ROW 80 Updated for 10/23/11

I actually accomplished a goal that I didn't put on my list.  I took the girls outside - it was a beautiful day of sixty odd degrees and sunny - and had them help me dump some pots that were on the front deck.  I had one little girl go gun-ho and tried to rake a little, although the wind helped a great deal with that last week.  I even moved my raised bed box to the back of the house.  I feel so accomplished today.

Now for the ROW 80 Update.  Below are a list of accomplishments:




Reading:  Finished Sookie Stackhouse book #6; Finished Heart of Darkness anthology;
WIP:  Made some necessary cuts during editing and added 1,828 words;

On a side note, the book is really coming along now.  I have my villain's plot planned out.  I was making it way too complicated at first, hence the need to edit and hack out unnecessary parts to make the motive more simple.  Now I am developing minor characters and their roles in the villain's plan.  There is another villain - a minor one - that will be necessary for a change of location for another set of characters, but right now, I'm working with the villain who first challenges the heroine.  This first villain is less complicated as he tends to work in political and religious circles.  The minor villain will be a bigger challenge for me as he will be more barbaric.  It's a big strange even to me how I just classified them and their difficulty rating.  I would have suspected the one manipulating things behind the scenes would be harder to write, but he isn't.  It's the one where I need to create battle scenes for that will be more difficult.  

Happy Reading!

ROW 80 - Update on 10/17/11 for 10/16/11

Ok, here I am again, late for my update.  I hope this doesn't become a constant.  Wait until you hear the worse news:  I didn't make my goals for this past week.  Instead of 1000 words, I only got in 564 words and not even a half hour of editing.  Looks like its time to re-evaluate my goals.

Using my Daily Planner Pad, I have filled out my weekly goals, then tried to put them into the days I intend to fulfill those goals, so it looks a bit like this:

Girls
Bath
School
Reading
Wed (Bring "P" item)
Tues Pink/Purple Day
Donut money

WIP
1000 words
1 hour edit
1 hour edit
1 hour edit

Household
Dinner/Dishes
Kitchen
Bathrooms
Laundry
Garbage
Vaccuming/Dusting
Girls Room (org.)
Shopping

Exercise
30 minutes (3x)

Reading
Sookie #5

Then for each day:

Monday
Update ROW 80
WIP
Dishes/dinner
Laundry (towels)

Tuesday
Girls Pink/Purple Day
WIP
Girls Room (org.)
Read w/Girls
Donut Monday due
Laundry (whites)

Wednesday
Girl's "P" Item Day
King's Kids

Thursday
Read w/girls

Friday
Girls Room (org.)
30 minutes exercise
Read w/girls
WIP

Saturday
30 minutes exercise
Gull Meadow Farms
Read w/girls

Sunday
30 minutes exercise
Shopping
WIP

There's a lot to squeeze into your schedule when you already are working for 8-10 hours each day from Monday through Friday.  Some nights I come home and barely have any time to read with the girls and get to know how their day was before its time to get them into bed.  Often I am going to bed at midnight and waking up at 5:30am through the week as well.

I get gun-ho about my intentions with this project, but I am glad that I have the flexibility depending on how much I can put in or want to put in.  I have a Meijer recycle bag full of books to be read, hence the addition of reading the Sookie Stackhouse series in my weekly goals.  I get little else done when I get too involved in a book and this is an amazing series.

And, I have to admit, I was invited to a friend's house where there was a small group of people gathering for a Hunter's Party, which I wasn't figuring into my plans and goals.  Essentially, this is when Native American's get together to cook up stores packed away from last year (from the freezer) and have friends and family consume it so there is room in the freezer again for this year's kill.  This reminded me of all my stuff left in the freezer being forgotten and passed over again and again, so I did a lot more cooking this weekend that I originally intended.

Now, excuse me while I try to add more scenes and words to my WIP.  Thanks for stopping by and....

Happy Reading!

ROW80 - Wednesday 10/12/11 Update

I found out that when given an hour of uninterrupted time to myself, I can easily get 1000 words into my novel.  While motherhood makes that nearly impossible, I am going to attempt some writing tonight - just not what I was hoping for.

While my goals aren't getting as far with the WIP, I have been getting other personal goals met.  I have been exercising more, keeping up on the household chores (instead of being buried in them) and having time with my twin daughters who are now in preschool and need the extra attention.  It's not easy for kids to have to wait so long for their turn to be the "special kid" for the day.  There are fifteen children in their class total, so they have to wait fourteen turns before they have a special day.  The Day Planner is really paying off.  Even my kids get excited when I pull it out and start telling them the list for the day.  Sometimes they even help out.

So, there is my Wednesday update.  Happy Reading!

ROW 80 Update - 10/9/11

It's that time of year again.  Fall.  And with the fall, or other seasonal changes that can't remain consistent from day to day, I have my semi-annual headache.  You know the one.  Sinuses feel like they are ready to explode from the pressure; you are vampirically allergic to the light, especially sunlight; and standing up makes you motion sick.  The headache could last a day or a week.  It's throwing all my goals out the door so I can focus on not vomiting every time I move. 

I have put in a single hour of edits a couple of days ago; however, it took me three hours to get to that point.  My laptop is an old refurbished Compaq Evo N620c and it has a tendency to go through bouts of overheating.  I have to constantly unfreeze things by removing the overheated battery and let it cool enough to get things working again.  And, thanks to my cats bad chewing habits, the cord to the cooling pad was chewed through and I'm having a heck of a time replacing it.  If I'm lucky, Black Friday sales will have a reasonably priced laptop I can buy to replace this old one.

I'm going to try to get more edits in today, but it all depends on the headache and laptop.  Wish me luck!

Happy Reading!

ROW 80 Update for 10/05/11

Ok, update for my goals for ROW80.  I've completed my first goal.  Yay!  I just gave myself way too much time to complete it.  Makes me feel wonderful.  All my typed text in Microsoft Word has been transferred over to yWriter5.  Now I need to decide on a project to devote my attention to for the next goal.

Since I am ten chapters and 35,000 + words into Before Atlantis, I am going to work on that one first.  As I have been reading through sections to title them, I realized my deep connection to the story and characters and really want to begin the edits and fill in more of the gaps left in the story.  So, instead of adding so many words for each project, I'm going to try to add 1000 new words to this project each week and spend at least 3 hours a week on edits.

This is really getting me excited.  I'm even able to keep up on basic housework, my children's schedule, and ROW 80.  Now to see if I can get my 30 minutes of exercise in tomorrow.  Maybe since I'm getting a load of laundry done tonight, I can get a little ahead since I didn't schedule laundry until tomorrow. 

If I get time this weekend, I'm hoping to post some book reviews I have drafted and saved.

Almost done reading How to Date a Werewolf by Rose Pressey.

Happy Reading!