#ROW80 Final Check-in 12/20/15

I’ve decided to wrap this up due to the fact that the next week is going to be nuts and I tend to forget about my Wednesday check-ins. So, here’s where I finished at:

~Finish Fireborn (I’m within 5k-10k to the end) – Unfortunately not, but I am so close I can taste it. The draft is at 19k after rewriting the last 5k or so. It’s my #1 priority after finishing up Pirouette in the new year.
~5k more on Covenant –Unfortunately not. Only wrote 1,345 words, but that’s something!
~Barring unforeseen craziness, I’d like to participate in NaNoWriMo with a modified goal of 30k (because my wrists can’t take 50k). Need to decide on a project, Survivor Rewrite or Ever Touched. Both need to be written, and there are compelling reasons for working on both but…just. can’t. decide! DONE! Participated in NanoWriMo with Ever Touched and ended with a wordcount of 32k.
~Pirouette revision for publisher – On page 30 of 250, so I’ve finally moved on from the first 24 pages! Yay!

Non-writing goals:

~Shoot test roll of 35mm film and develop HALF DONE. Shot test roll, but need new chemicals which I have not bought yet. And I also need to finish cleaning/dusting and reorganizing my darkroom
~15 minutes of physical activity (anything that gets me out of my chair counts: cleaning, walking, straightening, breaks from writing, etc) 3 times per week DONE for the most part. I managed physical activity at least once a week, but sometimes I got two or three in, so I call that a win.

I’ve had some personal stuff happening this round, and freelance work as well, so I didn’t do as well as I’d hoped. But I’m moving forward, if slowly, and that’s what counts.

Chocolate consumption: Not as much as I’d like, as a rule, this round because dieting. I’m sure the holidays will blow this all to hell anyway. 😉

How did you do on this round?

And Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all! I will be participating in ROW80 next year.

 

 

#ROW80 Final Check-in 3/26/15

I’m a day late, but I’m here!

I’ve been working on the final edits on Grave Touched. I’m up to page 16, but I may need to backtrack to tweak a few things. I hope to get a decent amount done this weekend, however. 😉

Tomorrow is my birthday. My beloved hubby is taking me out to dinner, and I will have a nice, relaxing evening at home afterward. Will probably edit, because I’m insane, but hey — I need to get the work done, and I want to get the work done, so there you go.

How did I do this round?

~Start writing first draft of Fireborn (Reaper Girl #2). YES, I started it and up to almost 15k now. I had hoped to end the round with 15k, and I’m less than 300 words from that, but I really needed to focus on GT edits. It’s a win.
~Settle on a plot (loose) for Ever Touched (FT #3) YES, pretty much settled. I still may tweak it some, but the basis is there.
~Work on Survivor one day a week (“work” loosely defined as: plotting, planning rewrite, brainstorming, actual writing, poking at it with a sharp pointy stick…) YES, I did this every week I wasn’t on a deadline. It’s been slow going, but I hope to speed up once I get further in. Right now, I’m still cringing at the awful writing and planning to rewrite it completely. We’ll see how that goes once GT is released and I have less swimming around in my head.

So, I’d call this round a success! I will be joining Round 2 for sure, so I’ll definitely be around.

(As for chocolate consumption…through the roof, mostly due to stress. Oops?)

I’ll also be revealing the Grave Touched cover and blurb on April 6th, so stay tuned for that!

#ROW80 Check-in 9/28/14 – Better late than never

My how time flies! I’ve been doing PT and just got back from our 4th camping trip of the year. Next week is the fifth and last. I absolutely love camping. This time, we went to Lakeport, one of the campgrounds where I spent many, many camping trips with my family. Some were even church campouts. There’s this swing set I used to swing on, near the beach. That’s my clearest memory of camping. Well, I wondered if it was still there. And this morning, hubby and I were walking around and voila…we found it! It gave me a little thrill to see that. (They may have moved the location slightly, but it’s still in the same basic spot). It was really cool…like coming home. 😀

On to writing. I did the math and since the last check-in (on Sept. 10th), I’ve written a whopping 25k. In total, since this round started, I’ve written 60k. (!!!!!) I’m at 102k and nearing the end. I have the climax to write and the tying of loose ends. I may be able to use some of the old material, as the very end is staying the same. It’s just the mechanics that are changing. There’s also one aspect of things I neglected to put in, and it’s pretty important so I’ll be making some notes before starting the revision.

I will definitely participate in Round 4 and will probably be revising mostly. The deadline’s coming close. I can’t believe there are just THREE MONTHS left in the year!

