ROW80 Round 7: Goals and 1st Update

I know this post is a few days late, for some reason I got my dates mixed up and thought the round started next Monday :| I blame lack of sleep, I'm still trying to get my sleeping pattern back to some semblance of normality after working midnight to 7am last week. Since the last round, I've added around 2,000 words to my novel, but have probably deleted as much in scenes that became obsolete when I wrote and/or revised other sections. I did manage to do a quick, colourful sketch in my art journal:

I also recently stumbled across Pinterest and thought it might be a good way to organise some of my novel-related inspirations (as well as other random things I like), so I set up my own account. Does anyone else here use it? What sort of things do you use it for?

This round's goals:

• Write at least 500 words every day until semester 2 begins
• During semester 2, write 500 words three days a week
• Keep tinkering with novel outline, especially the two problem areas
• Continue developing web folio
• Produce at least one decent sketch or piece of art work each week
• Visit at least 10 other ROW80er blogs each week

I'm only teaching two classes this semester instead of three, so keeping up with everything should be more doable, though I know that once I start teaching again I'll probably drop off a bit (especially considering how badly I bombed with my writing last semester).

To these productivity/creativity goals, I'm also going to add a personal health goal or two: exercise for 20 minutes every day, and start eating more healthy food. Though I haven't put on any weight, I've been lax with my exercise and eating habits over the last few months, since by the time I get home from working two jobs I'm too tired lazy to cook a proper meal or do much of anything. Exercise will have to be fairly light anyway because of my knee issues but some is better than none, and I can probably cook some decent food during the day and make an extra portion for dinner. Hopefully this will improve my general well-being and energy levels.

To finish off, Judgemental Dog seems unimpressed with my new friend, a Pillow Pet:

Good luck for this round, folks :)

See other ROW80 posts here.

ROW80 Round 6: 4th Update

Well, this week got off to a rocky start in terms of writing productivity. I had to work most days at my evening job, and spent two full days at uni marking exams, which I finished (or at least, thought I had finished, until two more exams arrived from interstate, so I have to go back to uni to mark them tomorrow *sigh*). Then on Friday, my computer crashed, so I spent most of the weekend getting that up and running again :O Still, I found out I'll be teaching the same subject next semester, so that's pretty cool. The extra money will come in useful, since a) Rex is back on his medication after his bowel disease didn't clear up entirely from the first course of treatment (he's on a lower dose now so he's generally happy and playful), and b) there are lots more art supplies I want D: I know, I already have plenty, but I always want more :D

I did manage to get about 1,500 words done yesterday, including 500 words in a near-midnight sprint. Not enough to make up for the lack of writing during the week, but certainly better than nothing :) Other than exam marking tomorrow, I'm hoping to have most of this week free, so hopefully I can get more writing done.

Judgemental Dog does not like his dreams of chasing rabbits to be interrupted.

See how other ROW80ers are going here.

ROW80 Round 6: Slinking Back In...

... With my tail between my legs. Or I would be, if I had a tail. I know I've dropped the ball majorly this round, not just with ROW80 but with writing in general. I think I hugely underestimated how much time/energy would be taken up by tutoring (though I think it has been a good experience for me - as well as helping financially when I have really, really needed it - and I'm hoping to do it again next semester). With semester 1 finished, all that remains is exam marking. I've been pretty slack with writing lately; apart from the odd hundred words here or there, I've barely opened my novel since April, though I did write about 800 words today. Still, now that I have more time, I should be able to get more writing and artwork done. I did at least manage to keep up with all my marking though, so there's that. I have also started tinkering with my folio website. It's pretty basic so far, but I have got most of a functional shell working, so I have something to build upon now.

For the remainder of this round, I am going to try to post once a week, which should be manageable. Ideally, I'll also manage to visit a few other ROW80 blogs. As for my goals, I'll try to resume writing 500 words a day, and if I can't write those words for my main novel, Dark and Silent Waters, I'll at least write them for one of my other WiPs. I have been doing a few paintings and drawings lately, so I'm going to try to keep that up as well; practice, after all, makes perfect :D I'll start with a few simple still lifes and landscapes, but at some stage I want to do proper drawings of Rex and of my novel's protagonist and antagonist; I've already done a few pages of preliminary sketches and costume designs.

