RoW80 Sunday Check In

Well after missing a check in last week (thanks in no small part to a wedding reception where the best man dumped his girlfriend) I’m back on the wagon of taking part in the RoW80 Check Ins. Sadly the same cannot be said for my goals. After a disappointing few weeks I can honestly say that things have not gotten much better. I’m not sure why but it feels almost as though I fell out of love with writing for a while. I can feel that enjoyment coming back though, due in no small part to having spent the last three hours working and writing blog posts. Hopefully I can keep hold of that enjoyment, remember it and get back to hitting my goals like I was doing before.

Now, enough of me being miserable, let’s have a look at how I’ve done this week:

Post 1 blog post other than a RoW80 check in a week –   This actually seems to be one of the goals that I’m consistently hitting. Even when I was at my worst, not really doing much of anything I was still preparing blog posts and putting them up on time. It’s something that I really enjoy doing. I mentioned at the beginning of August that I was planning on sorting out my own website or moving to Wordpress but I think that for now I’m going to stay where I am. I would like to move eventually but until my monetary circumstances work themselves out I cannot really afford web hosting and all that other shiny stuff.

Progress – Excellent

30 Minutes on social media a day – I’ve been on twitter a little more but every time that I think to myself ‘Oh I’ll go on LinkedIn in a little while and check out something I saw in the discussions’ I quickly forget until the next time that I get an email. I’m still not spending 30 minutes a day on social media. Next week I plan on focusing on this goal, getting it down until it becomes second nature to do it, just like I did with the blogging goal.

Progress – Very poor

Spend 1 hour doing a creative activity each day – Yeah... not so great with this one. I’ve barely written 1,000 words a day on the Autharium project this week, something that only takes me half an hour at best. It felt briefly as though I was falling out of love with the project, I had forgotten why I was writing it in the first place and was completely focused on the end piece. That is not how you write good stories. I’m going to try to work my way back up next week but take it slow and steady so that I can get the momentum going again the week after.

Progress – Poor

Spend 1 hour doing a different creative activity each day – Again, this has been a terrible thing. I’ve spent more time watching tv than I have doing anything creative outside of working or blogging. It’s not even as though I’m pushed for time and super busy. I’m not. I have too much time on my hands I think and it shows. Once I’ve gotten the other two goals down into a habit I think I will properly focus on this one. In the meantime I’ll give it my best try but it comes second place to other things.

Progress – Abysmal

Start and try for completion of projects on the order day – This one has been fantastic. I’ve been receiving more work, and it’s been a wider variety of work as well. I’m not just ghost writing now, I’m proofreading and editing. I’m also writing book descriptions on Fiverr, something to get me into practice for when it’s my turn and getting me that little bit of extra income that I know is there in an emergency.

Progress – Great

Over all it’s been a mixed bag. Actually scratch that. I’ve been letting myself down quite a lot. I forgot that these goals are there to help me build a work ethic, to help me get into the swing of things and create some habits that will only help me improve as a writer. I got carried away and arrogant, thinking that I could do absolutely everything at once and thought of them as just goals, not a means to an end. Now I’ve realised that though I can focus once more on treating them as habit building activities, working on one thing each week more than the others until I do them all almost without thinking. It’s definitely the social media one that I struggle with the most however. I just don’t see how I can do it.

What do you think? Do you have any tips to using social media as a marketing/networking tool? Are there any social media formats that you might suggest I use? Am I being too hard on myself? Am I being too soft on myself?! Do I just need a kick up the backside and a good week of hitting my goals to get back on track? Let me know below in the comments and maybe it might help other people too.

