Tag Archives: ROW80

ROW80 Round Two Wrap-Up

23 Jun

Well. Today is the end of ROW80, Round Two.

And what a wild and crazy round it’s been!

Right before Round Two began, I sold my first book, The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls. I began revisions with my brilliant agent, Diana Fox, and my also-brilliant editor, Zareen Jaffery at Simon & Schuster. In May, I went to my first supermegahuge writers’ event (in NYC, no less!), BookExpo America. On my current WIP, Cracked, I wrote about 30K words. I started a new job as a public librarian. Mom began her radiation treatments (she’ll be finished in a couple of weeks!).

Again, I say: WILD AND CRAZY.

Have I managed to meet my ROW80 goals during all that?

Well, somewhat. My goals were to

  1. finish Cavendish revisions; and
  2. write at least ~750 words/day on Cracked

Even with the amount of words I wrote on Cracked, that comes out to ~375 words/day, which is exactly HALF of what my original words/day goal. So, no, I didn’t meet really meet that goal. But I’m okay with it. First of all, Cavendish revisions were the priority, and I completed two rounds of those, with which I’m extremely happy. I had to take a break from Cracked to work on those revisions, especially with everything else going on, but I’m returning to Cracked slowly and surely, and I think the time apart will turn out to have been helpful.

Secondly, I’ve been reading like crazy (well, at least for me), and I can so tell the difference in my writing, and just in how I approach storycraft. So, if I had to sacrifice some of my writing time for reading time, again, I’m okay with that.

So, am I satisfied with my progress during this ROW80 round?

You bet.

I’ve had fun, I’ve worked hard, I’ve read a lot, I’ve LEARNED even more, and I think I’m finally figuring out how to balance writing, work, taking care of myself, having a social life, taking care of Mom, and a lot of other Real Life things I used to ignore in favor of writing obsessively.

See? That’s some serious progress right there.

That said, I don’t think I’ll be participating in the next round of ROW80.

Now, don’t get me wrong; I love ROW80, I love the people I’ve met via ROW80, and I love its creator, Kait Nolan (we are sisters separated at birth).

I just need a break from it.

Much of my blog content has become ROW80-related, which is great, but I don’t want my blog to ONLY be a bunch of “I wrote this number of words this week” posts, and that’s what happened during my busier weeks. I don’t want to have ROW80 check-in posts to fall back on; I want to HAVE to generate interesting, fun posts.

Also, I don’t like seeing how I’ve slacked off with check-in posts and commenting on other people’s blogs. That just adds one more thing to the list of “things I should be doing but can’t seem to keep up with.” And I know the point of ROW80 is that there IS Real Life, and we can’t always meet the goals we started with, and we CAN be flexible.

But I still want to sit out this round, just for a break. Cavendish is going into copyedits soon, I need to get some serious work done on Cracked, and I need to start planning for my next middle grade book. Plus, I’m just settling into my new job, Mom will be heading back to her chemo treatments soon, and there are a couple of other major personal things on the horizon that might take up a good bit of time.

So, as much as I love ROW80, and as happy as I am that it’s helped me figure out how to be a little less insane this year, I’m going to sit out for this next round. I’ll probably still pop in from time to time on everyone’s ROW80 check-in posts and wave my writerly pom-poms, though; never fear!

I hope that all of you are happy with your ROW80 progress this past round, and that, if you haven’t yet participated in ROW80, you head over to the blog and see what it’s all about. If you need help staying accountable with your writing, if you want to interact with a kind, encouraging community of writers, and if you want to participate in a writing challenge that knows you have a life, you’ll love ROW80.

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ROW80 Round Two: 6/19/11 Check-In

20 Jun

So, this is my second-to-last check-in post.

Wowzers.

I’m pretty disappointed with how inconsistent I’ve become regarding ROW80-related stuff (like, for example, how I’m technically putting this post up late). It’s just that so much has happened over the the last 80ish days, and I’m still figuring out how to balance everything. I feel like who I am now, and who I was at the beginning of this round, are two completely different Claires.

That’s an odd thing to realize.

But perhaps I’ll save the introspection for my last check-in post on Wednesday.

Yes? Yes.

For this post, it’s enough to say that I’m still tweaking Cavendish revisions, so I haven’t yet dived back into Cracked, as planned. And that’s okay. I’ve been scribbling down thoughts and brainstorming in the car with my Cracked playlist blaring, and you know what’s really cool? I’m learning (slowly, surely, sometimes painfully) how to pace myself, how to go easy on myself, how  it’s okay to focus on one thing at a time and let other things simmer and stew until I’m ready for them.

