Walking the Sunday: A ROW80 update

I started ROW80 with some lofty goals, thinking maybe that it would be easy. In some ways it has proven to be easy. While some goals seemed to be harder to get motivated to work on. It sounds kind of like a standard revelation, where you learn what you can and cannot accomplish in a set time.

That sentence doesn't feel right to me. There is more to it than that.

I am of the mind that everything I want to accomplish with ROW80 or anything in life for that matter I can still accomplish. I need to clear this up now. Everything I want to do with my life from writing to theatre to keeping my house clean I am going to. Obviously, some of these goals might take longer and I am okay with this. Today is looking at the goals I have set and seeing if I indeed need to revise any with that schedule. Actually, upon review of my first ROW80 post, I have actually done pretty well. Some of the goals I have really been successful on include:

1. Attempt to finish 1 short story in the month of January. Date: January 31st. (This is done. I wrote a short story and revised it. Going to send it out to a few test reader a see what they think. I am confidant that I can write a short story in both February and March.)

• Write a short story or 1 act in February. Date: February 28th
• Write a short story or 1 act in March. Date: March 31st.

2. Journal at least twice a week throughout ROW80 and continuing afterwards. (This has been easier than I thought. Even if I don't write five full pages and I am still devoting two days a week to journaling.)

3. Finish my Obscure Poetry Month with a poem a day. No missing any days. Date: January 31st. (This is still going on, but I have NOT missed a day yet, nor will I. Even though I am a little sick of rhyming. I am not lying.)

4. Finish reading "Brisinger" and "Inheritance". Date: Brisinger - January 15th (CHECK). Inheritance - By February. (Been plugging along on "Inheritance", but now I have some new books that I just buy and want to read, including borrowing a copy of a novel by Hugh Laurie, "The Gunseller". This is gonna push me harder to spend more time reading.)

Now, there are some goals that I have been struggling with, but I am still going to try complete them. The biggest of these are my novels form NaNoWriMo 2011 and 2013.  I want to revise my first novel from NaNoWriMo 2011, "Tale of Memories". I guess I need to put a measurable date. Okay, lets aim for March 1st; and there is also the 2013 novel "All them Goodbyes" to begin work on... TBD. I need to sit down and work on these. Part of me, I think, is afraid that they won't be any good. I need to work past this and at least try and see if they are good enough to get published.  This really is my BIG goal and I need to devote more time to it.

I am glad that I am writing with more regularity though. I need more practice with writing, so one should not down play either. Some of these goals as they become habit I won't need to think about much. They will happen because they are habit. Thereby making the other goals easier to focus on. I think! That's what I am striving for anyway.

The hardest part this week to achieve any of my goals has been dealing with personal issues and that nice little Polar Vortex that has decided to descend upon the northeast. While very good for wanting to keep me in my study writing or editing; it's not great for always keeping me focused. When it's been this cold my ambition starts to freeze. Then I start to get distracted.

No matter. The Polar Vortex will not win, I am smarter than it! :-)

Tempest rehearsals start fully this week, so I will have my hands full learning Trinculo's lines and keeping up with the writing and editing and reading. Heh! I was never one for being complacent for long. I do love a challenge. Can't keep a good writer/reader down, Dear Readers! Especially if she is a theatre nerd!

I have an addition to my writing goals. I want to not only post my bi-weekly ROW80 update posts, but I want to return to posting a regular blog post during the week. I feel as though I posted this in a previous update. If so, my amendment  is that each week I WILL post a regular, non-ROW80 blog post every Friday/Saturday. I did miss this past Friday/Saturday, but no matter. I have decided this, so thus this week begins the new goal. Always a chance to start fresh. Additional amendment: I am going to edit at least  pages per editing session. Even if i do not edit everyday, when I do edit it will be  pages per session. Subject to be determined when I will designate editing times (sessions).

I really have been enjoying ROW80. There is something good about being able to stick to my goals and move forward. I have more confidence in myself and am able to use that to make good things happen.

Check out Other ROW80 participants: LinkyTools

Stick around Dear Readers, there will be more excitement brewing with this blog. New blogs to write and therefore read. Much more! HUZZAH! 2014 is headed in an awesome direction and I'm going to keep the flow going. Have a fantastic week, Dear Readers. Go and make something awesomely beautiful. Be good to each other. I leave you with a poem from  my Obscure Poetic Form Month, a Villanelle. The rhyme scheme is also posted for any and all who would love to try their hands a writing a villanelle. It's actually really fun!

1/20: Mirrors (via Tom Lawson)

Villanelle: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2

Mirror Truth

A portal to another world, where everything is reverse

Where you can perfect the form of beauty or exercise,

By watching your own parallel universe.

There are things that are truly worse

Then staring at yourself as you glamorize--

A portal to another world, where everything is reverse

Trying to find ways to coerce

Yourself that the reflection you see is the prize,

By watching your own parallel universe.

How many times have you recited verse

Into the reflection? Only to feel it bounce back lies.

A portal to another world, where everything is reverse

And yet, here is the only place you can rehearse,

Telling the lies they you have thought wise

By watching your own parallel universe.

You cannot feel that this is the only way to converse,

As great as the time is spent watching the eyes—

A portal to another world, where everything is reverse

By watching your own parallel universe.

1-20-2014 7:01 pm

*pictures from Goodreads and Morguefile