My "Spring Round" Goals

The second round of ROW80 is finally here!  I’ve been looking forward to getting this 80-day writing challenge started again.  ROW80 is the only writing challenge that I’ve tried that has kept me consistently writing.  Writing to this blog twice a week helps me clarify my writing goals, which forces me to prioritize my time so that I can implement all the actionable steps necessary to accomplish that goal.  It has taught me that publishing words to a deadline is a habit that all authors must acquire.  Putting my intentions here keeps me accountable to myself and the world.  It forces me to be disciplined and consistent.  Most of my most productive writing has come while participating in the ROW80 challenge.  It is my intention to return to that level of production during the next 80 days.

Goals for ROW80 (Round 2)
My goal for the “Spring Round” of ROW80 is to write a heroic fantasy novel set within my “sword & sorcery” story-world.  During this 80 day writing challenge, I plan on writing approximately 80,000 words toward my novel (averaging 1,000 words per day).  I am re-imagining one of my short stories, expanding it into a full-length novel.  In order to do that, I will have to expand the scope and up the stakes, intensify the opposition, add a character-arc, and weave-in a subplot with a possible love interest.  Essentially, I’m starting from scratch with an old idea, creating an “origins story” for one of my characters.  I am concurrently participating in Camp NaNoWriMo during the the month of April, where I will be brainstorming, world-building and plotting the basic story-structure of my novel.   Here is my Camper Profile if you want to follow my progress there.  After April, I will further develop and refine my story during the remainder of the 80-day challenge.

“When writing a first draft I remind myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.”
— Shannon Hale

That’s all for now.  Keep the Fire Burning!
Please visit the other writers in the ROW80 Community…

Rational and Sustainable

“He glared fearsomely at the outer gloom, and thought of the grisly tales he had heard of Tsotha’s necromantic cruelty, and it was with an icy sensation down his spine that he realized that these must be the very Halls of Horror named in shuddering lengendry, the tunnels and dungeons wherein Tsotha performed horrible experiments with beings human, bestial, and, it was whispered, demoniac, tampering blasphemously with the naked basic elements of life itself.”
— (Excerpt from The Scarlet Citadel, by Robert E. Howard)


Rational and Sustainable
Well, here we are, three weeks into it; a quarter of the way through the second round of ROW80.  It’s been an interesting journey so far.  In the first couple of weeks I was able to get by on my unbridled enthusiasm alone, but going into the third week, it took more willpower, my momentum slowed and my progress faltered a bit as I had to bear-down and slog-through some typical resistance.  My creative-wells were starting to run dry and I was starting to feel the exhaustion of writing every day.  This is mostly due to the daily burden of getting my daily word-count in for Camp NaNoWriMo.  As you can see from my Camper Profile, I was hitting my daily goals there for the first couple of weeks, but started to fall behind a week ago.  Funny how one missed day there can mess up your momentum.  As I have stated previously, I keep slogging along with my “stream-of-consciousness” exercises and “word sprints”, but I don’t feel like I’m crafting as much story there as I do when I work on my ROW80 projects.  Even though I enjoy the support of my cabin-mates, I feel that Camp NaNoWriMo has been a distraction from my main goal of story-crafting.  I feel like I’m always behind there, aimlessly racing the clock to get my words in, when I could be outlining or researching my story, and would rather be working at a more leisurely pace.  That’s just me.  That’s the way my creativity works.  I prefer the pace of ROW80, which, for me, is far more rational and sustainable over the long-run.  Story-crafting is a marathon, not a series of sprints.  If I need to stop and work out a few story issues on paper, ROW80 allows me to schedule my time for that, whereas for the NaNo-challenges, it’s all about the word-count.  I’ll try to finish what I started at Camp NaNo, but ROW80 is my priority and focus from here forward.

I’m a visual artist and have been doing a lot of character sketches lately, loosely scribbling-out their basic shapes as I try to get a feel of what they might look like.  I’ve been drawing all my life, and I naturally gravitate towards pencil and paper when I want to get inspired.  Drawing ignites my imagination and evokes my Muse.  And more importantly, it replenishes my creative-wells, which, as I’ve said, have been depleted lately.  Seeing my favorite characters on paper helps me identify with them and I start to see their attitudes and personalities come through.  Drawing also helps me establish my fantasy-world setting, placing my characters in crumbling ruins or mystical forests helps me visualize my story better.  To me, drawing makes my story-world “real”.  If you measure the progress of last week by creativity alone, I’d say that I had a pretty productive week.  If you measure the progress by writing-goal achievements, then I’d say I my week was unproductive.  I tend to obsess and fixate on one aspect of my creativity at a time, to the exclusion of everything else.  I’m still trying to find a balance.  So, it's time to pin my drawing to my cork-board and get back to the keyboard.  Writers write, right?