 Created by Kait Nolan in 2010 after she began to struggle with the madness that is NaNoWriMo A Round of Words in 80 Days (or RoW80 as it is commonly known by participants) is the writing challenge that knows you have a life. In four sentences she sums up the idea of RoW80 perfectly: "We are all different and we all have different demands on our time.  Why should we all have the same goal?  The simple answer is that we shouldn’t.  If you want to be a writer, then you have to be able to roll with the punches and adapt to your changing circumstances.  If that means changing your goals when your life blows up, so be it.  ROW80 is the challenge that champions the marriage of writing and real life."
Be sure to check out other participants and how their goals are going here at the clicky list and be sure to leave a comment on their blogs to encourage them on.

RoW80 Sunday Check In

This last week has been not so great. For some reason I hit it hard last week and then have had very little success this week. That’s ok though, my goals are all about building habits, not just hitting a word count each day. People say that it takes 3 weeks to really build a habit and I’ve only really focused for one week. So I’m not going to let it get me down, not as much as it did the week before last. Instead I’m going to chalk it up as a learning curve, write off this last week and try again next week. I’m going to keep things simple, make sure I take my time and focus on what I’m doing when I’m doing it rather than always focusing ahead. But enough of what’s to come, let’s look at what I’ve done;

Post 1 blog post other than a RoW80 check in a week –   I did this one. Normally I post two, one on Wednesday and one on Friday. I missed Friday’s post, the last post in my three act structure series because I had a migraine and couldn’t face using the computer. But I did do my WiPpet Wednesday post so I’m happy with that. Progress –  Excellent

30 Minutes on social media a day – Once more this has been slacking a little. I’ve been tweeting and posting on LinkedIn, commenting on blogs and responding to comments here. But I’ve not been spending my 30 minutes each day. I need to improve this, focus my attention and figure out where I’m going to be social each day. Progress – Improving

Spend 1 hour doing a creative activity each day – I’ve not been writing this week, not a single word on Autharium Project. It still needs a name, it still needs a cover, it still needs to be written. So overall this one has not gone well. Progress – Completely terrible

Spend 1 hour doing a different creative activity each day – I have done some outlining on my webcomic idea this week, I’ve been working on the Feral Diaries read through and edits. I’ve also done some sketching which has been really nice to get into. It’s not been every day though but it has been done. Progress – Needs Improvement

Start and try for completion of projects on the order day – I’ve slowly been working away at my projects, completing work and getting more. Hopefully, so that I can build up more work and actually afford the hosting fees (more on that later), I will be focusing more on gaining further work this week. Progress – Improving

Overall it’s been a meh week. But I’m really not sad about it. I’ve tried, I’ve failed, the important thing is that I’m going to be getting right back up tomorrow and trying again. It’s when I stop trying that things are going to be bad. And looking through how I’ve been doing, the goals that I’ve been consistently hitting and the ones that I consistently fail, I can see where I’m strong and where I’m weak and how I can change that.

My goal about posting twice a week seems to be one of the goals that I am consistently reaching, in fact I think that I’ve reached it every week this round so far. I’ve even started to post more than the twice I was aiming for. I’m going to keep it as is for now though as I’m planning to relocate my blog and my updates after a receiving a lot of advice regarding establishing my own website that supports website, particularly from the wonderful and friendly Tammy J Rizzo (another RoW80 member who’s blog you should definitely check out). So that’s the big thing in the pipeline for the month of August, hopefully things won’t go too horribly wrong.

In the meantime, between sorting out website copy, photographs, all kinds of bits and pieces that need to go on the website I’ll be plugging away as usual with work, writing and editing. I’ll more than likely do a series of posts about how it is setting up a website for those people who, just like me, don’t really know what they’re doing. And hopefully, by next week I’ll be partway there and hitting more of my goals.

What do you think? Have I let myself down terribly after a brilliant week last week? Was it something that you expected? Does anyone have any advice for setting up a blog slash website? Anyone know of a good hosting plan that supports Wordpress? Do you have suggestions and advice for time management? What should my rewards be for when I hit each goal each day?

RoW80 Check In: What a Change!