Judgemental Dog won't let me off lightly for being slack:

  

See how other ROW80ers are doing here.

Melbourne Zoo/Supanova - April 2012

(this post contains a lot of photos and will probably chew up a fair bit of bandwidth. But the pictures are cool. So there.)

This is a writing check-in and fun post all in one. I have done some writing this week - around 1,000 words worth - but a death in the family this week meant that a lot of the time I was meant to spend writing and marking assignments was lost (it wasn't someone I was close to but it has been hard for other family members). Ah well, sometimes these things happen and all you can do is try to work around it. As far as my novel goes, I think some scenes are becoming a bit clearer, but others still need work. I am starting (slightly) to break myself of the habit of picking at one section at the expense of finishing the story, but it's a slow process :) I did manage to do a painting last night, though, since I couldn't concentrate on either writing or uni stuff:

I spend most weekends at home either writing or painting; ie. being a desk hermit. Today, however, I set aside my anti-social tendencies and went gallivanting off into the city, more specifically, to the Melbourne Zoo for a friend's birthday party and to Supanova. Here are some of my favourite photos from the zoo:









After I left the zoo, I headed over to the Melbourne Showgrounds for Supanova. I didn't get to spend as long there as I would have liked, but I did get to chat with two awesome authors, Michael Pryor (writer of The Laws of Magic series and the Extraordinaires series, and wearer of wicked top hats) and Ben Chandler (The Voyages of the Flying Dragon series). If you like reading YA fantasy, especially with a steampunk setting, check out their books. You won't be disappointed.

Tomorrow will be spent catching up on assignment marking, since life (or, more specifically, death) prevented me from getting it done during the week, but at least today was awesome :) Anyway, I'm off to slather more deep heat gel into my knee (old karate injury always plays up if I walk around all day) and head off to bed. Adios.

Judgemental Dog has been temporarily usurped by Imperious Meerkat*:

ROW80 Round 6 Goals + 1st Update

I know, I missed the goals post and my first check-in is late because of work... And this check-in will be a bit short since I worked all day... Retail on Easter Saturday with a lack of staff... It was like Armageddon :| *dies of exhaustion*

My main priorities for this round are a) to revise my novel outline and b) to just write more of the damn novel. My novel is at around the 35,000 mark (I wrote a lot last round, but much of that was for a different - now abandoned - story idea, and several sections got cut because of plot inconsistencies etc). I haven't made as much progress on it as I would have liked; sometimes I'll punch out a few thousand words over a couple of days, and then I'll barely write anything for a week. In a few past ROW80 rounds, I've tried setting goals like "I will finish these four chapters" or whatever, but it just doesn't work; I always just ended up faffing about with other random scenes and completely ignoring the ones I was meant to be working on, which of course brought on the old writer's guilt we all love so much. For this round, I'm going to just try writing 500 words a day; doesn't matter what chapter or scene, just as long as I'm adding to the manuscript. Wednesdays are going to be a non-writing day, though, since I spend all day at one job and then rush home and go straight to my other job. I will have neither to the time nor energy to write, so it's probably better to just accept that I won't get anything done on those days.

My novel outline is also in pretty dire need of attention. I've had a few plot points that have been bugging me pretty much since I wrote the first version 2 years or so ago, and though I think I've finally found solutions to these plot holes (more like plot craters in some cases), it will need a pretty heavy rewrite. But it has given me some ideas for how I can expand one of the sub-plots and make the world seem richer, so hopefully once I spend some time with my outline, I'll be more excited about tackling the novel itself.

In the break between rounds, I did a little bit of writing, but mainly just a few random snippets. I did get to have a go at using my new Derwent Artbars, though. I also wrote a review about them, including a few drawings; you can see it here (hey, I may not have been working on my novel, but at least I was still writing :D).

