Running on schedule: ROW80 check-in
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On Writing…my writing
I made myself some more specific goals this round of ROW80 because I’ve learned that I’m the type of girl who needs specific deadlines. I told myself that I would write Monday through Thursday from 8pm-9pm and guess what, I’ve done it this week! There just so happens to be a great group of ROW80 sprinters on the #row80 hashtag on Twitter and it helps tremendously. My weekly word count goal is 5,000 and writing for one hour four times a week put me at 5,700 words this week. Hopefully if I keep up this rate, I will finish my WIP by the end of this round.
On Blogging
I really hope I can keep the 8pm-9pm writing time because it works so well for me. I could write more than this, but Fridays are usually a non-writing day and Saturday and Sunday are blog-writing days. I did a quick word count of my blog posts and I wrote 1800 words for my blog posts which I’ve completed and scheduled for Monday and Wednesday this week. I didn’t realize how many words go into these blogs. I’ve also written another blog draft for the following Wedesnday.
I’m still humming and hawing about what I could blog about weekly in a decent amount of time. I will come to a decision soon hopefully. Maybe I will do a test post to see how long it takes.
Genre blog series progress
I’ve had some luck this week and the blogging community is full of such nice writers because I have six guest posters lined up for February and into March for my upcoming blog series on genres. There’s still time to contact me if you’re interested in guest posting for this series! I will be announcing the lineup on January 25th.
ROW80 Sponsor duties
I’ve been hopping around the check ins and commenting where possible. I’ve mentioned on Twitter to those who follow the #row80 hashtag that people using Blogger should allow us to commenting using Name/URL otherwise it doesn’t like us WordPress users and I really did want to comment on the Blogger’s posts too.
Reading
I’m working my way through a great fiction novel “A Summer in Europe” by Marilyn Brant. Now I just have to start reading a writing craft book in parallel.
How’s everyone else doing? Wanna guest post for the genre blog series? Just send me an email.
Have a great week!
Congrats on the scheduled writing times! It’s great that it is paying off for you. I guess I’m just a pantser in every sense as I just need to let flow what flows when it flows, scheduling specific times for things just doesn’t work for me lol I know what you mean about the word counts for blog posts – most of mine top 1000- 1500 words easily! Have a great week 🙂
I do envy the pantsers in how they can just write and don’t have to labour over the plotting etc. We are both long blog writers. 🙂
Glad the scheduled writing times are working for you? I wish they worked for me, but usually when I sit down to write, my brain doesn’t want to co-operate (and then of course, while I’m at work or in the shower or something and can’t write, it’s all like “oooh, look at all these awesome new shiny ideas that YOU CAN’T WRITE ABOUT COZ YOU’RE BUSY!”). Then again, maybe I’m not trying hard enough haha Word sprints sound fun, I might try to get in on a few. Good luck for more writing progress this week 🙂
I totally know what its like to get a brain full of ideas when you can’t write. For example, while answering my morning emails at work for some reason, that seems to be my “creative time” because I usually come up with 2-3 ideas. Not story ideas necessarily but little tidbits.
Wonderful progress, Nicole! I’ve been offline lately, trying to get this second WIP underway. It’s not writing as smoothly as the first did, so I’ve had to reassess my goals. I expect myself to write at least 200 words per day for this week, and then adding 50 words to the daily goal each week. I’m also revising ms #1 over the next four months or so, taking notes for a memoir idea, and writing children’s poetry for fun. Oh, and blogging 1-2 times a week.
Good luck with the WIP. Can’t wait to read your book. 🙂
You sounds very busy Jolyse. I think going offline is one of the only ways to really hit the grindstone and get things done. It must be very hard work to write a new WIP and edit #1 at the same time.
Good job! That has been my writing time lately (after my kids’ bedtime) so maybe I’ll check out the hashtag. Those things (hashtags) still ellude me, but I will persevere.
Hope you have a wonderful week.
Depends on your timezone. Its 8pm in Brussels so I think its morning time in the US.
What craft book are you going to read? I loved the First Five Pages and have been meaning to read Bird by Bird and The Forrest For the Trees for a long time now.
I have about 4-5 on my shelf waiting to be read. Hard to choose which one.
Excellent job this week! I’m glad you found something that works for you. I would love to do a set time, but it would have to be during the day, as I’m shot by that time of night, lol. Keep up the good work, and good luck for this week!
