What Else 2017, Week 5

Writing Stuff

A Round of Words in 80 Days is back on the non-Facebook side of the web. I gave it a go on Facebook, but that’s just not the place for me for this kind of thing. So, a big Thank You! to  Eden Mabee for getting things going again at the blog.

Belatedly, my goal for this quarter is to add 4,000 words/week to my main manuscript.

I did not hit that goal this week, but I did better than last week. I added 2457 words to Wicked Witch, Retired and rewrote 1932 words.

A Round of Words in 80 Days

The #FictFri prompt was “space/confine.”

Kelvaro was tall. He'd have problems on a regular couch, but on one sized for a giant, he had inches of space at head and feet. #FictFri

— Katherine Nabity (@Katen) February 3, 2017

Blogging Stuff

Only two posts this week:

• January Reading Wrap-Up
• Review ~ Moby-Dick; or, the Whale by Herman Melville

My Deal Me In story this week didn’t inspire any organized thoughts.

Fitness Stuff

Played B leagues games of ultimate frisbee on Tuesday and Thursday nights and then pickup on Friday at noon. The difference between regular league and B league for me is that in regular league, I might not even touch the disc during an entire game. In B league, I actually have a stat line. I’m averaging a score and a D per game!

I’m debating whether I want to get a run in before enjoying an afternoon/evening of watching other people play sports. Also, a Hurt’s Donuts just opened…on my block.

Other Life Stuff

Speaking of league, spring league registration opened on Friday. Stress! Chaos! Currently, we don’t have a league director, but we needed to get things going. Sifting through registrations and payments has taken a good chunk of my time during the last two days.

Lately, I’ve found that any added stress, good or bad, kind of sinks me. I need to get some resilience. Can you buy that in a can?

#ROW80 ~ Sunday Update, 11/6

Goal

Add 3125 words per week on Wicked Witch, Retired.

Update Round 4, Week 5

Man, some weeks.

Occasionally, I get a little overly neurotic. And every-so-often I get really worked up. This past week was every-so-often.

I didn’t finishing rewriting what I wanted to rewrite. I don’t know how many words have been added to the manuscript. I intend to finish the rewrite tomorrow  and get a good four days of writing in. Saturday is fall league finals.

Research of the Week

• History of the use of “hotel” as a word and concept
• Plural of faux pas
• Parts of an umbrella

A Round of Words in 80 Days on Facebook

#ROW80 ~ Sunday Update, 10/30

Goal

Add 3125 words per week on Wicked Witch, Retired.
(Or, 12,500 per month / 75K in 6 months.)

Update Round 4, Week 4

It was a flat week for me across the board. Which is funny considering how good the week before was. Oh, well. That’s how it goes. The manuscript is badly in need of some rewriting. The last 4K words or so have been sketchy. And, I haven’t been taking good notes/recording details. So, I will start out Week 5 doing a rewrite and try not to lag too far behind in word count land. All the more reason to not engage in some crazy NaNoWriMo plan…*

Word counts:

Monday: 266
Tuesday: 871
Wednesday: 530
Thursday: 525
Friday: 532
Saturday: 534

Week Total: 3,258
Month Total: 13,691
Manuscript Total: 29,135

* Like trying to write 25  2000 word short fiction pieces based on pictures and word prompts. I totally wouldn’t consider doing a nutsy thing like that with a standing goal of 12,500 words on the novel I’m already working on, the usual blog schedule, an attempt to finish a macroeconomics course by the end of the year (with additional reading), the busiest time of year for VOTS going on (including  league finals), and the first holiday that my parents are in-state. I absolutely wouldn’t be *that* crazy.

Research Link of the Week

I got nothing.

Playlist

The Kills, Ash & Ice (2016)

A Round of Words in 80 Days on Facebook

#ROW80 ~ Sunday Update, 10/23

Goal

Add 3125 words per week on Wicked Witch, Retired.

Update Round 4, Week 3

I’d like to say I was motivated by wanting Saturday off for the readathon, but really I hit a couple of scenes on Mon-Thurs that came together well. Most of that writing occurred in the morning. Friday was rough. I’ll probably rewrite what I wrote on Friday.