Life’s crazystressfulbusyridiculous enough without adding our own crazy to it, you know? I guess it all comes down to what I talked about in my inspirational post for this round: We’ve got to focus on what we CAN control.

We’ve also got to focus on setting reasonable expectations for ourselves. We’re only human. As much as I hate to admit about myself, it’s true. I’m  flawed, I make mistakes, sometimes I’m stupid, sometimes I’m a hot mess. Sometimes I’m tired and I just physically/emotionally/mentally cannot stay up till 3:00 in the morning to finish writing a chapter. Sometimes, I just have to give in to exhaustion and sleep.

It’s a hard reality to face.

But that’s for another post (coming soon).

Anyway, once the lingering bits and pieces of Cavendish revisions are settled and sent off to Editor Lady, I plan to settle into a world of — well. Perhaps I shouldn’t tell you just yet. Everyone likes surprises, right? Suffice it to say, the world of Cracked is dark, sexy, dangerous, and more than a little insane, and I’m so excited to get lost in it.

Other Exciting Items of Business:

1) This week is my first official week of work at the new job (last week was training). At a public library. During the summer. I’m so incredibly nervous that I’ll make a fool out of myself, scrabbling to keep up and learn the ropes during such a busy season, with patrons crawling out my ears and an inbox overflowing with assignments. I mean, I’m also excited. But also really frickin’ nervous. PRAY FOR ME?

2) You might want to keep an eye on the blog this week (I say gleefully, eyeing the stack of ARCs on my desk). I mean, I’m just saying. I might be starting something very EXCITING, you see. Something that will span many weeks and result in me sending out PRESENTS. Something with an alliterative title, even (!). It might BEHOOVE you to linger around, is all (you little book-loving scamps, you).

~*~

Check out the other second-to-last ROWers’ posts here.

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ROW80 Round Two: 6/15/11 Check-In, aka, SPONSOR FAIL

15 Jun

My heavens above, y’all.

Of late, I have utterly FAILED as a ROW80 sponsor.

I haven’t been posting check-ins. I haven’t been posting comments on YOUR check-ins.

I have been, instead, just plain flailing all over the place. I’m so sorry to have fallen off the ROW80 radar, you beautiful ROWers, you. I feel pretty terrible about it.

But you know what? I’m doing my best, and that’s all I can do. So, TAKE THAT, GUILT.

Anyway, lots of things have been happening on Planet Claire! Is it an excuse for this recent slackage? Perhaps; perhaps not. It IS, however, a reason.

THINGS like:

1) Yesterday, I started a new job!

It’s a part-time librarian job at a fantastic public library, and I love the facilities, and I adore my colleagues, but, see, before today, I was doing that thing where I freak about something an unreasonable amount and make it out to be much scarier and/or more difficult than it actually turns out to be, and you’d THINK that by now I’d know better than to do this, but you would be wrong. So, I’ve been running around doing that Steve-Carrell-screaming thing, worrying that I don’t have the right clothes, and worrying that all my new co-workers will hate me, etc. etc., crazy neuroses, etc.

2) The day before yesterday, I finished another round of revisions!

I’ve been scrambling for the last few days to get these done before starting the new job (AND I MADE IT, DANG IT), and I’m so pleased with them. Like, beyond pleased with them. My editor is brilliant and insightful, and I can’t even tell you how excited I am about this process. I’m learning so much, and each new step toward getting my book out into the world is its own precious, crazy adventure.

3) Today, I’m returning to Cracked!

It’s been a while since I’ve worked concretely on this WIP, simply because I wanted to focus on revisions first. But my brain’s been noodling over a few awesome ideas, and I’m really excited to get back to work. Since this ROW80 round is nearly over, and the next step in Cracked is to re-work and re-smash-together the chapters I’ve already written, which could be kind of a weird, immeasurable process, I’m settling on one simple goal for the remainder of this round: Work on Cracked. That’s it.

4) Next week, I’m beginning a ginormous, multi-week giveaway!

That’s right. You heard me. A ginormous giveaway.

Details to come, next week. All I’ll say right now is that there will be ARCs. Plural. And not just any ARCs, no. FANTASTIC ones.

On that note (MWAHAHA), check out the other, less-faily ROWers here.

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