This week has been a complete U-turn in comparison to last week. I’m not longer feeling so down, my productivity has peaked again and I’ve been getting so much more done with my writing that I thought I would be able to. More importantly I’m enjoying myself again, feeling that passion for writing which drove me to take up the pen and the keyboard in the first place. This week has been a week of discovery and rediscovery for me. I’m waking up earlier, sleeping better and getting so much more done. I discovered that I’m more productive in the mornings, not long after I first wake up about 7:30, that I like to take a two hour break for lunch to recharge and that when my parents come home from work I tend to meander in what I do but by 8pm I’m usually back at the computer working.

For the first time since I started this round I’m actually doing stuff that is on my goal list without having to put it on my daily to do list. I’ve made my goals into my habit, pretty much as I hoped to do. Without even meaning to I take part in social media, using it to build contacts and spread ideas as I lay on the sofa during my breaks. I write more often and for longer than I need to. I’m making major progress on a lot of things and I’m just so happy. But enough about how I’m a happy springy bunny in comparison to last week, let’s take a look at how my goals went;

Post 1 blog post other than a RoW80 check in a week –   I’ve actually begun to post twice a week now, on Wednesday with WiPpet Wednesday and on Fridays with my 3 Act Structure series. It’s amazing to me that without meaning to I’ve created a schedule and I’ve already got a bunch of posts lined up for the weeks to come. Progress –  Excellent

30 Minutes on social media a day – As I’ve said already I’ve been doing this without realising. I’ve been commenting on LinkedIn group discussions, talking to people on Twitter and I’ve also made more changes to my Facebook page. It hasn’t gone live yet though, I’m still waiting to sort out my profile pictures before I do that. Progress – Major improvements

Spend 1 hour doing a creative activity each day – Most days this week I’ve been either writing for the Autharium Project or jotting down blog post ideas. Sometimes I’ve even been writing the posts themselves, getting them ready to for editing and then publication. I might not spend a complete hour on one project but I’ve spent an hour doing something creative, split over different things. As long as I keep the productivity going, for me, that’s all that matters. Progress – Excellent

Spend 1 hour doing a different creative activity each day – I’ve actually managed to do this properly this week, every day I’ve been either editing or outlining. I’ve discovered that I prefer to edit with the tv on in the background, giving me something to listen to and watch between edits. I usually do this in the living room, with the family around so I can actually be near real people for a change instead of sitting in all on my own in my room/office. Hopefully I can keep this up into the next week. Progress – Excellent

Start and try for completion of projects on the order day – I’ve had a big project come through with my freelancing this week, as well as a few enquiries that I’m chasing up to see if there’s any work to be had there. Although I’ve not managed to complete the projects that I do have on the same day as they were ordered (5,000 words is a lot to write in one day on one thing) I’ve begun to write them as soon as they were ordered, meaning that I complete projects quicker and the money rolls in. More importantly I do my work on them before I do anything else. Progress – Excellent

So that’s it. This week has been great for me in terms of productivity, work ethic and general happiness. I go to bed tired each night and sleep fantastically. I don’t feel guilty for spending time away from the computer because I’ve actually done more of what I was meant to do that day and I can do the rest when everyone else has gone to bed.

On a side note I’m considering moving this blog over to Wordpress. Blogger keeps messing up the formatting on my posts even though they display fine on the preview and I’ve just been hearing a lot of good things about Wordpress and have for a while. I started this blog back in 2011 and I didn’t really know much about the blogosphere and which hosts were better. I just chose the one that my friend suggested (incidentally she’s since relocated to Wordpress and is now encouraging me to do the same). I also didn’t know what I would blog about at the time, just going with whatever caught my fancy, hence the meandering posts if you read through the archives. Now though I know, I have a clear idea and I’m torn.

Let me know what you think in the comments below. If I do move the blog over I’ll probably bring all the posts from June onwards over too, as well as any really useful ones that I made in the past. What do you think? Should I stay where I am? Or should I move? Do I risk losing the 6 followers I have on Blogger by moving to the more commonly used Wordpress? Is Wordpress as good as I’ve heard? How would you go about switching the blog? And don’t forget the goals progress. Am I getting too ahead of myself? Do I need to slow down or run the risk of burning out? Have I been too optimistic in my view of what I’ve achieved this week?