So, goals:
-Write at least 500 words every day except Wednesdays
-Expand and revise novel outline
-Create more artwork (focus on painting but also wax crayons)
-Continue job hunting (especially towards end of semester)
-Keep up to date with assignment marking

Anyway, my dodgy knee is aching like buggery after running around (it was that busy I was literally running for most of my 9 hour shift), so I'm off to go marinate my leg in deep-heat gel. Mostly I'll probably only update once a week, but if I have a good week progress-wise, I may pop in more often :)

Judgemental Dog drives a hard bargain:

ROW80 Round 5 - Final Update

My final check in for this round is a bit late, since I've worked the last two days, but I did manage to end up with quite a few new words, writing around 2,000 on Tuesday and 1,000 or so on Monday. I wish I could be more consistent with my productivity; I tend to write heaps over a few days and then do hardly anything for a few days. Then again it's a bit hard to be consistent, since the days I work all day, I generally don't feel like doing anything. I seem to be back in the right frame of mind for the story now, since random ideas I have are actually for this novel and not some other random half-baked project. I still haven't finished the first four chapters, even though that was one of my main goals, and I think I'll just have to accept the fact that if my brain doesn't want to work on things in chronological order, it sure as hell isn't going to :S

Also, I got more art goodies in the mail today, so I look forward to playing with those over the next few weeks (I think I need to be more specific about art-goals in my next round, since I've only done two or three pictures since this round started). (for anyone who's interested in arty stuff, my new toy is the full 72 set of Derwent Artbars, water-soluble wax crayon/pastel thingies).

Anyhoo, I'll keep this update short, since I'm sleep deprived and grumpy and am going to go finish reading my book. But I'll be back again next round :D

Judgemental Dog was just as surprised as I was by my weekly word count.

See how other ROW80ers fared here.

ROW80 Round 5 - 16th Update

No new paintings this week, but I have been doing more writing on my main WiP, which makes me happy. I think the enthusiasm for the other Shiny New Idea that was bugging me might be dying off, or at least waning slightly. I am glad about this, because it's one of those stories that, even though you enjoy/feel the need to write it, you know it isn't particularly good. I still hadn't even come up with a plot, so without that, it was only a matter of time before I ran out of steam. I'm not discarding it entirely - just putting it away in case some of it can be salvaged in the future - but for now it seems that story idea has run its course. I spent some time rereading what I had for Dark and Silent Waters while listening to the playlist I put together for that story, and slowly the ideas have started percolating again. So far I've probably only done around 500 words a day, but I feel like I'm starting to get back into the right mindset for it again (I also finished two chapters that just needed one small scene, but those are for later in the story; still need to finish the first few chapters). Does anyone else have certain songs/music types that help them get into writing mode?

On the exercise front I've been doing okay. I've taken His Judgemental Lordship for a walk every day this week except Wednesday - just around the block, along part of the railway line and back - to give us both some fresh air. Walking doesn't seem to do my knees too much harm unless I'm doing it for more than an hour. Unfortunately my knee has been playing up a bit lately (not the one I dislocated last year by walking, the other one, which I've dislocated 5+ times at karate over the years. Yeah, I really need to sign up for bionic legs or something). I'm hoping that with a bit more exercise and strengthening activity I can hold it off doing anything horrible, but I've been getting that achy, wobbly feeling in it I always get right before it craps itself.

Haven't been swimming but I have been using the exercise bike, which is funny because for some reason Rex is terrified/infuriated by the WHIRRRRRR! noise it makes and he runs around in circles yowling at me the whole time I'm using it. The other day, I realised how unfit I really am, not just in terms of physical strength but also my cardiac system. I had to run a few blocks to catch a train because I was running late (only just made it), and while I would have done that without breaking a sweat a few years ago, by the time I staggered onto the train I was gasping and wheezing like a beached whale. My knees will probably prevent me from becoming as fit as I used to be, but I need to become far fitter than I am now, that's for sure (though I know some people who get winded walking from their armchair to the fridge and back, which makes me feel better about myself).

No, Judgemental Dog, you will not distract me with your charm!

See how other ROW80ers are faring here.