RoW80: Round Four - Looking Back and Looking Forward

Before I list my targets for this round of RoW80 I thought I’d get a little something off my chest.

I was a little disappointed in Round Three, mostly with myself. I met most of my targets each week but I just didn’t bother to update. It seems that’s a common flaw with me. I forget to blog, getting so engrossed in my other writing that it completely passes over my head. In fact, looking at the site I’ve not blogged in over 2 months. That is ridiculously disappointing. But I have reasons for not blogging. Some of them are flimsy excuses that don’t really hold up but others are more emotional, based in fear of letting you, my dear readers, down. Some of this is because I feel guilty that all I’m ever doing is telling you all about how well I’m meeting my targets or how bad I feel for being a lazy bugger. The other is that I feel guilty about only blogging about my RoW80 goals. Before I found RoW80 I’d blog about my thoughts on certain areas of writing or show some of my work (mostly the artistic variety) but since January a lot of my blogs have been devoted to RoW80.

But now I’ve decided to change all this. Round 4 of RoW80 is upon us, it’s October, the beginning of autumn (yes I use autumn, not fall. It’s a British/Me thing) and a chance to start afresh. Particularly as I just got back off holiday where I spent an entire day re-seeing the contents of my stomach (but that’s another story). So... onwards.

Goals

1. Plan/write NaNoWriMo 2012
2. Edit one chapter of Darkling Watch Book 1 a day (yes, there is now a book one and this will be explained) 
3. Finish and edit The Feral Diaries; Book 1
4. Plan The Feral Diaries; Book 2 once a week
5. Outline and plan o.S.a.M twice a week
6. Blog at least twice a week.

And now, because I’ve clearly got so much in my head about these goals I’m going to explain them. Partially for you, dear readers, but mostly for me so I finally know what on earth is going on in my crazy little wormhole they call a brain.

1) Plan/Write NaNoWriMo 2012 -  I’ve included this one because even though it’s pretty much a given that I’ll be participating in NaNo again this year I’m a little worried that I’ll forget to actually do any planning or writing what with all my other work that I’m doing. I love NaNoWriMo because it helped me realise that yes, I want to be a writer, and that yes, I can actually finish stuff when I set out to. So it goes in. As target number 1 in fact, so important is it to me. Incidentally I’m trying to beat my word count from last year of 105,000 words.

2) Edit one chapter of Darkling Watch; Book 1 a day - Yes, I’m still chipping away at this bad boy and yes it has now been divided into more than one book. I’m planning on writing an entire post on the Darkling Watch Trilogy as there’s a lot of information and thoughts I want to share with you all. That and, once more, it helps me to figure out what I’m actually thinking when I write it down and get it out there.

3) Finish and edit The Feral Diaries; Book 1 - This is a new work for me, a little different from my usual style and genre so I’m actually pushing myself as a writing with this one. I came up with the idea when I was planning for Camp NaNo (the mini NaNoWriMo that runs in June and August) as I sat at Skegness with a busted ankle. Needless to say that was a boring week for me. Any who, because I’m so excited about this new ‘novel’ and it was such an interesting process for how I’ve been working on it I’ll be doing a separate post about this as well.

4) Plan The Feral Diaries; Book 2 - Yes... there’s more than one for this as well. Or at least there was when I was planning it. Now though, because of how the story has developed it’s not really two books, or even three. Yes I know I’m being vague but I just want to tell you all about this right and to do that I really do need a post all about The Feral Diaries and The Feral Diaries alone.

5) Outline and plan o.S.a.M twice a week - I know, I know. I finished it, at least the originally script. But then I was talking it out with a friend, a fairly gifted storyteller in her own right, because I was having some iffy feelings about it. It didn’t really fit at all my original vision of the story, the characters were good but not really fitting into the roles I’d plonked them in and the entire thing just felt a bit off to me. So, with her advice and the amount of help she gave me as we hashed the problems out I decided to rewrite it, starting from scratch. So there; I’m starting all over again and o.S.a.M is now back at the very first planning stages. It needs a lot of work but I’m taking it slow because it’s a long term project that I’m going to have to live with, possibly for years.