RoW80 Round 3; My Goals for the Round

I haven’t taken part in A Round of Words in 80 Days for about a year. I’ve been focused on other stuff and for a while thought that I couldn’t make a living from my writing. I still can’t yet, but I’m getting there. Things go a little slowly from time to time and at the moment I’m in one of those ebbs. It happens. So I figured that I use the time that I have, use this free time that is making me so very, very bored, and take part in RoW80 once more. Maybe this way I can improve my work ethic and finally use the time that I have in the best way possible. So... on to the goals;

Marketing

•          Post one blog post other than a ROW80 update a week.I’ve been getting a bit down lately, not really knowing what to post about and my blog’s just sitting there on the net with nothing new coming up. It’s important to create new content regularly, it draws in readers and it gives me practice for writing books. I want to post more, create a more regular schedule and have someone to answer to when I don’t update. As a result I’ve sat down and thought up a series of different blog posts that I can put up. They’re all outlined, roughly, now I just need to write them, edit them and then schedule them. I’m not going to do it all at once though, I’m hoping to work on one post each week and then, if I somehow manage to get ahead of myself I have that buffer in place and I can pick up the schedule a little more.
•          Spend 30 minutes on social media each day.Social media is a powerful thing, just look at the way tweets go viral or facebook groups can actually prompt massive social change. If I want to get smart, get my name out there and build a readership and client base I need to start using them all. More importantly I need to start using them properly, like so many ‘marketing gurus’ suggest. I joined LinkedIn a while ago, Twitter I use fairly regularly and Facebook kind of just sits there, the page I created not even live yet. Right now I’ve signed up to a bunch of groups on LinkedIn but I’m not using them at all. So with this goal I want to actually start posting in the groups, creating networks and hopefully friendships and just get the best that I can out of what I have available. I want to get my facebook page finished and going live. I want to build up followers on Twitter, the real way, by making connections and having conversations. Doing a little something on these social media sites each day, even just 30 minutes can help with all of this.

Creativity

•         Spend 4 hours a day doing 2 different creative activities not related to work.I have all of these ideas, all of these things that I want to do and I’m just not using the time to do them properly. I want to improve my time management, improve my output level. If I ever want to be the prolific author that I think I can be then I need to actually start writing. So I need to spend time doing something creative of some sort every day, no matter if it’s actually creating new words, editing and revising old ones or planning and outlining an entirely new story. I just need to do something and take some of these projects that I’ve had sitting in my head and on my desk for so long, and actually finish them at last.

I say four hours because I keep finding myself in slow mode with work. If I can use the time that I have free to do two different activities it’s at least something productive, I’m not sat watching videos on YouTube and getting bored out of my mind. More importantly it doesn’t have to be four straight hours, I can spread them out over the day, taking half an hour between different work projects and doing something of my own. Hopping between projects for me is fun, it keeps my brain going and I always learn something new. Really though, it’s all about increasing my output and creating a shiny new work ethic that can help me reach my dreams.

