Wednesday, September 21, 2011

ROW80: Round 3 Wrap-Up

This is it. The final check-in for Round 3. It's been a wonderful ride.  This post makes 14 check-ins for me.  Most of them we weekly, but I did a few two'fers in there.  Still, I stuck with it for 80 days, at the very least checking in every week.  Let's do the goals one last time:
  • Publishing Lesson Learned - Business cards.  Totally worth it.  Put your book cover and website on them.  You know how you always get those questions from acquaintances?  "So, what have you been up to?"  Bam!  Business cards. 
  • WIP Pages - 8/6 this week.  Beat this goal.  Had a good three-page day on Monday that made up for a busy end to last week.
  • Blogging - This makes 3/3 here, and I hit 4/3 on my other blog.  I've not gotten my monthly personal post up yet, but I still have time.  
These goals were nailed.  I wanted to finish strong on the writing front, and I think I achieved that.  ROW80 was a great challenge, with a wonderful community of writers.  I've only scratched the surface, really only getting to know a few this round, but those few have been great.

You better believe I'll be back for next round.  I'll be lurking in all my usual haunts, and hopefully will spread out to some new places as well.

ROW80 is not about short bursts of creativity, but rather long, slow burns.  It reminds us that writers also have lives, and that setting achievable goals is important in any project.  More than anything else, though, it encourages us to keep plugging away, to keep putting butt to chair and fingers to keys, and create something.  How effective was it for me?  Well, I'll let the final word count do the talking:
  • Since last check-in: 7,316
  • Fiction: 3,188
  • 44% New Fiction 
  • Grand Total for the challenge: 69,375
Thank you to all the ROW'ers that stopped by in the last 80 days!  I look forward to round 4.

8 comments:

Matt said...

Ha. Apparently I jumped the gun and we have another day, but I'll use tonight to celebrate finishing the round (and, thus, not affect my word counts :-D).

Elizabeth Mitchell said...

Good golly, Miss Molly! Will you look at that word count!! I will so try to resist not feeling bad about my word counts, I will, I will, LOL!

Fantastic work toward goals, Matt, especially given the whole "yes, I have another life," thing.

Great hints--business cards, d'oh! and I especially agree with the long slow burns. Looking forward to doing Round 4 with you!

Matt said...

Thanks :-). In all fairness, this challenge really just fits how I work. I've never been a particularly "bursty" writer. Slow and steady is just sort of how it flows for me. So, I guess what I'm saying is that it comes naturally, which is nice, though there are always "work days." And, as the word count proves, it all adds up.

I'm looking forward to Round 4 as well! :-)

Anonymous said...

awesome work count Matt. Great Job! and I love the business cards idea, makes it all seem so much more official :) See you next round

Anonymous said...

Great job in Round 3, Matt!

I think that's good advice about business cards. I've waffled back and forth on that idea, since I use a pen name and probably wouldn't give them to a lot of people I know in real life. LOL

See you in Round 4!

Matt said...

Thanks.

Here's something... on our first round of business cards, I didn't really want my name. One of my "principles" (I guess you could say) is that I want early focus to be on my books, not me. I'm not famous, nor do I believe there is anything inherently exciting about me. My books, however, I hope are special. Thus, I don't even have my name on our first round of cards. I have a zoomed in section of the book cover, the title, and my website. That's it.

As I get more books, it'll probably be smart to include my name, but really that can be a minor point. I don't think of them so much as business cards in the sense that dudes with suitcases glued to their hands use them, but as little, mini, portable, pocket-sized ads.

Lena Corazon said...

Matt, this is fantastic news! That word count is absolutely fantastic - way to go!

I'm definitely going to get some business cards printed up. I had debated it earlier during Round 3, but until I got my pen name all squared away, I didn't want to print anything up. Before I go to my first writing conference, I'll be sure to have a set in hand.

Looking forward to seeing you in Round 4!

Matt said...

Thanks Lena. See you in round 4!

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