Tag Archives: ROW80 goals

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ROW80 2014 – Round 2 – Check-In 1

ROW80 Logo

Hello gentle reader,

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you may recall a time when I took part in the ROW80 Challenge. From April 2012 to June 2013, I checked in every Sunday and reported on my writing progress. Then revisions for LILY IN THE SHADOWS took over my life, then I signed with my agent, and… I gave up on ROW80 check-ins.

But I’m back!

If you’re new around here, A Round of Words in 80 Days (aka ROW80) was created by Kait Nolan. It is “the writing challenge that knows you have a life”. Each ROW80 round runs for 80 days and the participating writers have to set themselves writing goals for that time. Each Wednesday and Sunday, we check in and let the others know how we are doing. The idea is to form writing habits that writers will hopefully continue once the challenge is over.

Round Two started on Monday 7th April (so I jump in a little late) and it will end on Thursday 26th June. If you would like to join in and become a part of the ROW80 community, please do so, it’s not too late and we’re friendly!

Here are my goals for this round (I always keep them very simple):

  1. Read or write every day
  2. Write the first draft of my new YA Historical Fantasy (hopefully by the end of this round I’ll be able to tell you what it’s about!)

Here is the Linky for the other check-in posts. How are you other ROW80 writers doing?

 

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Goals for ROW80 Round 2 & Camp NaNoWriMo

Hello gentle reader,

ROW80 Logo

Monday 1st April 2013 (that’s today!) is the official start date for Round 2 of A Round of Words in 80 Days (aka ROW80). I have decided to join this writing challenge for the fifth time. Created by Kait Nolan, ROW80 is “the writing challenge that knows you have a life”, or “the challenge that champions the marriage of writing and real life.” Each ROW80 round runs for 80 days and the participating writers have to set themselves writing goals for that time. The idea is to form writing habits that writers will hopefully continue once the challenge is over.

As you may know if you follow this blog, my daily life is pretty crazy. I have a day job that keeps me extremely busy, I travel a lot and I read tons of books. Fitting some writing time in my schedule is a challenge, but I’m still very intent on getting published one day. So here is my goal for this round (and yes, it is the same as the last round’s…) :

Write or edit every day

This Second Round starts today and will end on Monday 17th June.

If you would like to join in this writing challenge and become a part of the ROW80 community, here are the rules:

  1. Post a goals post in which you lay out your goals for this round.
  2. Post a check-in post every Wednesday and/or Sunday, in which you share your progress with the other ROW80 participants.
  3. Comment on other participants’ check-in posts.

Here is the Linky for the other participants’ posts. If you decide to join in the ROW80 fun, you may want to take part in our Twitter sprints as well, hosted by the ever awesome Lauren Garafalo under the #ROW80 hashtag.

Camp NaNoWriMo 2013

But this Spring, I have a novel to finish, and I’ve decided (prompted by Lauren!) that ROW80 won’t be enough of a writing challenge to get me where I need to be by June. So I have also decided to take part in Camp NaNoWriMo. Based on November’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), Camp NaNoWriMo “provides the online support, tracking tools, and hard deadline to help writers write a novel in a month… other than November!” Thus my goal is to finish writing LILY IN THE SHADOWS by 30th April. We’ll see if that happens…

What are your ROW80 goals for this round? Are you joining Camp NaNoWriMo? Let me know your writing plans in the comments below!

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ROW80 Round 1 – Goals!

ROW80 Logo

Hello gentle reader,

January 7th, 2013 (that’s today!) is the official start date for Round 1 of A Round of Words in 80 Days (aka ROW80). I have decided to join this writing challenge for the fourth time. Created by Kait Nolan, ROW80 is “the writing challenge that knows you have a life”, or “the challenge that champions the marriage of writing and real life.” Unlike NaNoWriMo which runs for only a month, each ROW80 round runs for 80 days and the participating writers have to set themselves writing goals for that time. Each Wednesday and Sunday, we check in and let the others know how we are doing. The idea is to form writing habits that writers will hopefully continue once the challenge is over.

As you may know if you follow this blog, my daily life is pretty crazy. I have a day job that keeps me extremely busy, I travel a lot and I read tons of books. Fitting some writing time in my schedule is a challenge, but I’m still very intent on getting published one day.

So here are my goals for this round (and yes, I know they are the same as the last round’s, but if at first you don’t succeed…) :

Write or edit every day

Writing – Write a short story, and continue writing the first draft of The Cursed King

Editing – I’m currently querying The Last Queen, and I keep this goal in case someone (!) asks for a revision…

This First Round starts today and will end on Thursday, March 28th. Every Sunday I post about an author’s successful journey into publishing. Make sure to stop by if you need motivation to keep writing!

