End Round 1 Final Report

Okay so let’s review the goals I made for this Round of ROW80:

1. Write an average of 600 words a day on DOTH (the first of the YA trilogy I’m working on).  Well, according to my handy dandy spreadsheet, I had 49 writing days out of the 80, with an average word count of 841 words (on writing days).  I wrote fewer days than I would like, but this is, as I say, the writing challenge that knows I have a life.   I did not write for half of January and for many days in March because of work travel, dealing with getting our house relisted on the market, and other assorted excitements (DABWAHA) and obligations.  But the days I did write went well.  I am 33235 words into DOTH.  Not the halfway point I’d wanted, but not shabby.  I also wound up with bits written on 4 other projects for an annual total of 41188 words so far.  I’m averaging just over 500 words a day counting the non-writing days, so still on target for that goal for the year.  I had 17 plotting days.
2. Using my handy dandy, newly revised word tracking spreadsheet, I want to figure out what my most productive times of day are and capitalize on them.  This is, hands down, after work, just because at this point it is the only consistent chunk of time I can write.  My lunches 3 days a week are taken up with traction (which should, hopefully, be over soon), and mornings have been taken up with extra exercise to try to make up for the lack of most of my lunch time workouts.  I don’t know that I have particularly capitalized on this fact, as assorted distractions have prevented me from spending as much time just thinking about the story and keeping my head in the game.  My focus has not been as good as I’d like.
3. I want to finish the blueprint for DOOM and come up with a tentative scene list.I nearly finished the blueprint for DOOM.  I also nearly finished the blueprint for Revelation and started a series bible for a potential Mississippi based contemporary romance series.  I also started a proper series bible for my Mirus series.
4. I want to make a blueprint for a potential Mirus story that’s niggling.I finished the blueprint and scene lists for two Mirus novellas, Longest Night and a revised story to go with Riven.
5. On the fitness front, I will commit to a 2 day split over 3 days of weight training (Workout A, Workout B, Workout A one week, BAB the next) from Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle. This was less of a success.  I had some illness, a few injuries, but I’m still plugging away.  I have actually switched over to a combined weights/resistance band workout called Tone Every Inch, and I think I am going to make a routine that combines some from both.  I’m seeing toning and improvement.
6. I will also commit to a minimum of 45 minutes of cardio a day.This was mostly a success, on at least 4 to 5 days a week.  I’m up to jogging a little over 2 miles.  This would go better if a) it wasn’t raining all the time and b) DST hadn’t kicked in, thus making getting out of bed a feat worthy of the heroes of old.
7. I aim to reduce my body fat percentage by 3%.  This just didn’t happen.  I’m down a bit, finally rid of my Christmas weight, though, so I am content with that.

All in all, I’d say it was a pretty successful round and a good beginning to the year.  See everybody April 2nd for the start of Round 2!