The “Autumn Round” of ROW80 is finally here! I’ve had this date marked on my calendar for over a month now, waiting for this day to come so I could re-start a new round of words. The “Summer Round” didn’t go as smoothly as I’d expected it would, as I “crashed-and-burned” halfway through the round. Not sure exactly what caused it, but one skipped post led to another, and before I knew it I was finding it more and more difficult to jump back into the rhythm of writing and posting. I had been faithfully posting to this blog twice a week, every week, since February, but in mid-August I faltered. For whatever reason, I stumbled and fell, and for the remainder of the round, I just laid there on the warm ground, exhausted and dispirited. But part of falling down is getting back up. This blog post is my attempt of getting myself up and into the flow of writing consistently again. With the beginning of this fourth round, I can start anew.
My “Autumn Round” Goals
Here is a quick overview of my ROW80 (Round 4) Goals. During this round, I plan on writing 80,000 words towards my “Sword & Sorcery” novel. A thousand words a day may sound ambitious, especially after my “Summer Round” debacle, but I think I can do it this round due to my previous success with completing NaNoWriMo last year, which I’m also participating in this year (My NaNo Page). If I can do the 50,000 words in the month of November, then what’s another 30,000 words during the 80-day round? A thousand words-per-day average seems doable under these conditions, so I’m going with 80,000 words in 80-days. For the month of October, I will be working on my story-outline in preparation for November. I have a single story-idea that I’ve been working on and want to see this story to completion. Last year’s NaNoWriMo was an exercise in world-building, where I came up with a lot of story-ideas for my “Sword & Sorcery” universe as I just let my imagination run wild. But this year I intend to actually focus on one story, which is the original purpose of this particular writing challenge. After the madness of NaNo, I should have a 50,000 word first-draft (mess). I plan on writing and editing my novel after November up until the last day of Round 4, which this year falls of the Eve of Christmas Eve. I will, of course, be documenting my progress here on this blog twice a week, which is also part of my goal of discipline and accountability. My blog posts may be shorter due to the workload, and may not include the usual excerpts of past posts, but they will be focused on my actual writing progress and they will come regularly twice a week. I’ll go into more detail in my Wednesday blog-post, so I’ll continue this conversation there…
That’s all for now. Keep the Fire Burning!
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Good luck with Round Four! This is my first time for ROW80. I've participated in NaNo before, and won a few times. My genre is speculative fiction, too, particularly supernatural thriller (more like supernatural noir).
ReplyDelete80,000 words is enough for a full novel. You're gonna rock it, right? RIGHT?! You betcha. :)
Damn right, I'm gonna rock it! 80,000 words is chump-change during NaNo season. :-)
DeleteI figure 50,000 words in the month of November, and the other 30,000 words I can pound-out during the other remaining 50 days of this 80 day round. 80 days takes us up to the week of Christmas.
Welcome to your first round of ROW80. This is my third round of ROW80 and my second NaNoWriMo. Reach out if you have questions or need encouragement. We're a friendly, supportive community here.
Personally, I'm amazed that anyone ever gets anything done in August. It's the doldrums of the year, as far as I'm concerned. Autumn is much better. :)
ReplyDeleteAmbitious goal, but totally doable! Good Writing!
Yeah, you make a good point about the August doldrums. I was struggling to get any writing done during the Summer. My creative-wells were depleted. I'd been writing non-stop since February and probably needed a break. Maybe my Muse was trying to tell me that she wanted the Summer off so that she could work on her tan. :-)
DeleteWelcome back! I think 80000 word is definitely doable if you set your mind to it. And you're right, our goals are pretty similar though I'm not sure if I'll manage 80000. This is my second ROW80 and I kind of flaked in the last 2 weeks of Round 3... It's also my second Nanowrimo although I never finished last year. I wrote 20000 and then realised that my story just took too many wrong turns and couldn't make myself finish it. This time I'm using October to plan and do all my world building so when November rolls in it'll be easier to write.
ReplyDeleteGood luck! You've got this! And I'd love to read some of your work.
Thanks for the encouragement, Abdeah. I'm very optimistic about this round, especially since I'll be spending the entire month of October preparing my story outline for NaNoWriMo. It's a lot of work up-front, but it'll be worth it once November starts. It's so much easier to write a story when you have all of the major plot-points, milestones, and characters worked out in advance. Even if you don't know all the details, at least you can write your story in the direction of the next story milestone. One scene leading into another; that's the goal. Good luck on your NaNoPrep as well. Hopefully, by the end of this round, we'll both have fantasy stories that we are proud of, worthy of being read and shared. I'll be following your progress and rooting for your success.
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