Monday: 772
Tuesday: 761
Wednesday: 764
Thursday: 1,050
Friday: 757

Total added to the manuscript this week: 4,104 words

Research Link of the Week

Usage of the word geas. (Usage over time isn’t really notable to my story. I just found it interesting.)

Playlist

Didn’t have anything going on other than the quiet of morning (which means traffic, the light rail, birds, and the graffiti team painting over walls) and the usual TV shows.

A Round of Words in 80 Days on Facebook

#ROW80 ~ Sunday Update, 10/16

Goal

Add 3125 words per week on Wicked Witch, Retired.

Update Round 4, Week 2

Between PMS and election stress fatigue, I pretty much checked out during the latter part of the week. While I like to keep to a six day work week, I wrote this morning in order to hit my goal. Yesterday and today involved a little rewriting too.

Monday: 759
Tuesday: 758
Wednesday: 552
Thursday: 203
Friday: 20
Saturday: 433
Sunday: 404

Total added this week: 3129 words.

Dewey’s 24-hour Readathon is next Saturday so I’m shooting for my usual goal in one day less. I also really need to get some writing done in the mornings. It doesn’t work too well if I start writing at 10pm.

Research Links of the Week

Wikipedia: Gyroscope
YouTube: The Mighty Cheese

Playlist

With sample tracks!

Poe, Haunted (2000), track

Type O Negative, Bloody Kisses (1993), October Rust (1996), track

Jane’s Addiction,  The Great Escape Artist (2011), track

Machines of Loving Grace, Gilt (1995),  Concentration (1993), track

Godsmack, Godsmack (1998), track

A Round of Words in 80 Days on Facebook

#ROW80 ~ Sunday Update, 10/9

Goal

Add 3125 words per week on Wicked Witch, Retired.

Update Round 4, Week 1

I started out the week with about 1300 words that I didn’t like very much and needed to rewrite. I did the majority of that Monday and Tuesday, hence the negative number when I finally deleted what  I originally had.

Monday: 774
Tuesday: -84
Wednesday: 756
Thursday: 756
Friday: 585
Saturday: 413

Final total added for the week: 3200 words

This week had my characters travelling. I’m still not entirely happy with how these scenes came out, but it’s time to move on.

Research Link of the Week

The History of Rain Jacket Tech, From Intestines To Gore-Tex

Playlist

(My playlists are whatever I’m listening to or have on in the background while I work.)

• Night of the Living Dead (1968)
• The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
• The Addams Family (1964-1966) – The Addams Family only lasted two season???
• Zodiac (2007)

A Round of Words in 80 Days on Facebook

#ROW80, Round 4 2016 ~ Goals (or rather Goal)

A Round of Words in 80 Days is the writing challenge that knows you have a life.

Round 4 begins on Monday, October 3rd. Starting this round, the community is changing from a linky-style blog-hop to a Facebook group.

Goals

Back in 2004, I wrote the majority of a novel in about four months. I felt pretty good about that. Since then, my love of and engagement in writing has waned and waxed. It’s been a bumpy road. Heck, I didn’t even make it through round four last year because I decided to go on hiatus as a writer.

For some reason, I think that I should be doing so much better now*, writing so much more word-count-wise than I was then. But maybe my pace is my pace, and maybe I’ve been making myself crazy trying to stretch.

So, I’m going retro and I’m going to keep it simple this round:

• Add 3125 words per week on Wicked Witch, Retired.

That ends up being 12,500 words a month, 75K in six months.

This goal also allows for a lot of writing/rewriting room. I’m still feeling my way through the world of Wicked Witch, Retired. While I’m not really a pants-er, filling in background for the characters and for the world is something I prefer to do within the narrative rather than on worksheets or the like.

The manuscript is currently at 15K after five weeks, with about 1300 words that I don’t like very much. I’ll be starting the round rewriting those.

*Looking back on that novel I wrote in 2004, I do think that I’m a better writer. I guess there should be some progress in a decade.