Amber’s April 29th Check In

Tags

Amber West, Check In, ROW80, Tell Me a Story

I am really pretty horrible about check ins, eh? I’m trying I promise.

The bad news: I have done little in the exercise/get fit front. I have discussed the possibility of getting some sort of exercise machine in this place so I can remedy that. With no car and the kid, the gym is impossible, and with the Florida summer coming on fast, running outside will kill me. Really.

The good news: I dove back into the WIP! I did a read-through/light edit of about 100 pages, then wrote another 2000 words. That is in addition to the weekly installment of the Tell Me a Story series (which currently needs someone to break the tie in the comments – go now!), and all the rest of my regular blogging.

I even blogged this weekend, wrote a book review before my deadline, and contributed a guest post to another blog.

AND IT’S NOT EVEN MONDAY!

Phew.

Amber’s April 18th Check In

Tags

Amber West, ROW80, updates

Howdy, folks.

I’m taking a break from the laundry to be a good ROWer and update you all.

I have a confession to make. I haven’t touched the WIP this week.

But I’m not upset about it.

You see, I started doing a fiction series on my blog, Tell Me a Story. Every Thursday, the next part comes out. I write it as I go, since each part is somewhat based on how the readers respond this week. I thought it would be a good writing exercise and something new to do on the blog.

I didn’t anticipate that I would have SO much fun doing it.

As of this week, I’ve added character interviews as a feature. More fun.

And that is a large part of why I write. For the enjoyment of it.

Remembering how much I enjoy being at the keyboard or snuggling with a notebook has me excited about getting back into my WIP. So, I think this has been a win all around, even if the WIP word count isn’t headed anywhere just yet.

Since this is my first “go” at sharing my fictional writing with the public, I’d love to expose myself to more readers. If you aren’t already reading the series, please have a look and feel free to chime in. If you enjoy it, spread the word to others!

Hope all my fellow ROWers are having a great week. I’ve seen some impressive word counts and goals being accomplished on Twitter!

PS – A little excitement today…I got a tweet thanking me for my latest #watchwed review from one of the show’s actors! It’s the simple things that make me happy, folks.

Pimp Your Blog

Hi fellow ROW80ers!

In an attempt to make it that much easier to keep tabs on you all, leave a link to your blog in the comments. I know I miss them from time to time on Twitter, so this will greatly assist me in visiting. (I posted this without checking in with my partners in ROWing, but I am sure they wouldn’t mind.)

Feel free to post to your blog as a whole, your favorite past post, or your most recent!

Happy writing!

Amber’s April 11th (ahem) Check In

Tags

Amber West, Henri the cat, ROW80, update

Okay, so it’s the 12th. I’ve been busy.

You see, in our crazy little household, circumstances cut us back to one vehicle some time ago. Since the hubs requires the car for work, I spend most days trapped at home (we don’t live in a city where you can really walk anywhere).

This week, he was talking an online course from home. This meant 1) I had access to a car and 2) I needed to get the toddler out of the house so he could concentrate on complex technical stuff.

So, every day has been filled with trips to the store, IKEA, and the bookstore.

I’ve managed to keep up with the blog and some writerly research, and the walking around with the child counts as exercise, right?

The hour a day dedicated to the WIP has NOT been happening, and I am realizing that it may have been a slightly overzealous goal to start with.

In more positive news, I am really excited about the Tell Me a Story series I started on Thursdays at my blog. It’s giving me an opportunity to stretch my creative writing muscles and engage an audience, which has been great fun. (If you haven’t checked it out yet, start here.)

How are my fellow ROW80ers doing? Let me know in the comments. Feel free to leave a link to your posts!

And now, for no reason at all, a French cat:

Tiffany’s ROW80 Goals

Tags

blogger, Football Sweetheart, goals, Round of Words in 80 Days, Row 80, Row of Wonder, Social Media, The Ooo Factor, Tiffany A. White, writer

Here we go again…

Once again, I have agreed to participate in Row80 and have already missed my first check in AND I’m having a hard time setting my goals.

Why do I do this to myself?

Because there is nothing quite like the support and encouragement the Row80 community provides.  Really.  That, and it always helps for someone else to hold me accountable.  For the most part, I’m good at working off of my daily list of items; but sometimes I fall behind schedule and have difficulty choosing what should take priority.

Without the other two-thirds of this here Row of Wonder, I don’t know where I’d be today.  Seriously.  Jen and Amber have carried me on many occasions on the days where I have felt like my story should be scratched entirely.  But instead, they make me smile and remind me that I’m not in this alone.

So in keeping with Amber’s format, here goes:

Goals

Blogging
Post three times per week, keeping with my already scheduled program over at The Ooo Factor.

Hahaha, get it?  I made myself laugh anyway…

Writing
I am technically finished writing Football Sweetheart and I am currently working on edits, as well as taking suggestions from my critique partners.  My biggest goal at this point, the goal taking the #1 priority, is self-publishing my YA mystery as soon as possible.  The cover is almost complete and I only have a handful of chapters left to edit.