That’s all for now.  Keep the Fire Burning!
Please visit the other writers in the ROW80 Community…

Creating Order Out Of Chaos

“He stepped over the corpses and came face to face with the grim king.  The hosts watched in tense silence, holding their breath.  The black-armored figure loomed in terrible menace over the lean, silk-robed shape, the notched, dripping sword hovering on high.  ‘I offer you life, Conan,’ said Tsotha, a cruel mirth bubbling at the back of his voice.  ‘I give you death, wizard,” snarled the king, and backed by iron muscles and ferocious hate, the great sword swung in a stroke meant to shear Tsotha’s lean torso in half.”
— (excerpt from The Scarlet Citadel, by Robert E. Howard)


Order and Chaos
Where did the week go?  It went by so fast.  I guess that’s what happens when you are constantly racing the clock.  Before I give you my first week’s assessment of ROW80 (Round 2), I want to first talk about my experience so far with Camp NaNoWriMo (here’s my Camper Profile if you want to follow along).  I’ve been enjoying the banter with my cabin-mates and have kept up with my word-count goal there, but I haven’t been satisfied with the quality of my writing output.  I keep slogging along with my “stream-of-consciousness” exercises and “word sprints” there, but I don’t feel like I’m crafting as much story there as I do when I work on my ROW80 projects.  Maybe it's because story-crafting is more than just a word-count; it’s outlining, it’s note-taking, it’s research, and for me, it’s also sketching-out characters and cover designs onto paper (I’m a visual artist, too).  Oh, I’ll dutifully complete what I started at Camp NaNo (hoping my writing will improve there), but ROW80 is my priority and focus.  I separated my ROW80 word-count from my Camp NaNo word-count because I wanted it to be a truer reflection of my writing progress here.

Okay, now onto ROW80.  The first full week has been decently productive, although it didn’t go in the direction I had intended.  I thought I was going to start plotting one of my three stories, working on the opening scene, but instead, I spent the majority of the week developing some of my main characters and villains.  Why the detour?  I didn’t feel I knew enough about their motives to continue plotting.  Because plots are driven by the motives of the main character and the villain, I had to try to delve a little deeper into their personalities (and I’m glad I did).  I’m starting to see how all these story elements (plot, character, setting, etc.) have to be developed simultaneously as I write the first scene, and beyond.  For me, writing a novel is like painting a landscape on a canvas; first the artist makes broad-strokes across the canvas, blocking-in all the shapes and colors so that he can see the whole picture.  Then, when he is satisfied with the composition, he comes back later to add the fine details.  That’s how I approach novel-writing; loosely blocking-in plots, swapping out characters, and altering scenes and settings until I am satisfied with the general structure of the story.  Then, I make consecutive passes at the structure to fill in the details, building upon the layers beneath.  I’m constantly jumping around trying to balance the story as a whole.  That’s my writing process.  Sounds chaotic, huh?   What is your writing process?  Are you a linear writer who starts from the opening scene and works straight through to the ending?  Or do you, like me, jump around, working on Act-1 while also working on Act-3 so that you know how to guide Act-2; hitting the "signpost scenes" first, then the "transition scenes" in between?

That’s all for now.  Keep the Fire Burning!
Please visit the other writers in the ROW80 Community...

The "Spring Round" Begins

 “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)...

Accommodating My Muse

“Within a hundred yards Valeria was panting and reeling in her gait, and behind them the crashing gave way to a rolling thunder as the monster broke out of the thickets and into the more open ground.  Conan’s iron arm about the woman’s waist half lifted her; her feet scarcely touched the earth as she was borne along at a speed she could never have attained herself.  If he could keep out of the beast’s way for a bit, perhaps that betraying wind would shift — but the wind held, and a quick glance over his shoulder showed Conan that the monster was almost upon them, coming like a war-galley in front of a hurricane.  He thrust Valeria from him with a force that sent her reeling a dozen feet to fall in a crumbled heap at the foot of the nearest tree, and the Cimmerian wheeled in the path of the thundering titan.”
(excerpt from Red Nails, by Robert E. Howard)


Accommodating My Muse
One thing I've discovered about my Muse is that sometimes she can be unpredictable, fickle, and erratic.  She loves to focus on stories that are unrelated to what I think I should be working on.  If I need to write a serious scene, she resists by giving me light-hearted, playful visions.  Conversely, her tones can be dark and ominous when I need her to help me write an uplifting, joyful scene.  Swimming against her currents would only frustrate us both, so now I just go with her flow.  Happy Muse, Happy Life (or something like that).  To accommodate her capriciousness, I always have several different stories going at once.  Working within her mood spectrum, I can now apply her stories into one of the following fantasy sub-categories; classically-styled heroic fantasy, action-adventure fantasy, or "fantaisie-noir".  Her mercurial whims were one of the main reasons that I wanted to create three separate continents for my story-world (one "civilized", one "mystical", and one "wild") so that she can explore each of these realms independently, depending on her mood.  Essentially, I have given her three different "sandboxes" to play in, each with its own set of "toys" (characters, etc.).  So far, this flexible method makes her happy, which allows us to focus on at least one of my stories.  Each story seems to take longer to complete, but in the end, I'll have three stories to show for our effort instead of just one. 

Updated Goals for ROW80 (Round 2)
My goal for the “Spring Round” of ROW80 is to write three novellas (approximately 20,000 words apiece), for a total word-count of 60,000 words (or more).  All three novellas will be written simultaneously (again, alternating back-and-forth to accommodate my Muse), and each will vary in tone and style.  I have three story-candidates in mind, but I am still outlining and plotting these ideas, working on old ideas even as my Muse gives me new ones.  The story ideas are constantly changing right now, so until my Muse and I settle on what we want to write, I can’t really go into much details just yet.  I’ll elaborate more in a future post as I know more.  I know for sure that all three novellas will fall under the fantasy-genre of “sword & sorcery” (I know, shocking huh? — bet you didn’t see that coming, did you?).  During the first month of my 80-day writing challenge, I will be writing a thousand words a day (totaling 30,000 words) at Camp NaNoWriMo.  Here is My Camper Profile if you want to follow my progress during the month of April.  I hope to have three first-draft novellas started during that month, which I will further develop and refine during the remainder of ROW80 (Round 2).  That's the plan, anyway.  This is going to be one crazy adventure, I assure you!

Please visit the other writers in the ROW80 Community.