Stats! (cuz we all love them!)
Total words written: ~60k
Words remaining: 0
What’s happening: We’re about to enter the climax.
What’s next: Tying of loose ends
Eye report: Been bugging me a bit
Back report: Terrible. Took a pain pill. 😦
Chocolate consumption since last check-in: A whole lot! A few small bags of M&Ms (my favorite!), cookies &cream popsicles (2?), s’mores, WW snacks….that’s all I can think of at the moment. There’s probably more I’m forgetting.

This was a GREAT round and lots of fun! See ya in Round 4!

#ROW80 Final Check-in Round 2

I’ve been so insanely busy that I missed the two previous check-ins. But I wanted to make this one for sure.

As you know, I’ve made some decent progress on several projects. I’ve finished just shy of 10k, which is 25k below my initial goal. Life took some big swings at me, and I haven’t been writing as much. I’ve been mostly editing, which I didn’t factor into my total numbers. I’m finally finished with Reaper Girl and all that’s left is copyedits on the other stories (and Reaper Girl at the end). After that’s put to bed, my next priority is the Grave Touched rewrite. That really, really, really needs to get going again. I think I wrote only once on it this month. I’m ~40k in, ~80k to go.

So next round, that will be the priority. And possibly a side project, just to keep my muse from gnawing on me too much.

Final stats!

Words written: ~10,000
Words remaining: ~25,000
Projects worked on: 4 (Reaper Girl, Awaken Me, Soulfire, and Grave Touched)
Times wrist was a problem: 2
Times used voice recognition: 1
Times FINIS: 1 (Reaper Girl)
Chocolate consumption: 29 mentions total, 5 mentions of “a lot” or “too much,” 2 mentions of “none.” (!!!)
Music: Adam Lambert, In Flames, Def Leppard, Within Temptation, Goo Goo Dolls, The Fray, Device, Halestorm

Annnnd that’s it for this round. Thanks for visiting.

#ROW80 Check-in the Twenty-Third – with a bonus snippet!

Yeppers, I did it!  I made my second goal.  Kind of funny…I finished last night’s writing less than 200 words away from 40k. (!!!)  I was running short on time, and I (really!) didn’t have any more time.  So I promised myself I’d write at least 200 words today before posting this (usually I post first and write after).  So, I ended up writing 337 words.  And I hit 40k.

And the groundwork has now been laid.  Now the crap really hits the fan.  It’s gonna be awesome. 

ROW80 has been awesome experience.  I’ve met some wonderful people and I was able to keep focused and accountable, which is one of the best motivators for me.  Who’s in for Round 2?

Stats!

Running total: 40,155 words
Words remaining: +5,155 words
Feeling: Triumphant and accomplished
Body count: Still 1 person possessed.
Eye report: Slightly twinge-y
Back report: A pain.  Looking into it tomorrow

And, a bonus!  A snippet of today’s work.  Please note that it’s unedited and rough.  But it’ll give you an idea of what I’m doing.  Ignore the wacky formatting — not sure how to fix that.

“Open your eyes,” Soren said. “Talk to me face to face. I want to know why you did it.”

A blast of light killed the darkness. I could see again!

My vision blurred in and out. Adjusting. Excitement filled me.

“Soren.” My lips moved. It was my voice. But it wasn’t me. “Soren, calm yourself. I cannot have you getting distressed.”

Soren was translucent, phasing in and out of corporeality. Oh, Soren. Didn’t he say something about being weakened when the Queen….?

Oh, [crap].

It was her. She was speaking through me!

But could I talk to Soren?

“Soren,” I said, and my voice echoed around me. I couldn’t talk too loud, or Ixania would know I was here. “Soren, it’s me. I’m still here.”

Soren didn’t react to this at all. He just seat there, wearing this horrible, devastated look that broke my heart into tiny little shards.

He couldn’t hear me. I was…mute.

“I am going to be distressed, Ixania. This is not what we agreed upon.”

“You had an agreement?” I asked, then shut up. He couldn’t hear me. Duh.

“Who is there?” Soren asked, looking around him. Had he heard me?

“No one is here but you and I,” Ixania said with my mouth and vocal chords.

“I thought I heard something.”

Ixania scoffed. “Nothing is here, dearest. Now, I know we had an agreement, but I had to…what is the word…improvise. Solstice did their job, preparing Miss Emily to be my Vessel. So it had to be done.”

“And it could not be anyone else?” Soren asked.

“Good question, Soren,” I murmured. I tried to move my hands, my feet, my head. It was like being paralyzed from the neck down — I had no sensations at all. I could hear and see, but that was about it.

I was a prisoner in my own body.

That scared me down to my bones.

How would I get out of this? Could I get out of this? Or was I stuck…forever?