Work

•          Apply for 3 jobs each day on the freelancing websites I use.I keep waiting too long between jobs, finding myself bored, as I am right now, and I start to worry as I slowly watch my savings trickle away into nothing. Having these big gaps between jobs, between projects means that I fall out of the habit of writing each day, I fall out of the habit of finishing projects quickly and with quality. Regular applications for jobs, even if they don’t pan out can help me keep that work ethic going, that habit going. At least if I’m applying for the jobs, even if I don’t get them, I still know that I’m trying. And if I do get jobs I can have a queue of them, more and more jobs that are lined up and then I can just slip from one into the next with no worry about how long it will be before another job comes along.
•          Start and try for completion of projects on the order daySometimes this can be difficult. I work in 5,000 word batches and although I can, quite easily, write 5,000 words in a day I very rarely do. Writing my own words and writing for projects are so very different that I tend to stretch them out. I sometimes get bored with the writing, looking for any little excuse to stop and do something else. Sometimes I even put off starting the project, waiting until the last possible moment before I begin and that just ends up with me being even more stressed. By starting early, as soon as I get the work, means that those ideas that might have appeared in my mind when I first heard the outline will still be there. I can write fresh, while I’m excited at the project and hopefully avoid the increasingly familiar sensation of staring at the word counter and sigh as it slowly rises. I’m already getting better at this without meaning to since I joined Fiverr. Having that 24 hour deadline, even for something short means that I just don’t have time to put off starting and it’s getting me to approach freelancing with the right mindset.

So there we are, 6 goals to get accomplished in 80 days. I admit that they’re more based around habit building, not specific deadlines. I want to create that mindset, treat my freelance writing and own writing like the job it is while still finding that enjoyment. This way as well I actually have someone to answer to, you guys who can tell me off when I’m making ridiculous excuses and cheer along with me when I actually manage to hit my goals more than once. I might add more later, take some away. I might even include a couple of deadline related goals as they appear, that’s the joy of A Round Of Words in 80 Days. But for now I’m happy with these and I look forward to seeing how I do.

Until next time, have fun, keep reading, keep writing and love your life.

A little bit of a let down

Since Sunday, the day of the very optimistic blog post I seem to have broken. The sun decided it wanted to come out, and come out in style. For the last three days it’s been too hot to do much more than sit down and read. So that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve been reading like a crazy person. I haven’t got much else, if anything done, simply because it’s been too hot to sit down and draw or write, even in the evenings.

I have however been planning a new novel, linked slightly to DW but still somewhat separate. I’ve been world building around it and also figuring other stuff out about DW itself in my head. It makes me happy though. Thinking about this stuff has helped me to realise things about the world of DW that need more work or parts of the novel itself that need to be changed or removed. The editing process is a long one and it seems like there’s rarely an end in sight. Really though I enjoy it. I’m getting to make what I’ve written look more like I imagined it in my head and that is always a good thing... well almost always.

So... to summarise my progress on my goals so far (from Monday to the time of writing this;

• Draw something each day – 0/2
• Write something none-NaNo/blog/DW related everyday – 1/2- world building and mild planning for the newest idea.
• Spend ½ hour on oSaM a day – 0/2
• Edit 1,500 words of D.W. daily - 0/2
• Plan for NaNoWriMo – 0/2 (does thinking about it count?)

I honestly feel like I’ve let myself down by how much I’ve not done.? I know in my mind I could have found some way to make it comfortable enough for me to work on something at least but I didn’t. I ask myself why? Am I just being lazy... AGAIN? Or is it something else? From Friday and all through the weekend I had not touched a single cigarette. Come Monday, when I start to avoid doing anything I was smoking again. This has got me wondering... are cigerettes affecting how much I’m getting written or drawn. Are they really that much of a drain on my creativity? Or am I just finding more excuses for not doing what I know I should?

Revelations and Alterations

It’s been an odd week. After all the excitement of the weekend I seemed to get stuck in a slight rut. I was barely drawing, barely writing and if I’m honest getting a little depressed about my life. Then I had two girls and a baby hiding in my bedroom for an hour. While they were hiding we got chatting and they both said things that made me think. They have both worked to get what they want and they seem relatively happy with what they have. I haven’t.

I coasted through school and university doing the bare minimum and I got by fairly well. Every year after university was done and I returned home for the summer I’d kick myself for not applying myself and yet when I went back I’d just fall into the same habits and coast along. I’ve started to do that again now, now I’m graduated and trying to join the real world. I’m sitting around, doing the bare minimum to reach my goals and for some reason feeling proud of this. Well... not anymore.

