Wednesday, October 12, 2011

#ROW80 - Sniffling In

Fist check-in for Round 4. Start off strong, they say. I feel more like I'm limping in. It's funny how sometimes meeting your goals feels easy, and other weeks you had to fight tooth and nail. This past week was the latter. I battled illness and extra surprise bits of work to come out, I think, in good shape. Here's a look at the goals:
  • Lesson Learned - Auto-save is a writer's best friend.  I had two different computers spontaneously restart on me in the past week... in the middle of two separate writing projects.  I generally do a good job of saving as I go, but sometimes the words fly faster than the mouse to the disk icon.  Fortunately, there is auto-save.  Don't leave home without it.  Even so, the lesson here is to be diligent in saving.  There is nothing more frustrating than trying to re-bottle lightning.
  • WIP Pages - 6/6.  Just barely.  I slept a ton this weekend and got no writing done, trying to shake my cruds.  Fortunately, I had a two page day earlier in the week, and then I pushed through on Monday and Tuesday.  I expect to be done with the MS before Halloween.  Then we'll switch to editing goals.
  • Blogging - This posts makes 3/3 here, and I hit 3/3 on my other blog.  I had to buckle down early this week here as well, squeezing out what were probably short, quicker posts than I usually write.  Still, the purpose of this goal is to force myself to practice.  And it's great practice to try to communicate an idea small time budget.  Makes you use your words efficiently.  Or just suck.  You decide :-).
But I hit the goals!  This past week was a battle.  Next week will likely be a snooze.  Isn't that how it goes?  You buckle down, work your tail off, and then you come up for air a week later and realize you're ahead.  It's almost magical.  I always have a miniature moment of "WTF did I forget to to do."  Because if you experience the legend known only as Free Time, you know how hard it is to trust and believe in.  A fickle friend, says I.

I have some great ideas for my fiction thread on here.  Which reminds me, I need to go make notes so I remember the ideas.  Discovery writing is fun like that.  Ideas fall like ripe apples... when they're damn good and ready and not a moment before.  Surprise!  Newton: "Oh, so that's gravity... I should include that in my story."  

I'm pretty much out of characters that I can do a closeup on for my first novel without ruining things.  I purposefully kept the cast pretty small too, as it was my debut effort.  I didn't want to get too large in scope and fall flat on my face.  I'm debating about beginning to do closeups for my upcoming novel.  I think I may start when the MS is done.  Should give you a sneak peek as to what is coming, and may generate some excitement.  On the other hand, I'm hesitant to go public with anything before it's been properly edited.  You never know what you might change.  So we'll see.  It depends on how confident I'm feeling.

As always, I'll wrap this with a look at the word counts:
  • Project Fiction: 2,283
  • Since last check in (two days ago): 5,511
  • Grand Total for Round 4: 9,146

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the nice thing about having goals is that, when we have weeks where we're limping, we still realize that there is something we want to accomplish. Otherwise, when these set-backs happen, it's too easy to get completely derailed. Many time in my life I've said "Gee, I thought I would have _____ by now..."

I hope you're feeling better now!

Matt said...

For sure. It can also help you get through things too, to have a focus.

Em said...

I know what you mean about limping in! I am aiming for half an hour of prep for NaNo a day and even sometimes that isn't do-able!

Hope the next week is easier on you!

Nadja Notariani said...

Ha! Your azure draperies come across well...in a short post as well as a long one! Ha! I am still laughing out loud.

Sorry to hear you're not feeling well. Hope you're officially on the mend. I've enjoyed the character profiles that I've been able to read. It's a great idea, so I think you definitely should continue it for the next book.

Stacy Green said...

Matt
Good job on meeting your goals despite your illness. Hope you're feeling better. I've limped plenty of times, but you've got to keep plugging away.

Wow on your computer problems. That's just bad luck all around.

Lena Corazon said...

I'm also giggling over your "azure draperies" comment over on Nadja's blog! And thanks for swinging by my spot and leaving me feedback about migraines. What I think is crazy is the fact that Excedrin's migraine pills include caffiene, which seems rather counterintuitive. I'm going to give Aleve a try, and check in with my doctor about prescription meds, if things get too bad.

I'm happy to see that you're moving along with your goals, even if it was a bit of a battle to get them done. Feel better soon, and hopefully next week is a little easier!

Matt said...

@Em - Thanks. Best wishes on your NaNo project.

@Nadja - Yeah, I'm not above donning an air of mystery. I mean, Matthias is sexy... totally intended. *cough cough*

@Stacy - Those mean computers... kickin a man while he's down. It's okay, revenge will be mine when the upgrade day cometh! :-)

@Lena - Yeah. I have no idea why those pills would have that. Crazy... and perhaps full of hidden meaning. Like curtains. Paranoia! Shoo! XD

Anonymous said...

Great job, Matt! It's normal to have good weeks and bad weeks. It's the story of my life...in writing, exercise, whatever it may be. But it sounds like you're moving right along!

Matt said...

Thanks. Such is the roller-coaster of life.

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