, even though it will be about as much fun as having my boob slammed in a car door.

Also, due to popular demand, Judgemental Dog is expanding his horizons! You can Like Judgemental Dog on Facebook here. Go on. You know you want to. He can take it. Or, if you're more of a Twitter-er, you can follow him here.

Since this post was a last minute decision, I haven't had a chance to caption a new Judgemental Dog photo, so I will leave you instead with this footage of him watching Inspector Rex on TV...

See how other ROW80ers are going here.

Fear not, I'm sure I'll be back to my usual procrastinate-y ways next week :D