After a couple of weeks easily managing to attain the majority of the goals I realised that they need reworking, they’re too attainable. I’m reaching them easily and it’s not actually pushing me to grow as an artist/writer. So from my own thoughts and the feedback of other people participating in RoW80 I’ve edited them.

• Edit 100 words of DW daily.

This was both too easy and too difficult. On a bad day I would generally get over 1000 words editted, working on entire scenes rather than brief chunks. I tried to edit in small 100 word bursts but it just didn't work. The blocks didn't really connect and everything felt discombobulated. With that in mind I came up with a new one goal based off the original idea that pushes me to my limits and makes me work harder to attain my goal;

• Edit 1 chapter (2,500 words) of DW a day.

• Draw one full art piece a week

With sketching thumbnails, writing and all the planning I'm doing I just don't have time for even more art on top of it. Full-time artists and writers have told me that they even struggle to achieve this goal so I don't feel too bad about altering it. So, with that in mind I tweaked the goal, keeping the general idea but changing the time-frame for it;

• Create on full art piece a month.

•   Write everyday

This was too easy. I included any form of writing I did, whether editing, planning for NaNoWriMo or even a blog post. I needed to write something that wasn’t included in the other goals, that I couldn’t use as an easy out for completing that goal and so I tweaked it, edited it and came up with;

• Write something non-NaNo, DW, or blog related each day.

 And so, with my goals and targets reworked I set to work again, with the hope that I will start taking my work more seriously than I already am and actually succeed in achieving not just my RoW80 goals but my life goals as well.

Dancing on tabletops

Last night I danced on a table top dressed as a punk.

 Yes, I’m serious.

 No, that’s not the opening line of a new novel. It could be though.

Writers and writing advice often tell us to write what we know and to live life in order to find new things to write about. Well after last night I have a whole list of things I can write about.

But that’s not really what I’m talking about today. I’m going to catch you up on how well I’m reaching my goals, two weeks into Round Three. I’ve been doing surprisingly well actually. Writing a little every day, drawing a little every day, editing a little every day. Even when I’ve not been physically editing DW, the work in progress, I’ve been thinking about how I would change certain parts or how I could get it to more resemble what I’d first envisioned when I started writing it last November. Most of my other goals have been completed as well. I’ve been writing everyday by working on my Camp NaNo planning and that’s also coming along swimmingly. I’ve also been drawing everyday by sketching page thumbnails for oSaM. It’s helping me figure out character designs and how the characters hold themselves at the same time. Slowly but surely I’m getting more and more ready to actually start drawing that monster. I still haven’t decided on an art style or how I’m going to produce the actual pages yet but it’s on my list of things to do.

What I’m having serious trouble with is the middle goal; completing one full art piece every week. Both weeks something’s come up just as I’ve been settling down to work on a full piece of art and I’ve just not gotten around to sitting down to work again. I’m starting to think that I may have to remove that particular goal from my goal lists. I don’t really want to though as that would be admitting defeat and I don’t like to do that. I hate the feeling of failure and I’m determined to treat that goal as a challenge.

I can never resist a challenge.

And maybe next time I’ll tell you how I wound up on top of the table.

Maybe.

Mini-whine on motivation

Although I insisted that I would stick to my RoW goals on Sunday that has now gone completely wrong.

I’m desperately hoping that I can get back on track with a couple of days of putting my head down properly and powering through it all. It’s not that I don’t want to do it all, that I’m reluctantly to try and reach my goals. It’s that I’m really really lazy right now. I’m not sure why but it’s just happened. I’m sat there, looking at the computer screen, thinking to myself ‘You need to draw something’ or ‘you need to edit that novel’ and yet i continue just staring at the computer screen and clicking things. I have things I want to do, things I need to do and yet I can make myself do them.

It kind of goes against my idea of treating my art and writing like a job when I’m not actually doing anything with my day. It gets me down really. It is a very new thing, only happened in the last few days. I’m hoping that pushing myself to actually do something in my goals list will get me back on the road and I’ll start making the progress I made last week.

