ROW80

Row80: Midweek Modification

by Jennette,

Halfway through the week… and I only have half of a chapter revised. So I’m thinking, my goals of working through five or six chapters was, shall we say, a bit ambitious.

I could come up with a number of excuses – as noted on Sunday, we had dinner company, then the video card in my computer decided to go kaput, which took me two hours to diagnose. That in itself was annoying, but then I realized I had several things to be thankful for:

  1. I was able to work on the computer and figure it out myself, rather than take it somewhere, which would have not only taken more time, but cost more $$
  2. I didn’t lose any work – even though when the video card died, it spontaneously shut down the computer, but I use dropbox, so everything is backed up, as soon as I hit Save. Word’s autorecover worked quite well too.
  3. The video card that died was an add-on upgrade – meaning it was in addition to a built-in video interface, so I can still use the computer. It’s not powerful enough to run on my big monitor without looking stretched and fuzzy, but at least it works.
  4. I ordered a new video card and it’s due in tomorrow.
  5. The new video card cost $69.99 – then has a $15 mail in rebate. So it could’ve been so much worse on the wallet!

Still, the weekly goals need a little backing down, especially in light of the fact that I have a busy weekend coming up. So instead of working up through Chapter 10, I’m going to shoot for Chapter 8. It’ll still be a push, but hopefully doable!

If you’re doing ROW80 (or even if you’re not), how’s your week going?

ROW80: It Takes Longer than You Think

by Jennette,

That’s my revision story for this week, and I’m sticking to it!

I wanted to get through eight chapters this week. Uh… I did half that. As in, I just now got through Chapter Four. This revision stuff always seems to turn out to be more work than I think, and setting an ambitious goal for the week doesn’t necessarily make it happen. I even had a day off of work, but it translated into time to take my daughter shopping for some needed school clothes, not writing.

I’m also still shifting my schedule-thinking. I’ve long kept a writing schedule (and its inherent goals) from Monday through Sunday, but ROW80 goes from Sunday through Saturday. So the above goal isn’t as much a failure as it seems – it was based on a Monday-Sunday week. We’ll see what I get done today, especially since we’re having dinner guests.

This coming week, I know I’ll be busy. I’ll be spending the day with friends one day this weekend, and may be going to the opera the other, depending on whether or not my mom decides to take my daughter herself. I want the time to write, but it’s also important (and fun) to spend time with family and friends, and experience life. So I’m going to shoot for another five chapters revised, which will take me through Chapter Ten. Still ambitious, but more on the reasonable side.

If you’re participating in ROW80, good luck on your goals this week!

#ROW80: Week 1, Short and Sweet

by Jennette,

Sequencing was a challenge (as I knew it would be), and making time to work on this was too. But it’s done!

This week’s goals

1. Last minute sanity check – IOW, note important stuff I’m afraid I’ll forget

2. Dig into the real revisions: going through my notes and actually writing the changes on my manuscript pages. This is Lesson 16 and starting on Lesson 17 of Holly Lisle’s How to Revise Your Novel system. I say “starting on” because the actual cut is brutal, and this manuscript will definitely be more work than either of my last two, and I’m trying to get it done faster, too. Here’s hoping I’ve learned enough to do that.

Several people expressed interest n HTRYN. She’s not currently taking new students, but will be starting on Monday, I believe. I’ll add a direct link when it’s available.

Good luck to everyone participating!

For more info on ROW80, see the “A Round of Words in 80 Days” blog

#ROW80: Week 1 Wednesday Update

by Jennette,

I usually don’t get a lot of writing done on Mondays or Tuesdays, because Monday is paperwork night, and both nights are big TV nights for DH. Yet, I managed to knock out my first goal of the week: I finally noted the remaining places in my manuscript where plot holes need to be plugged – yay! There were quite a few, so that’s one revision step that took longer than the week I’d originally planned for it.

That leaves timing and sequencing for the rest of the week for me. If anyone else here has done Holly Lisle’s How to Revise Your Novel workshop, this is Lesson 14 and 15. This is my third book using this system, so I’ve managed to compress it a bit. Anyone else using HTRYN?

Good luck to my #ROW80 peeps!

#ROW80 Goals

by Jennette,

I am taking part in a new writing challenge – well, new to me at least. It’s called Round of Words in 80 Days, and the idea is to set a measurable goal not only for the challenge as a whole, but each week. We report our progress each Sunday and Wednesday, so I’ll be doing that here. If nothing else, it will keep me accountable on my revisions for Time’s Fugitive.

So here goes:

My goals for the 80 days are:

  1. Finish revisions on Time’s Fugitive by November 7, with the ultimate objective of a release by Christmas (although that depends on my beta readers and editors too). I have specific steps to achieve this, so it’s not just a big eat-the-elephant goal.
  2. While Time’s Fugitive is with the beta readers and editor, my goal is to either outline the second half of the book I started for NaNoWriMo 2009 and never finished, or to outline a new Saturn Society novella – I’ll figure out which when the time comes.

This week’s goals are:

  1. Mark where changes are needed in Time’s Fugitive to fix plot holes
  2. Review scene sequence and timing issues, note fixes where needed. This sounds simple, but it’s time travel – with multiple characters traveling in multiple times – so it’s not. Especially since I want it to make sense to readers. 🙂 After all, that’s all of us writers’ ultimate goal, right?