Starting again... again

Yet another new round of RoW80, yet another chance to start again.  I'm good at starting again, but I'm not so good at finishing.

But never mind.  I can't change the past, but I can change the future.  That's what the future is for, time-travel stories be blowed.  However low I get, I'm not fated to fail any more than I'm fated to succeed.  There's no way of knowing what will happen tomorrow, never mind the next eighty days.  All I can do is keep on trying my best, and put each triumph and disaster behind me when facing the next challenge.

I have very specific goals for this round, three writing projects that need to be put through the snowflake method.  Two are being edited and one is being outlined in this way.  I have already made a start on the easy first steps, but there are eight steps remaining on each project.  That's three steps every ten days, either working through the projects together or one after the other.

So, here goes.  See you on the second...

Back in the saddle

After a successful 50/90, I am having another go at ROW80.  Very orthodox goals this time around, I plan to outline and draft a novel, with the edit being for next round.

The novel is called "Reset" (working title) and the outlining is scheduled for October after this plan: October NaNo Prep 2011 Calendar.  The first draft will be started in November.  It would be nice to get the first 50,000 words finished by the end of that month, leaving the rest of the round to complete the novel.  If I do the outlining properly, it should be easy to write - the story is a big one, if I can get into the flow of it.

I've missed being part of  the ROW80 crowd.  It will be nice to get back in the swing of daily writing.  To help with that, I've re-joined the 750words.com site.  I hope to make (and keep) the "Albatross" badge, earned for 30 consecutive days.  If I make the whole 80 days, I will be within 20 days of a "Dragon" badge!

Since I'm going to be away from home, and from an internet connection, for at least ten days in November, I'm trying out my phone as a way to enter the words on the 750words.com site.  It's a slow process, but I'm sure I'll get better with practice.  I'm not sure if I can transfer those words from phone to computer, but once I get home I can always go to the site archives and retrieve what I've written.

Wow, it's like a plan.  If you don't look too closely, I'm almost appear organised!

Yeah, right.

RoW80 - Round One Goals

It's nearly time to start!  But before the Monday morning starting-pistol is fired I need to set my goals.  So take a deep breath, a healthy dose of reality and just a pinch of optimism.  Count to ten, and decide that my goals for round one are threefold: writing, editing and outlining.

WRITING: Finishing the first draft of the novel I started during NaNo 2010: The Last Days of Lucanium.  This should take approximately 30,000 words, so I'm aiming for an average of three thousand words a week.

EDITING: Working on the novel I started during NaNo 2009: The History of Haplow House.  The first draft was finally completed in August, and since then I have avoided reading it over.  I want to come to the editing with a completely fresh view.  There are seventy scenes in the draft, making up thirteen chapters.  This averages out to one scene a day.

OUTLINING: The Listeners: a story which I have been mulling over for some time, but not yet properly outlined.  There will probably be 150 - 200 scenes in this story, so I'm aiming to outline two or three scenes a day.

Working at this pace, I would reach my goals in seventy days, leaving ten days allowance for emergencies, illness, delays, and general "life-getting-in-the-way-of-art-ness" that is bound to happen.  Such as, to take a random example, moving house on January 8th.  Things like that.  If I look like finishing early, I will start editing Lucanium.  Or maybe I'll just kick back and enjoy the feeling of achievement.

Click here to see more goals, set by other RoW80 participants.  I'm going to go finish packing...

Getting SMART

After the end of November, the NaNo forums turn towards plans for the future: outlining next year's novel, preparing for Script Frenzy, and editing first drafts down to something readable.  While browsing these boards I found this great idea.

"Round of Words in 80 days" is all about flexibility.  It's sub-titled "The Writing Challenge That Knows You Have A Life" and the one thing you're NOT supposed to do is put that life on hold and WRITE, WRITE, WRITE! for a week, a month or whatever.  Rather, the participants are asked to choose their own goals, that they personally feel can be accomplished in eighty days (roughly 11.5 weeks).

When setting goals, I have always been told that they should be SMART, that is:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Timed

(There are other versions of this acronym.)

I can easily decide on a goal that's specific, measurable and timed.  I can even sign up to groups where we all have the same specific, measurable and timed goal.  My big stumbling block has always been those two in the middle.  Achievable and Realistic.  Because, like many people, I am absurdly optimistic about my own abilities.  Despite frequent failures, I persist in setting unrealistic and unachievable goals for myself.  All very "never-say-die" and all that, but there is a point at which optimism becomes downright pig-headedness.

And so, this year, I am not going to participate in FAWM or 50/90.  Although I'll be checking in on Script Frenzy for the advice and encouragement, I won't be pushing myself to reach the standard goal of 100 pages.  And as for NaNoWriMo: again, I'm going to take the spirit of the occasion on board, but I'll be spending 80 days from early October to late December outlining and drafting a complete novel, rather than counting words and madly dashing through November.