So... as soon as I’ve finished this blog I’m going to begin work on my targets, particularly the one that seems to slow me down so much, the editing. Hmmm, maybe I’ll do a post on editing next time.

Does anyone else ever hit those lazy days where productivity just vanishes?

A little something-something

So, not one day after I post about my RoW80 goals and seem so optimistic I fall from the wagon. Yesterday, despite fully intending to work on my targets I failed to do a single thing. I don’t know whether it was because it was the weekend and my brain didn’t want to work or I was simply being lazy. I’m not too bothered though, considering how much I’ve managed to get done since the start Round Three. I know it won’t be the last day off I have either. As long as the number of productive days outweigh the days where I do nothing I shall be happy.

I remembered yesterday that NaNoWriMo runs a mini-NaNo type thing in June and August. I signed up immediately and plan to use one of my story plans for it. The reasoning behind this is two-fold.
a) I don’t think I’ll be able to manage to write or complete three separate novels in one month.
b) I wanted to start releasing parts of the one I’m working on come August part way through December which doesn’t leave much time for editing and what-not.

I’m looking forward to it though; the excitement of kick-off, the thrill of reaching each 1,000 word mark, seeing the graph creep higher and higher with every passing day. I’m a little odd in that I find visual confirmation of my progress as a great motivational tool. Or, in simple English; seeing my little line go up makes me write more. Sometimes I worry I get carried away with the long words and forget I’m not at uni any more... it’s a flaw.

I’m also working hard on the thumbnails for oSaM. I set myself the challenge of doing 60 whole thumb-nailed pages by the end of July. So far I have one. I think I made a mistake. But, in all seriousness, if I get a move on, sit down, and really get into it there’s a good chance I’ll be able to make it. Or at least make a pretty decent dent in the number of pages I need to thumbnail.

Oh and I quit smoking.... wish me extra luck with that one....

RoW80: Round Three Goals

So after 5 days of a family holiday and isolation from the internet I have finally returned home and can, at last, tell you all about my RoW80, Round Three goals. I have started working on all of them already and hopefully I can keep working on them for the next 80 days. I’ve come up with at least 6 and may or may not add a seventh.

First up are the big two:

1) Draw everyday

Even if it’s just a 5 minute doodle I need to do a little bit of drawing every day. So far that’s going well.

2) Write everyday

I plan to write something non-forum related. Whether it’s 100 words of world building, 500 of story planning or even 2,500 words of actual writing, I want to get something written every day.

These two are designed to encourage me to treat writing and drawing as my job, just like I want it to be. Hopefully if I can get into it enough it will become a habit and no longer will I feel as though I’m wasting my time every day.

3) Finish one art piece a week

So often I start to draw something big and never actually get it finished or it takes months to finish. I’m hoping that pushing myself to do this will encourage me to actually finishing things. Plus it’s a great incentive once I start actually drawing the pages of my web-comic. Which leads on to....

4) Work on oSaM daily.

As long as I do 30 minutes of work, at least, on oSaM every day I will be happy. It could be character designs or page thumbnails or anything else related to it. I’m going to make sure that the 30 minutes is uninterrupted and gets something productive out of it. Just thinking about it doesn’t count.

5) Edit 100 words of D.W. daily.

I’ve been putting off editing it and it’s really beginning to annoy me. I know what I need to do and I’ve already thought about things I need to fix/remove.

And finally;

6) Plan for NaNoWriMo

I’ve not got a set amount, time, words or otherwise for this one as it’s sort of an open book. I’ve already got the ideas brewing and a few notes made so from now until November it’s just going to slowly build and build. I’m hoping to work on 3 or 4 novels or short stories throughout NaNo so there are lots of things that I can flick between.

So for now, that’s it on the RoW80 front. I’m hoping that this time I’ll be able to stick to them much better than with Round 1 and who knows, I might actually enjoy it.

Ciao!