“Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet.”
— (excerpt from The Nemedian Chronicles, by Robert E. Howard)
Discipline and Accountability
The second round of ROW80 is finally here! I’ve been looking forward to getting this 80-day writing challenge started for over a month now, organizing and preparing my previous NaNoWriMo world-building project and documenting my preliminary preparation on this blog. Writing these blogs twice a week has helped me to stay focused on my writing goals and has taught me that publishing words to a deadline is a habit that all authors must acquire. By putting my intentions out into the world for all to see, I have forced myself to be both disciplined and accountable. These two attributes were missing in me prior to these writing-challenges. I needed more than just wishful thinking; I needed an actionable plan. Before, I would write only when inspiration struck, which lasted for a couple of days, but then I would hit a dry spell of weeks (even months) before inspiration struck me again. We’ve all been there, right? What I didn’t realize before was that inspiration would strike me more often if I would just commit to writing every day (no matter the quality). By showing up each day in front of my keyboard, it gets my Muse’s attention and she sees that I am serious about writing and joins in mid-session. Once I write a few paragraphs of tortured proses by myself, my Muse will jump in, we will get into a groove, and the writing will improve thereafter. Discipline and accountability; this is what I hope to carry forward into this round.
Goals for ROW80 (Round 2)
For the “Spring Round” of ROW80, I plan to write 60,000 words towards my story-world during the 80-day challenge. Besides world-building my “sword & sorcery” universe, I have three novella-size story-candidates that I will attempt to develop and refine during this period. I will be writing these stories simultaneously, alternating back-and-forth between them. Having several projects going at once gives my Muse plenty of material to work with, and, while working on one story, it allows enough time for her to figure out plot-hole solutions when we get stuck on the story-problems of another, thereby preventing writer’s block. I figure that a word-count of 60,000 is realistic and achievable. Better to under-promise and over-deliver, then to over-promise and under-deliver. I am concurrently participating in Camp NaNoWriMo during the the month of April, where I will be plotting and outlining the basic story-structure of of my three stories. Here is my Camper Profile if you want to follow my progress there. After April, I will further develop and refine these stories during the remainder of the 80-day challenge. Here's how I plan on rewarding myself during ROW80 (Round 2): For every 10,000 words I write, I will allow myself to buy one novel from my Kindle wish-list. With a 60,000 word count goal, that means that by the end of the round, I should have "earned" two trilogies.
Let's get excited and have some fun, People! After all, we get to write stories — OUR stories — for fun and profit! How cool is that?
Please visit the other writers in the ROW80 Community...(more here)...
My mind works well in multiple projects, too. I think your goals sound doable, and I know you're determined. I think you're going to enjoy those trilogies! =D
ReplyDeleteAs always, thank you for your encouragement. I'm really excited about getting this journey started. I wish you a great start as well.
DeleteYou are so right about sitting down in that chair and writing. If you treat this like a job where you're supposed to put in a certain amount of time, you'll be more disciplined. I like how you used the words "actionable plan". You're definitely on the right track!
ReplyDeleteSome of my best story-ideas have come to me on days where I didn't feel inspired but forced myself to write anyways. I never would have discovered those ideas had I not been sitting at my desk writing. I work best with an "actionable plan". I had to get beyond the wishful-thinking approach ("I want to write a book someday") and onto a more disciplined, structured approach ("what steps can I take today to finish my novel?").
DeleteSo, your Muse is a bit of a wall-flower who needs to be coaxed out the white floor to dance too. No bad thing... I've found that the ones who jump out as soon as the suggestion of dancing is brought up often don't see as much of what is happening around them. And there are so many stories in those little details...
ReplyDeleteGood for you, jumping into the ROW80 (and the Camp NaNo). It's a fun place to be.
My Muse is shy at first, but comes alive once we start playing. She likes to watch me dance by myself for awhile before she'll join me out on the dance floor. Once I synchronize to the rhythms of her groove, that's when the story-writing magic happens. It's like I'm attuned to her frequency. She shows me characters and places and plots; scenes that I might not have thought of myself and at a pace that is faster than I can type. I'm just there to document her story. If I stop to read or edit the sentences, the trance is broken and I have have to coax her back. If my Inner-Editor shows up, she stomps off (he doesn't play nicely with her). I usually have several different stories going at once (varying in tone and style), because my Muse is capricious and fickle. Fortunately, there's at least one story we can work on each night that fits within her mood spectrum. That's my Muse --- my beautiful Muse!
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