ROW80 Week 11: Learning

(other Round of Words in 80 Days participants)

Last week started well, but I didn’t keep up the pace.

I wrote every day from Monday to Friday — including three days editing my short story — then got nothing further done over the weekend.

That said, I enjoyed what I did get done. Coming back to the story daily helped a lot with staying focused on finishing the draft, rather than randomly redoing things.

I doubt I’ll post the story before Thursday, when this round ends.

Even if I haven’t met that goal, though, the attempt seems to have helped my editing skills. I’m feeling a lot more confident about being able to post a short story than I did at the start of the round.

Good luck and happy writing.

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#ROW80 R12, Week 1: The shiny things

My new goal this round is to write daily, and I managed that with flying colours — not a day missed yet.

Distracted by my focus on the new, I didn’t start off quite as well on my other goals. I had planned to write a post about the research project, but I didn’t have the data I needed; so I spent the time collecting data, and only wrote a few hundred words of notes. By the time I realised I’d have to get my word count from Conkers, it was the weekend, and I only finished half a scene.

I did get quite a bit of poetry written; just not the stuff I wanted to focus on. Now, all I have to do is turn that same focus on to Conkers…

With such a half-hearted week, I didn’t want to miss reflection, so it’s in this post.

A Valentine’s Day Sonnet

Last week I realised two things: I was due for another sonnet around Valentine’s Day, and the sonnet is traditionally a form of love poetry. Hence this piece of writing.

A heart that beats has not yet turned aside.
A tongue that still can speak might not refuse.
Live through the moment and enjoy the ride;
Let what has been make up for what you lose.

Don't clutch the friends you have, the life you live.
Seek greener grass! Aim for a brighter star!
In each new love, have all your heart to give,
And swear to keep the faith when you're afar.

Live so you'll know they never will forget
What you once were, or who you've now become.
Ask for "not much", but treasure what you get,
And brighter shine to know your time will come.

[Ignore the whole of what is said above,
For evil things can nothing know of love.]

ROW80 Check-in, Middle of Week 5

Here’s my week 5(a) linky.

I wrote another 1000 words on Tuesday, which isn’t quite enough to catch up: if I write another thousand on the weekend, I’d still be 100 words short, since I was behind 600 at the end of last week. On the other hand, it means I’m starting this week on the (metaphorical) right foot. We shall see.

I keep meaning to explain what my writing project actually is at some point, and today I can’t think of anything else to say, so:

I find that the longer I keep an idea, the more complicated it gets and the more invested I am in it; this reaches a point where I don’t want to actually write it because it could turn out to be trash. To avoid that, I decided to deliberately make bad ideas part of the story, forcing myself to throw it away. The value of the writing (if any) will have to be in the things I learn and habits I build doing it.

So far, it seems to be working as a motivation technique, but that could just be the discipline of writing weekly.