Interested?  Why not join in?  The "Linky" thing is a bit confusing (at least, it was for me) but if you get stuck you can leave a comment on the blog.  This is the first round EVER so don't expect a flashy, polished performance.  But if RoW 80 becomes popular and famous, won't it be nice to be able to say, "I was there when it started"?

Now, my only reservation about having eighty days to play with is that somewhere in my head a sneaky little voice says, "Eighty days?  That's ages!  No need to hurry, plenty of time!"  So I have also signed up to 750.com, which encourages writing every day.  The words are counted, but kept private.  So you can choose to ramble on about bunny rabbits, or work on your doctorate thesis, and you are the only one who will know.  Of course, if you're doing a doctorate thesis about bunny rabbits, then you can do both!  Lucky you!

The purpose of 750.com is to get the creative juices flowing.  Seven hundred and fifty words is not actually that much, but once you've sat down and started writing it's so much easier to keep writing.  There's no such thing as "playing catch-up" or a "word-count goal", the idea is just to get into the habit of writing every day.

I'm putting some thought into what would make a SMART goal for my first round of RoW 80.  There's no pressure, I've got time to really think it over.  Isn't that nice?

Uppen Atom

Awake, optimistic and determined to make up lost ground.

To do today:

• Hang up washing
• Write as much as possible
• Update word counters
• REMEMBER MEDS!!!!
• Write letters

And most importantly:

• Be realistic.

Things that don't need doing today:

• Knitting
• Watching TV
• Internet games
• Pacing around the flat aimlessly
• Making lists.

Stats report later.  Let's see how I get on...

Warming up the engine

Less than 48 hours to go, prep done and typing fingers straining at the leash.  Just to make things even harder for myself more interesting I've signed up for NaBloPoMo, which requires a blog post every day.  There are no restrictions on length, subject matter or quality, but you must post something every day throughout November.  I have decided to track my NaNo experience.

There are several things I want to keep an eye on this November:

• how planning helps me this year, compared with no planning at all last year
• what affects my writing speed, style and satisfaction (time of day, what I've eaten, weather, before or after meds taken, etc.)
• if having a writing schedule helps me keep to other schedules, or if it interferes with them
• the effect of this challenge on my physical and mental health

...and last, but not least...

• can I suppress my inner editor?

Some days may see very short blog posts, but I will post something even if it's just "AAARGH!!" or "Bad day.  Goodnight".  Or, if it's a good writing day, "Can't talk.  Writing!"

NaNoWriMo 2010 Sighted on the Horizon!

Yes, it's the big one.  The main event, the one that started it all.  The writing challenge to which all other writing challenges are compared, it's time for...

National Novel Writing Month

As this event is open to writers from all over the world, who pledge to write 50,000 words of original prose during November, both "National" and "Novel" are slightly misleading.  However, I suppose "International-Fifty-Thousand Word-Writing-Month" doesn't trip nearly so neatly off the tongue.  Or condense to such a cool name (IntFiThouWoWriMo?  Nah, I didn't think so.)

But NaNoWriMo is a November event, surely?  Why am I getting all excited about it in October?  Is my calendar running fast, or am I merely wishing my life away?  There are full four weeks to go before the novelling officially begins, aren't there?  Yes, there are, you are quite write, er, right.  But October isn't just "recovering from 50/90 month", it is also "NaNo Prep month".  The forums are getting busy over at the official NaNo site, and a bunch of us over at WDC are clubbing together to get our plots and characters knocked into shape before the 1st.  See our task list here: NaNo Prep Calendar.

This year I have learned that story ideas are like cats, in that they don't come when you want them and then turn up demanding attention just when you've settled down to do something else.  I had an idea brewing away quietly in the back of my mind, but not really coming together.  It had been there for several months and I decided it would make a good NaNo project.  Then, out of the blue, I get an idea for something completely different.  This story flows without too much prompting, and so I think I will shelve the original idea and work on this new one.  The old idea had been growing so slowly that I'd almost given up on it anyway.  Lo and behold, no sooner have I consigned the old idea to a back burner than it begins to sprout into a fully-fledged plot, with sub-plots and character depth and everything.  So now I'm looking at working on two novels this November, rather than just one.  And trying to get them both to the "first draft completed" stage by the end of the year.  This is because I have set January and February aside for editing last year's NaNovel.  Yes, the one that I've only just finished.  Because it took me ten months to write that first draft, so of course I'll be able to finish two more manuscripts in the next ten weeks, right?

Excuse me, I need to have a quiet talk with my optimism.   *THWACK!*  *OW!*

*Eh-hem*.  After mature discussion we have decided that October will be spent choosing one plot.  And November and December will be for the writing of same.  The first 50,000 words to be written in November, and the remainder in December.  Unless, of course, I have a really good run, then I could... OW!  Okay, okay.  (Watch this space, guys.  Optimism springs eternal...)