Today signals the beginning of the new round of A Round of Words in 80 Days. The last few weeks I have been writing words, but I have not been feeling them. I’m not excited about what I’m writing. In fact, this has extended to a few facets of my life, recently, but I’m trying taking steps to inspire myself again. The weather is warming up over here now, and I want to try to spend more time outdoors. Especially over the next month or so, because after that, it’ll be too hot.
I currently have three WIPs on the go. The first, Lessons Learned, is the one with the characters of Grace and Frederick, and set in a historic town in country Australia. You can read some excerpts from it here. In its current state, it sits at about 6000 words so far. Then there’s Operation Sugarplum, which is sitting at 5k. The third is Worlds Apart, which I’ve shared from a couple of times, but I’ve probably only written a couple of thousand words on it, as it’s mostly still in the planning stages. And it’s still mostly all handwritten at this point.
My aim for this round of ROW80 is to finish Operation Sugarplum and make significant progress on Lessons Learned. No, I don’t exactly have a definition for “significant” in this context yet. I’m going to work on Operation Sugarplum first, so I’ve got some time to figure it out.
I also decided I’m not going to participate in NaNoWriMo this year. Or maybe any year. I logged into the site earlier to look at the forums, and they have added a feature to the profile page called “Lifetime Achievement: Total NaNo Word Count”. Mine is 190,652. That’s nearly 200k words that I have not really done anything with since the months when they were written. I think perhaps Camp NaNo is my thing, if anything, with the option to select what you’re writing and how much. Writing 50k in a month makes too much work down the track. For me, anyway.
So with all that in mind, here are my goals for the round. As usual, I’ve added an exercise goal in as well.
- Write at least one page in notebook or 100 words on the laptop every week day. Consolidate this on the weekends.
- Write one book review a week and queue them up on the blog.
- Spend one evening and one weekend afternoon on uni work. I only have a couple of short exercises still to write, but I need to start the research for the 3000 word paper due November 6.
- Return comments on this blog and visit the blogs of those who visit me each week.
- Send three Postcrossing cards per week/maintain maximum total cards travelling.
- Ride bike to work or walk into the city after work at least three times a week.
I think that ought to keep me busy.
If you are unfamiliar with A Round of Words in 80 Days, you can read more about it here. Its tag line is “the writing challenge that knows you have a life” and it is immensely helpful! I’m going to head off because there are a few more things I need to get organised to get back to work tomorrow (we’ve had a long weekend). I’ll catch you all during the round!
A Keyboard and an Open Mind 
I’ve decided not to do NaNoWriMo either. I find that I can’t write a fast & dirty draft anymore. I *have* to periodically go back and fix things. Doesn’t work with NaNo. And weirdly it feels good to decide *not* to do it. Good goals and good luck!
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We’re heading into fall here in New Mexico, USA. It’s downright chilly today, with a high expected of 72 F (22 C) – I wish our government would get their heads out of their collective asses and switch the country to Metric and Celsius! We’ve had 90+ (32 C) degree days for about the past 5 months. I imagine our climate is a lot like Oz. Arid, hot most of the year. Correct me if I’m wrong. I want to visit Australia (and the UK, and a million other places) sometime in my life, but unless I become a super-selling author, I’m never going to be able to afford it.
I’ve done NaNo a dozen times, it seems, and ‘won’ two or three times. But I have also decided not to do it this year (and may never do it again). The pressure of trying to make word-count every day to finish on time is too great, and when you fall behind and eventually don’t finish, you’re just left with feeling bad about yourself and your ability. Nobody needs that negativity. For me, 500 words per day is a much more doable goal.
I only just tried Camp NaNo for the first time this past summer, and hit a road block because I didn’t have any concrete plan about what to write. This is my first time doing ROW80, and I like the longer time-frame and the fact that the goals are self-set and not all about hitting a certain prose word count.
Anyway, I’m here to give you encouragement and shake my pom-poms for you. Good luck with this round!
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It really depends where you are as to whether the heat is dry or humid. Sydney and places up the coast like that are a lot stickier, whereas further inland, it’s much drier. I live in Canberra, where we get up to 40+C in the summer and down to -10C sometimes in the winter, with very little middle-ground. It’s cold until it’s hot and it’s hot until it’s cold.
That’s exactly my problem with NaNoWriMo – it shouldn’t be a win or lose situation. Surely writing 10 or 15 thousand words is just as praise-worthy as 50k. And with 500 words a day, you’ll still have 50k in three months, and there’s definitely nothing wrong with that!
I’ve done the same thing with Camp NaNo, though I found it pretty beneficial when I did it in April and used it to plan one of my stories. But yes, the fact that you set your own goals in ROW80 is the biggest draw card.
Welcome to ROW80 and thanks for visiting!
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I love Nano, because it helps keep me accountable and producing, but since 2008, my wrists have not been able to take it. 😦 I am planning on participating with a modified goal of 30k.
I totally get why it may not work for some people, and that’s totally okay! Any writing done that did not exist before is a win! Totally!
I wish you luck on your goals this round!
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