Yeah the evenings are rough. Especially Monday evenings, I feel like I need a nap before I can write.
Great job Nicole! You are amazing at the word sprints. Sounds like you got the Row80 Challenge really working for you. Your genre blog series sounds very interesting.
Yeah, It only took me two rounds of ROW80 to figure out what works for me. 🙂
The #row80 sprints have looked amazing and your word count shows writing even as a virtual group works! I hope I can join in more as this week it clashed with other activities!
Glad things are going well your end and have a great week!
the sprints are amazing, its just a matter of really committing to them on my part.
Whoo-hoo! Congrats on meeting those goals. I hope you can continue with that same time slot. Good luck!
THanks so much Ryan. I just might need to encouragement/reminder to keep that time slot locked and loaded.
Woohoo, Nicole, you rocked it big time on the writing end! Fantastic. On the blog posts, I’d run a few testers (and have in the past) and see if it works for you and your readers.
BTW, I have to agree on the Blogger thing. There are times that I want to leave a comment on a Blogger site and it simply will not accept my Open ID or give me any method to prove I’m not a bot. This is always unfortunate. The multiple layers of time consuming security keep many from attempting to comment (the other issue).
Have a great week, Nicole. Keep Rockin’ the ROW 🙂
Well I’m not making 7,000 words a week like you yet, but maybe I will work my way up to that number. 🙂
It really is discouraging because Blogger also makes you type in all your information, write the comment and then to the captcha. Very time consuming, thus when I visit a Blogger site I automatically tend to skim the post and then close the window.
I really love the writing sprints as well, and like you, have decided to use them to fulfill my weekly writing goals. I’m also scheduling the rest of my day around them, which helps, especially since I have so much free time!
You are doing a wonderful job, and I am going to cross my fingers that with all our sprinting, we’ll both finish our WIPs at the end of the round. Have a great week!
The specific schedule sure helped me because when I didn’t have that block of time, I would keep thinking “oh I get around to it a bit later”….
WIPs to the end. We can do it!
Wow! Nicole you did an awesome job this week! Good for you for sticking with a schedule. i’ve just been trying to work one out for myself. I think it makes a big difference in how much we write.
Oh, Blogger…I hate that it makes it so difficult for readers to comment. My daughter has a Blogger blog and I told about the problems it has and got her set up on WordPress. But she won’t use WP because Blogger “has such pretty background designs”. Silly girl.
Have a great upcoming week!
You’re right. I think if you make a particular schedule or daily goal, it seems like a more professional approach and if we all want to be paid writers then professionalism is a must. 🙂
I haven’t really checked out the Blogger backgrounds. WordPress is pretty flexible, but everyone to their own.
I detest Blogger, Nicole. I really do cringe over it. There’s issues with leaving comments all the time and it bugs.
I am so impressed with you!!! That is fabulous writing toward your WIP. I’ve got to finish my pregnancy memoir so I can get back to my fiction. I miss my characters.
p.s. I’ll absolutely write a post for you – I already have one in mind because it was the thing that gave me the most trouble. We’re gonna have fun together. 🙂
Hi Jenny,
We seem to be on the same page on many things. We will write our heiney’s off this round.
I’ll send you an email about the guest post. 🙂
Girl, you are knocking it out of the park! Love it! What time zone are your writing sprints. I’d love to join in if possible. I also love the idea of setting an hour aside 4 nights a week and then blogging on Sat/Sun – that’s AWESOME! I am definitely going to look at implementing something similar and also doing some writing sprints in the evenings with some fello ROW80ers!!
Woot woot – here’s to another amazing week ahead!
Yeah this writing schedule is soooo working for me. Hopefully I can keep it up. I write at 8pm Brussels time, but there are others writing at the same time in the US, but I think its about lunchtime there (12pm).
I like the idea of row80 and I checked the website it seems really good. A good way for me to get my writing done is through the site 750words.com
I love that site since it gives you badges when you continue writing day to day. It will penalise you for getting distracted and they have monthly writing challenges were you have to write every day for a month.
If you love writing and have sometimes difficulties in keeping schedule that site was really a life saver for me.
Please don’t get me wrong i’m not an affiliate or anything, you can use the site completely free. I am just a fan and I got interested in your row80 quest.
Have a wonderful day ; )