6) Blog at least twice a week – I mentioned at the top of this post how disappointed and guilty I felt because I was only blogging about RoW80 and whether or not I was reaching my goals. Now I’m setting myself an actual blogging RoW target. Once a week I’ll blog about whether I’m reaching my targets or not. The other blogs... well they’re going to be more like the original posts were; thoughts on the creative process, my headway and discoveries about my work, the obvious mentions of the projects I’m working on. Too often I’m really vague about my projects, worried they’ll be silly or stolen. No more. I won’t be telling too many secrets (spoilers darling!) but I plan to give more information about them than I have done. I’ve even got a long list of things I want to blog about that are in no way related to RoW80. Isn’t it exciting?!

I do want to mention that I have other targets for myself that I’ve not included here in my RoW80 targets. The reasons for not including them are multiple.
First off; I don’t like the pressure and restriction of having so many targets written down. I think 6 is a fairly nice amount, not loading me down too heavily but giving me enough things to push at and work towards. More than that and I’d just be looking at this long list of things I feel like I HAVE to do and I lose all love of writing. I don’t want that to happen.
Secondly; the other targets aren’t really measurable. Not in the sense that the ones above are. These ones are more... vague outlines of stuff that I need to do for various projects. World building, timelines, chapter arcing and stuff like that. There’s not really a way to measure how successful I am at meeting them as there is no end game, no point at which I can say ‘There, I’ve done it, I hit my target’ like with Darkling Watch where I know I’ve edited a chapter because I reach a natural chapter break and save it on a separate document (explanations for this will come. I promise).
Lastly; I want some privacy. I know, it’s a little weird. Here I am on the net, blogging and telling you all about my projects and the crazy thoughts that go on in my head. But that’s the thing. I might tell you a lot but there’s got to be something kept back. Something for me that is just mine. Something that only I and my writing journal know. Some of it is also that I’ve got a few things in mind that I want to keep a surprise or that are going to take a while to implement. Know this though. When I do manage to meet one of my secret targets you’ll know about it. Whether you’re seeing it on the blog site itself or reading about it in one of my entries. You’ll know it when you see it.

Mostly because I’ll spell it out for you all.

But for now I’ll leave it be and sign off. I’ve rambled on for well over 1000 words and now I’m just getting to the loopy stage of my writing. So, I’ll go back to my editing and have an early night. Tomorrow I’ll wake with eerie optimism, get back to work and hopefully you’ll hear from me again in a few days.

See you later and keep writing.

Friday Links; A little more writerly

That’s right it’s that time of the month again. I’ve been linking a lot to crafting websites lately. Well, this week I’ve gone all writerly (it’s a real word I swear *cough*) Not only have I been working hard on my current work-in-progress, a novel that is still nameless, but I’ve also been planning and searching for research (real word again :P) for the other idea I’ve got brewing (more on that later).  Anyway, on to the real purpose of this post.

My first link today is to this blog right here. You don’t have to go all the way through her archives but I strongly recommend it. It’s truly inspiring. Rachel Hawkins is a published writer with a trilogy in the works. She’s got two of the three books published as well as a few more novels in the works. It’s following her journey to this point that is amazing though. She was a teacher at a school that was depressing her horribly. At the urging of her husband she quit her job, as did he, and spent her time writing a novel. She sent it off to an agent and then got the book deal (all with a toddler which I just can’t imagine being able to do). She is a success story, and unlike some other people, she’s willing to share her success and give help and pointers to other wannabe-novelists.  It’s not just an inspiring story (yes I’m saying that a lot but it’s true!!) it’s an interesting one too, simply in that you get insight into the writing process of other writers. I find this ridiculously helpful. I’m one of those people that suffer slightly from anxiety of failure. I’m constantly worrying that I’m doing whatever I’m doing wrong. I seek constant validation that I’m doing it right. Just reading her blog, along with a few others, has shown me that there are so many different types of writers, from planners to ‘pantsers’ (a writer that just writes on the seat of their pants, winging it) and that the way I write is the way I write, there’s nothing wrong. (Back on track,) I’ve spent at least half the week reading through her archives, reading her thoughts as she struggled with the whole thing, even though I know how it ends, I’m just a big geek like that. She also put me on to the next link, having participated multiple times throughout the year.

