Thursday, June 23, 2011

End of ROW80 Round 2

It's the end of ROW80 Round 2 ya'll! For those just joining me and are wondering what the hell ROW80 is, I gotta tell ya, it's the best writing challenge, tailored to suit your own goals, not someone else's. This challenge has not only kept me in check, but has seriously helped me stay focused on my writing.

With Round 3 on the horizon (July 4th!) I hesitated about participating again. But then I looked at my goals and how much I accomplished and I'd be foolish not to join up for another round. And as a sponsor, I also had the opportunity to support my other fellow ROWers. Plus, I met some fabulous friends through ROW80 and being able to work alongside other writers, that are going through the same trials and roadblocks, made me feel not so alone in the process.

So let's take a look at the goals I had set up for myself for Round 2 and see how I fared:

1. Write everyday - I don't have many distractions other than work obligations, so I have to condition myself to put in writing time in the morning and at night. I get easily distracted by the t.v.... Despite certain days when I didn't get the opportunity to write, I pretty much kept up with this goal. I didn't set any particular word counts and I think it helped...I could just write without worrying about numbers.

2. On weekends, spend at least 3 hours writing a day - my weekends, other than Saturday mornings, are are almost always free. Some Sunday's I'd find myself thinking, where the hell did my day go? It turns out that writing five hours straight will do that to you.


3. Promotion - I will have my first novella published, The Fury, in April. The Fury was met with warm reception and I was able to raise a bit of money for Pandora's Project. I've networked and socialized on Goodreads and gained some new readers :)

4. Finish WIP - I need to finish writing, researching and editing the final draft of Heir. Now, I haven't finished Parallel (new title), but I'm going to be positive and say I got pretty damn close to  achieving this goal. With just a couple more chapters to go, I'll finally be able to send it out to beta's by the first week in July.

So if you're a writer and are looking for a great way to stay focused, you should definitely join up for Round 3.

18 comments:

  1. Congrats! Forgetting word count while writing has helped me too. Good luck in round 3. :)

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  2. Awesome progress! Conngrats on your accomplishments. See you in round 3.

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  3. Fabulous accomplishments! I really need to be more self-disciplined!

    Stacey

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  4. Oh wow. Just looked at my blog from my new widescreen work computer. I had NO IDEA there was a beach! I thought it was just a purple background!

    Thanks Ghenet and Melissa - hope to see you next round.

    Stacey - you should sign up for Round 3 :)

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  5. Way to make those goals, Claudia! Great work! I'll see you in round three.

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  6. Nice goals. Please finish Heir. hahaha

    I was just going to do nanowrimo's bootcamp, but since Round 3 starts right after that, I may do that too, because misery loves company. :)

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  7. Fantastic, Claudia. You've transformed into such a disciplined writer.

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  8. Kate - you'll be one of the first to know! I may not be doing boot camp, but I'll be editing during the break :)

    Andrew - Ha! Disciplined nothing...I just tend to work overdrive when I can see the finish line. I'll go back to my lazy ways when I start Book 2.

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  9. I agree, it is probably the best writing challenge I've ever taken part in. Definitely made a difference for me, even when it didn't go how I planned.

    You did amazingly well! It sounds like you really focused this round, well done. I really admire your writing routine. :)

    There's a beach? :O

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  10. I admire and appreciate what you've accomplished this round. Hope to see you in Round 3!

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  11. Claire - Yea, when I looked at my blog on my oversized work computer monitor, there was a beach at the bottom of the page! I took it out :)

    Craig - thanks! And I'll see you Round 3.

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  12. Congratulations on accomplishing your goals, and for always managing to stop in and cheer the rest of us on. See you next time!

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  13. Such great progress! Congrats! See you around for round 3.

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  14. well done on all acheived - glad you're coming back next round - I agree this challenge has helped instil discipline into the writing process - keep smiling

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  15. This is great! So glad you're feeling good about your progress. I wasn't sure I'd do ROW80 again, but you know... why wouldn't I? It's the one writing exercise that forgives haha.

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  16. Belinda - I agree! ROW80 is so forgiving. How could you not participate!

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  17. Great job on the goals. Good luck with round 3!

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  18. That's fantastic that you've been writing each day - way to go :) It sounds like everything else really will fall into place. Keep up the great work!

    Marie

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