If you would like to join in this writing challenge and become a part of the ROW80 community, here are the rules:

  1. Post a goals post in which you lay out your goals for this round.
  2. Post a check-in post every Wednesday and/or Sunday, in which you share your progress with the other ROW80 participants.
  3. Comment on other participants’ check-in posts.

Here is the Linky for the other participants’ posts. What are your ROW80 goals for this round?

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ROW80 Round 4 – Goals!

October 1st, 2012 (that’s tomorrow!) is the official start date for Round 4 of A Round of Words in 80 Days (aka ROW80). I have decided to join this writing challenge for the third time. Created by Kait Nolan, ROW80 is “the writing challenge that knows you have a life”, or “the challenge that champions the marriage of writing and real life.” Unlike NaNoWriMo which runs for only a month, each ROW80 round runs for 80 days and the participating writers have to set themselves writing goals for that time. Each Wednesday and Sunday, we check in and let the others know how we are doing. The idea is to form writing habits that writers will hopefully continue once the challenge is over.

As you may know if you follow this blog, my daily life is pretty crazy. I have a day job that keeps me extremely busy, I travel a lot and I read tons of books. Fitting some writing time in my schedule is a challenge, but I’m still very intent on getting published one day.

So here are my goals for this round (and yes, I know they haven’t changed much since the last round, but if at first you don’t succeed…):

Write or edit every day

Editing – Finish my current round of editing for The Last Queen, get my manuscript critiqued and beat-read, then edit some more.

Writing – Write a short story, and continue writing the first draft of The Cursed King

Round Four starts on Monday, October 1st and will end on Thursday, December 20th.

If you would like to join in this writing challenge and become a part of the ROW80 community, here are the rules:

  1. Post a goals post in which you lay out your goals for this round.
  2. Post a check-in post every Wednesday and Sunday, in which you share your progress with the other ROW80 participants.
  3. Comment on other participants’ check-in posts.

Here is the Linky for the other participants’ posts. What are your ROW80 goals for this round?

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A Round of Words in 80 Days – Round 3 – Check-in #1

Hello gentle reader,

My blog is four months old today! And I am very close to have 100 followers, how exciting is that?! Thanks to everyone who has supported me and this blog in the past few months. You’ve made this blogging endeavour worth it…

So it is now July and I have decided to join the awesome writing challenge that is A Round of Words in 80 Days (aka ROW80) for the second time. Created by Kait Nolan, it is “the writing challenge that knows you have a life”, or “the challenge that champions the marriage of writing and real life.” Unlike NaNoWriMo which runs for only a month, each ROW80 round runs for 80 days and the participating writers have to set themselves writing goals for that time. Each Wednesday and Sunday, we check in and let the others know how we are doing. The idea is to form writing habits that writers will hopefully continue once the challenge is over.

Thus after my JuNoWriMo debacle (during which I have learned that one cannot spend an average of 9.1 hours per day at work AND write a 50.000 words novel), I am back to doing a writing challenge that will actually fit into my crazy daily schedule.

So here are my goals for this round:

1-      Write everyday

2-      Self-edit The Last Queen

This was one of my goals for the last round and I did complete it, however since then I have heard Back from a few beta readers/agents and I have some new editing to do.

3-      Continue writing the first draft of The Cursed King

This is the second book in my DARKLANDS epic fantasy trilogy (more info here) and I really want to finish a first draft during this round.

Round Three starts on Monday, July 2nd and will end on Thursday, September 20th.

If you would like to join in this writing challenge and become a part of the ROW80 community, here are the rules:

  1. Post a goals post in which you lay out your goals for this round.
  2. Post a check-in post every Wednesday and Sunday, in which you share your progress with the other ROW80 participants.
  3. Comment on other participants’ check-in posts.

Here is the Linky for the other participants’ posts. What are your ROW80 goals for this round?

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A Round of Words in 80 Days – Check-in #4

Let’s review: last week I missed my weekly check-in as I was away from home without an Internet connection. This week I’m back but I’ve had to change my goals, as what I had decided on four weeks ago is no longer attainable, given my personal circumstances (day job and other non-writing obligations).

So let’s have a look at my goals:

1-        Write the first draft of my new dystopian novel with at least 750 words per day: not anymore. I just don’t have the time. So I will probably write this first draft from time to time, but I cannot pretend I can write it every day, with a set number of words.

2-        Self-edit/revise The Last Queen so that I finally have a final draft for it: this is what I have to focus on. I need to be done with that by the end of June and so far this final draft is not ready yet. So it’s Revision, Revision, Revision for me. My manuscript needs to be 20K shorter, so I have to start making serious cuts in it. Samurai like.

