#ROW80 Round 2 Wrap Up

Well we still have tomorrow before end of round, but it’s not going to make a huge difference in whether or not I meet my goals, so I figure I’d go ahead and write my wrap up post today on my regular midweek check-in day.

So, these were my Round 2 goals:

• Write 20 out of every 30 days. This one went really well, particularly since I sorted out how I could track my plotting progress on other projects.  I racked up 20/30 for April, 26/31 for May, and so far 15/18 for June.   
  
• Push my daily minimum from 600 to 700.  This one was kind of all over the place.  I was hitting just over 500 a day in April, well over 1k a day in May (lots of plotting that month), and I’m hanging out in the 600s this month during revisions.
• Finish Riven. I finished the first draft May 17th.  I am presently about halfway through Revision Hell.
• Write a short story.  Yeah…this just flat didn’t happen.  I plotted out several but I’ve been consumed with other things.
• Test out my own version of fast drafting on my next project.  Due to said Revision Hell, I have not yet gotten to my next project, but I’ve been trying something similar with revisions, sitting down the night before and writing out a detailed summary of the next scene (I’m doing a fair bit of rewriting), and it has DEFINITELY helped me get in the right space for writing such that on the totally new scenes where I’m not splicing in with old material, I’m averaging around 1k or so.  So the plan for the next project (and I DO know what it is now!) will be to spend 2-4 weeks fast drafting a super detailed outline/summary covering each scene without focusing on actual prose, which will hopefully enable me to work out any major logic kinks or whatever before I sit down to actual drafting, such that the actual drafting will (I hope) go quicker.
• Finish prepping my Psych and Law class for fall.  Lectures are written.  I’m still recording them.
• Work on getting off the sugar.   Done.
• Read The Art of War For Writers by James Scott Bell.  Did this.  Loved it.  I’ve got underlining and sticky tabs all over the place.
• Incorporate daily meditation.  I did this…some.  And it helped.  Usually only about 5 minutes a day, but it helped kind of clear the cobwebs and settle me after work.    I just kind of need to set myself some kind of reminder to DO IT.
• Play.  I suppose this depends on how you define play, but I feel like I’ve done a fair bit of this with writing stuff, planning the next project (which feels like a whole lot of play), revisiting one of my older bunnies and doing some fun plotting on it.  Reading.  Other play…not so much.  Super duper busy at the evil day job, and that’s not going to let up any time soon.

All in all, I’m pretty satisfied with this round.  I’ll keep on plugging away at Revision Hell between now and the start of Round 3.

In other news, after steam cleaning my carpet 4 times in 24 hours, Callie went last night with no accidents, so we’re hoping this…whatever…is through her system.  Poop just really throws a kink in the creative process.  TMI maybe, but I’m just sayin’.

Also, best use for Barbie Jeeps EVAR: