Sunday Summary and #ROW80 Update

  1. WordPress, it seems, is back to normal.  The site seemed to be down for a while yesterday, as I couldn’t get on any of my dashboards and even the sites themselves seemed to have difficulty loading.
  2. The highlight of the weekend was hubby and I going to see Puss In Boots yesterday.  The Face in giant screen 3D.  Oh yeah.  Of course the most fun for us was the fact that Selma Hyeck plays his love interest, Kitty Soft Paws.  C’mon.  You know you’ve wanted to see those two together again ever since Desperado.
  3. No one came to Friday’s open house.  We didn’t expect much but we’d at least expected a few people to swing by, have a muffin.  But no.  We’re taking it off the market in December and will try again in the spring.  If nothing else, I have the winter to enjoy my new backsplash.
  4. On the writing front I’m getting somewhat back in the groove.  Wednesday: 535, Thursday: 729, Friday: 652.  I didn’t write on Saturday because I used up my free time getting in an extra long workout to counter balance the fantabulous dinner we were going to have.  I also made the realization that the scene I’d been working on Friday was one, big, massive dialogue based info dump and really didn’t add to the conflict.  Um, oops.  So the writing road is kinda  bumpy right now.  I know this book will need some substantial revisions on the next pass.  But I’m determined to keep pushing forward through the rough patches–even if the writing machine kind of bottoms out–and get to the end.
  5. Most of my craft books are in storage somewhere, but I’ve got Plot and Structure in E, so I think I’ll start dipping into that.  I haven’t read a lot of craft stuff this year.  Been busy doing the actual writing.  But I think it’s time for a reset.  In that vein, Andrew Mocete had a nice breakdown of why flashbacks are generally bad (according to Dwight Swain’s Techniques of the Selling Writer, which I read a couple years ago).  It’s a really nice reminder.  And that’s kind of the thing.  I’ve read loads of books on craft, but it’s really hard to remember everything all the time, so that’s why I like to keep coming back to stuff.  I usually get a nice lightbulb moment of “Oh, right, I should be doing x, y, z.”
  6. I’ll be having a short week at work this week.   Hubs and I are going on vacation to Tybee Island, Georgia for a long weekend.  We’ve rented a cottage and are taking the dogs, so it should be a lovely, low-key holiday.  Not sure how much writing I’ll get done while I’m there, so I want to get stuff sorted in my head before we go.
  7. Don’t forget Daylight Savings Time ended here in the U.S. today.  Roll your clocks back an hour.  I’m so grateful that it’s over.  I HATE DST because it means it’s dark when I get up in the morning.  Given my extreme Non-Morning-Personness, this makes it HARD HARD HARD to get up because if it’s dark my brain says “What are you doing, fool?  It’s dark; you should be sleeping!”

13 thoughts on “Sunday Summary and #ROW80 Update

  1. I’m glad you got WP back up and running. I saw your tweets about having problems yesterday.

    Just a quick word from a “been there, done that” house seller. We took our house off the market through the 2009 holidays, after being on the market for a year. We put it back on the market the first week of January, which everyone said was crazy. Had a contract in a week. Go figure. No truer saying than, “It only takes one buyer,” I’ve been through what you’re going through, so I really feel for you and your husband. It’ll happen when you least expect it. Good luck, and positive thoughts your way for success. Enjoy the vacation.

    Great check-in. Thanks again for starting this whole ROW80 thing. It really rocks.~clink~

  2. The hour change was last weekend for us and the kids really seemed to struggle with it. 5am wake up calls every day :s

    Good to hear you are getting back into the swing of things with writing. I am planning to devour a few craft based books in the new year. What do you recommend I read first?

    1. My 3 must read craft books are Story Engineering by Larry Brooks, Goal, Motivation and Conflict by Debra Dixon and Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight Swain. I’ve got links to those and some others under the For Writers tab up top.

  3. I hate trying to sell a house. It’s so stressful.

    I don’t think flashbacks are always bad. I think the problem is that they are written badly. I don’t mind them in general, unless they are overused.

    Good luck!

  4. Good job on your word counts. And ugh on selling the house. Not a fun thing, especially in today’s environment. I hear you on DST – even with the extra hour of sleep, I always feel more tired.

    Have a great week!

  5. Here in the north, we go to work in the dark, and come home in the dark during most of the winter. And they make us exit the back of our building – into the interior of the campus – instead of letting us out the front doors. Yeah. Just waiting for a mugging. Or a random werewolf attack or something.

    Sorry to hear about your house; it’s hard selling right now. It took the guy across the street two years to sell his, and he had to lower his price by $20k. That had to hurt.

    Glad you’re getting back into the groove, and I’m glad to be back in ROW80. I’m a responsible kind of girl, but when I have no accountability, I tend to be a lazy one as well. 😉

  6. Anya told me yesterday that WordPress wasn’t working for her, but I wasn’t having any problems at that time. Weird how it was kind of random.

    I’m glad you’re getting back in your writing rhythm. Funny how you mentioned info dump in dialogue. That was mentioned on Andrew’s blog, and I said that I love dialogue and don’t mind learning about the story that way…as long as it’s done well.

    I hope you have a great time at Tybee Island. I’ve heard it’s a great place to unwind.

  7. Like Lauralynn said I’m so glad I wasn’t the only one having WP problems. It was the only site I couldn’t get to. I could get to it on my phone but not from home. I figured I must have had a problem in my settings and worked for hours to try to find it. Finally just gave up on it and then later it came back up. Stupid computers! Thought maybe I was just losing it myself.

    Anyway, hate that you didn’t have a lot of people at your open house. I’m sure you will get a buyer soon. I’ve got my fingers crossed for you. Maybe you could whip up a kitchen witch spell to get someone to buy it? 🙂

    Hope you have fun at Tybee Island! I’m headed to the beach at Panama City myself this week…can’t wait! Going to a huge car show that my hubby is setting up a vendor spot for but I’ll still get some downtime and I need it really bad! My day job is driving me crazy! *sigh*

  8. Ugh, dark mornings are the worst, and I am not looking forward to them. :/ I am glad to hear, however, that the WIP is coming along, although I do hate when I review what I’ve written only to find things like the dreaded info dump.

    Have a nice, short week, and enjoy the holiday!

  9. Love the PiB pic! Such cute kitty eyes and I’m curious to see it in 3D. Glad you are getting back to your writing goals. I’m with you on DST as well. Another non-morning person not wanting to wander in the dark. Good writing this week!

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