That’s it for me. How are you other ROW80 writers doing?

Here is the Linky for the other check-in posts.

This week on my blog you can find:

– an interview with YA writer Rebecca Maizel on writing, reading and her books.

– a post on YA best-selling author Lauren DeStefano with her advice on writing a book and getting it published.

– inspiring pictures!

Happy writing!

 

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A Round of Words in 80 Days – Check-in #3

This week was an incredibly busy one for me and I’m afraid I didn’t complete all my goals for this challenge. But this is what happens when you spend one day of the week in Paris, and one in London, when you launch a Twitter account (you can now follow me here), when your day job takes over your life, when you exchange emails with publishers and when you interview writers for your blog. Don’t get me wrong, I had a great week, I just didn’t write as much as I wanted to (my need to sleep is ruining my schedule).

So let’s have a look at my goals:

1-    Write the first draft of my new dystopian novel with at least 750 words per day: not completed. I did write a few lines here and there but nothing close to 750 words a day. I might need to update this goal if my day job keeps me insanely busy as it did this week.

2-    Self-edit/revise The Last Queen so that I finally have a final draft for it: completed to a certain extent (the first part of the novel is edited). This is the only writing task I did this week, and it’s coming along well.

Here is the Linky for the other check-in posts.

This week on my blog you can find:

–       an exclusive interview with YA writer Beth Fantaskey on her books and the craft of writing.

–       a post on the definition of YA fiction.

–       my book of the week.

–       my pick for the Waiting On Wednesday meme.

How are you other ROW80 writers doing?

 

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A Round of Words in 80 Days – Check-in #2

So I’ve just finished my first week of ROW80 challenge (I joined in a few days late) and so far it’s going well (although I’ve been told this is often the case for the first week).

For the record, my goals are:

1-      I shall write the first draft of my new dystopian novel with at least 750 words per day.

2-      I shall also self-edit/revise The Last Queen so that I finally have a final draft for it.

And this is what happened this week:

1-      I did write 750 words per day of my new dystopian novel.

2-      I didn’t revise The Last Queen per say but I’ve been reading a book on self-editing (Self-editing for fiction writers by Browne and King) so I still think I’ve worked toward this goal.

As a result: yeah! This challenge is doing me some good.

Here is the Linky for the other check-in posts.

Also, please have a look at my post for today: an exclusive interview with YA Dystopian author Teri Hall on her books and the craft of writing.

How are you other ROW80 writers doing?

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A Round of Words in 80 Days – Check-in #1

 

On Friday I posted an interview with best-selling YA author Cinda Williams Chima and one of her comment sounded very true to me:

“The most important thing to do if you want to have a career in writing is to write. Sounds obvious, but it’s amazing how many would-be writers do everything but write. Don’t be building that online platform or looking for that agent or learning to write a query letter until you get yourself some skills.”

Just like many would-be-published writers, I am often guilty of that: I’ll come home from my day job, update my blog, look up some agents on the Internet, read a book, watch a movie, eat, make telephone calls, vacuum my living-room and… you get the idea. And then I go to bed without having written a single line of that novel I’m currently trying to finish.

But to every problem there is a solution.

Thus I have decided to join an awesome challenge called A Round of Words in 80 Days (aka ROW80). Created by Kait Nolan, it is “the writing challenge that knows you have a life”, or “the challenge that champions the marriage of writing and real life.” Unlike NaNoWriMo which runs for only a month, each ROW80 round runs for 80 days and the participating writers have to set themselves writing goals for that time. Each Wednesday and Sunday, we check in and let the others know how we are doing. The idea is to form writing habits that writers will hopefully continue once the challenge is over.

So here are my goals:

1-    I shall try to write the first draft of my new dystopian novel with at least 750 words per day.

2-    I shall also attempt to self-edit/revise The Last Queen so that I finally have a final draft for it.

We’ll see how that goes…!

Round Two started on Monday, April 2nd (so I jump in a little late) and will end on Thursday, June 21st.

If you would like to join in this writing challenge and become a part of the ROW80 community, here are the rules:

  1. Post a goals post in which you lay out your goals for this round.
  2. Post a check-in post every Wednesday and Sunday, in which you share your progress with the other ROW80 participants.
  3. Comment on other participants’ check-in posts.

Here is the Linky for the other check-in posts. How are you other ROW80 writers doing?

11/04/2012 Post Edit: so I’ve slightly changed the wording of my goals as a few people mentioned that I shouldn’t be using the words “try” and “attempt”. So far I’m doing well with those goals. More update on Sunday!