NaNoWriMo, standing for National Novel Writing Month. I’ve found it before and looked into it but Rachel’s blog brought it back to my attention. Originally started in San Fransisco 1999, by one guy with a small group of friends to get them to at least try to write a novel, it has since expanded to cover so many countries. It’s has now sparked a non-profit organisation with a full time staff, charitable giving and more writing events during the year. It’s weird to think that it has been running for 12 years now. It offers a chance to bring together other writers from the area and gives encouragement and... wait, why am I telling you this?! Go go check it out for yourself, sign up, it’s free!  I signed up today so hopefully I’ll be able to get the vast majority of a novel written before the year is out. Unfortunately you are required to start a novel from scratch, doing only preparation beforehand. That rules the use of my current novel. I figure though that it’s a perfect chance for me to bring in that new idea (See! See!). I’ve got about 10 days to get the research done for the most part. And I’m going to meet a bunch of other Notts based writers. No worries though, I won’t be stopping my other creative endeavours.

This weekend I plan to learn to knit once more, getting inspired to take it up again from Rachel’s blog, so hopefully I’ll have new things to tell you about. Also keep an eye on the site, I plan on fiddling with the design a little.

Well, what are you waiting for?! Go check out those pages!

Journal, journal, journal, notebook - it's all about organisation... and other blogs

I've developed a strange obsession with journals and notebooks in the last week. I've always had a weird love of the things but I think this odd love peaked on Friday when I found a use for 4 previously unused notebooks in half an hour. Now I have a big pile of the things.

I already had one journal, for writing everyday thoughts in and just generally rambling and exploring my thoughts, a turquoise number with magnetic clasp and holes cut out with bright yellow fabric underneath that I got for £30 from Warehouse, pretty pricey but it's held up ridiculously well all things considered. I got it in May and began using it pretty much instantly. Before I was never much for keeping a diary, always losing interest after a few weeks. But I've been writing in my journal now at least once a week for the last 4 months. Nice to see I can stick with something. Now though, in the space of a weekend I've acquired two more. One is a writing journal, where I explore everything writing related, particularly for Geniania. It's basically where I jot down thoughts on stuff I need to research, carry out writing exercises and other writing related things. The other is my art journal. I only started it yesterday and it's basically where I do doodles and sketches and other artsy things, whether it's trying out a technique or sketching out that picture I've gotten stuck in my head. I already had a sketchbook but it's a bit too big to be carting everywhere. These two are roughly A-5, both plain black, (one with faux suede on the cover and the other with a strange smooth pleather type stuff) and can fit in most of my handbags, at least the ones I use during the day anyway which is when I would use a sketchbook or journal.

Then there's my notebooks. I had just the one originally, a black Moleskine notebook that was pretty cheap (you can find it and other notebooks here. I have to admit the colour a month planner is looking very tempting) and I used it to set myself tasks for the day. I'd also just down quick lists of things I needed to do. It's where I wrote my monthly targets too as well as points of research. It was, and still is, my all-duty notebook that I find myself doodling in a bit more then I should. Then I thought.. you know what I need somewhere to put those little lists that are just a bit general. So I found a little slim notebook and turned that into my 'Little Book of Lists'. It's a tiny Oxford A-5 notebook that fits easily into any bag I own so it can go everywhere with me, just like the Moleskine. Finally there's the stripey jotter notebook where I write down any interesting suggestions and creative exercises that can help with my writing. It's pretty basic and I used to use it for lectures about my creative writing dissertation so it only seemed fitting that I use it for notes on the creative writing process. Another one that I forgot to include in the picture is my page layout notebook. It's basically white with about 4 signatures of A-4 folded in half. I hope to one day use notebooks that I've bound myself but finding lined paper in the right dimensions and sizes is proving to be tricky. I have this feeling sometimes that what a person writes in says a fair bit about them. As does what they write/how they write it. I plan to explore that in a later blog though.

In other news I've been reading the blog of a remarkably artistic person who lives in Tuscany, Italy. She binds the most beautiful journals and includes numerous tutorials and illustrations. It's thanks to her that I can now understand how to create coptic stitch books. Her name is Linda Tieu and her blog is just full of ideas and thoughts. You can check it out here. I particularly like how she structures the week of blog posts, especially the creative progress/workspace pictures as well as her descriptions of current projects. Just reading it gets me in the mood to create and to share with readers my absolutely awfully cluttered workspace. I say workspace but I mean collection of shelves and the end of my bed.

I'll probably explore more of these thoughts in later posts, I think that this one's been pretty big for today, particularly given my knackered and hungover state.