As soon as I hit “publish” on my e-book, or however that works, I’m ready to get going full-steam-ahead on book two of my series.

Social Media
In addition to staying on top of blogs, Twitter, Triberr, Facebook, and Google+, I’d like to start spending time on my Pinterest page and other ways to reach potential readers of Football Sweetheart.  Social Media can really be a time suck each and every day.  This is perhaps my biggest obstacle in time management, thus the barren pages over on my pinboards.

Personal
I can not express enough how much I need to work out.  We’ve had a gym membership for over a year, and while there are months where we do a great job of actually going, there are unfortunately many more days where we just don’t go for whatever reason.  We’ve been shopping home exercise equipment and I am ready to get on track… especially since we just planned a lake weekend with my two friends.  I am giving myself until June to get back into “Tiffany-Happy” shape.

Okay, so I’m already a bit overwhelmed with these goals.  I better get to it.  Until the next check in…

Someone top off my glass of wine? Please?

Amber’s ROW80 Goals

Tags

goals

I signed up for ROW80 last round but kind of fell apart before I began.

With the help of my fellow ROW80ers, in particular the Row of Wonder, I’m hoping to keep it together this time around. When I participated last year, I know it helped  considerably so I’m looking forward to seeing where this round gets me.

Without further gilding the lily…

Goals

Blogging
Post at least 3x a week: This shouldn’t be too hard to do. With Wednesday’s “Why It’s Worth a Watch” series where Tiffany and I let you know what TV shows are worth your time, and my new fiction series Tell Me a Story on Thursdays, that’s a guaranteed two posts a week already.

Writing
I’ve decided that this time around, rather than assign myself a word count, I will give myself time. I haven’t carved out the specific schedule yet, but I’d like to dedicate an hour a day to working on my WIP. I’m 60,000 words into the first draft, so this round could mean making it to the end!

Social Media
In addition to the usual participation on other blogs, and general socializing via Twitter, I’d like to take the time to research other ways to reach out to future readers.

Personal
I could really use some suggestions on what kind of goal to set for this one. Eating healthier is not really a problem for me, but finding time to exercise is. I’m thinking of starting small; 15 minute exercise videos (YouTube, Netflix, and Hulu+ all seem to have some options in that department) seem doable, especially since the kid finds them entertaining.

There they are. For everyone to see.

Will I be able to keep to them? Stay tuned.

Same BatTime, same Bat…I mean, see you all Wednesday.

 

Jen’s ROW80 Goals

Tags

goals

Our intrepid author plots her next, uh, plot.

Hello! I participated in ROW80 last year and I really loved it. Not only did it give me a chance to track my progress (gee, what a novel idea — pun intended), I met a lot of terrific writers.

I’m excited to be back for 2012 Round 2. In this round, I’d like to make a few more friends.

Yes, that’s a goal. I’m going to try and be more active on other blogs and make some new writer friends. If you’re stopping by and would like to connect, feel free to say hello in the comments below or on Twitter!

As far as writing goals go, I want to finish my debut novel, THE FOURTH CHANNEL, about the world’s worst necromancer and her crazy, talking knives. I’ve had to put the book’s first few chapters through a Dr. Frankenstein-ish overhaul, and it’s making me shuffle up the rest of the book a little bit. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very excited about the change, but now I’ve got some work to do. When Round 2 is over, I want to have all of my revisions and self-edits done.

Also, my husband does all of my blog and short story edits (I call him “The Spouse-ditor”!), but he won’t be able to work on my novel. After all, he’s a programmer, not a professional editor, so it’s just too massive of a project for him. We’ve agreed to hire an outside editor for my book. By the time this round is over, I want to have an editor selected.

Hopefully this will situate me nicely to get started on another novel in Round 3. Fingers crossed. Nose to the grindstone.

Here I go!

Welcome to The Row of Wonder!

Tags

goals, ROW80, writers

Glad you could join us.

So what is this “Row of Wonder”, you ask?

Well, three writers, trying to accomplish all they set out to do decided to come together in one place to post their goals and progress, in an effort to encourage one other.

But, why “Row of Wonder”?

ROW80 is a writing challenge, started by the great Kait Nolan, that understands that while we may be writers, we have lives. This challenge allows us to keep on top of our writing, and cheer each other in the process. That’s the “Row” part. The “wonder” comes in because, well, frankly, we three are pretty awesome.

Totally real photo.

Ok, so maybe we don’t always feel quite that awesome about ourselves, but each one of us has a certain sense of wonder about each other.

It’s a great thing to have – a group of writers you respect, not only for their mad writing skills, but for being incredible human beings.

We keep each other going, even on those days when all we want to do is throw up our hands, or just throw up.

Even superheroes have bad days, ya’ll. That’s what sidekicks are for.

So, this is the place where we get to be each others heroes some days, and fantastic sidekicks on others. Just the incredibly witty and charming ones, of course.