The start-of-round post for this round tells us to focus on improving some aspect of our writing. This is probably a good idea, but I’m not sure how to choose a problem to focus on. For now, I’m just aiming to write more often, and trusting that a problem will show up in reflection, like characterisation did last round.
I take heart from the variety of goals the other participants have picked, which reminds me #ROW80 isn’t just for the people who already write daily.
So my goals this round (my 4th, the twelfth of #ROW80 itself):
- Finish reading a book every two weeks.
- Reflect on something in my writing each week.
- Write 1000 words on a project each week — either a story, or my Mary-Sue research project (see below).
- Write at least five days out of every seven (not counting work stuff or check-ins).
“Research Project”
The research project I’ve been working on is basically my attempt to make sense of the Universal Mary Sue Litmus Test.
I tend to believe everything I read, so my first impression was that the test was an eminently sensible idea. My second, contradictory impression was that it would needlessly forbid a lot of characters.
To see which was correct, I decided to score all the books I read, and see whether the test scores matched people’s opinions of them.
I’m not sure how well this will work, as good writing isn’t a particularly easy thing to measure. But working on it does mean I read a wide variety of different books, and I have got a few interesting measurements so far.
I’m in the process of setting up a new website to rant about this on, so it doesn’t get mixed up with what I post here.
Good luck and happy writing!
Jenkins Rising 