It wasn’t a bad week in ROW80 land.  I did have to face up to my own limitations.  I actually have to sleep and rest and do self-care these days.  I am no longer in my 30s and able to sleep two hours a night for a whole week and still function.  How did that happen?

Still, good stuff happened this week.  I found my Blood of the Mist pages but none of the original planning notes.  Those may just be gone, and I’ll have to live with it.  It might be a good thing in the long run, because now I’m going to have to rethink scenes and things, and that will probably freshen up the story and help me get back into it.

I’ve been looking up anything I can find about how to get back into an unfinished story you’ve been away from for a long time.  I’m not entirely sure how to reconnect with the story and move forward.  For now, I’m going through my pages with a notebook at hand to write a few words about each scene.

Anyone have any resources for restarting an old story?  I’d love to have a look if you don’t mind sharing.

I did more than find my pages and start revisiting my old story.  I also checked in with 5 fellow ROWers.  I love the connection I feel by doing that, both to other ROWers and to the writing community in general, so I really want to stay on top of that.

The writing?  Not as much as I intended, at least not fiction writing.  I’m still doing a lot for the Willamette Writers Conference, and I may have to acknowledge that I’m not going to get as much done until it’s over (11 days from now).  Especially because I’m really into finding my way back into Blood of the Mist.  I’ll try to get some actual writing in over the next week, but if I only have a short amount of time for my own writing until after the conference, it may be spend working on BoM.

That was my week.  Next week I hope to report more blog check-ins, progress on my BoM note taking, and one writing session (it’s hard to write that, but I need to be realistic, but I feel like I should be able to do all of everything!).

How was your week?  What are you planning to do next?

See you in the comments!

It’s still high summer, but the light is changing and I can see Autumn in the slant of the afternoon sunbeams.  It’s been a very contemplative week, and this thought and this picture seem perfect for it.

On the ROW80 front, it’s been a fair week.  I got some writing done, including a flash piece that may be something I can edit and submit.  I really like it a lot, so I have hopes for it.  I didn’t get to as many blogs as I intended, so I need to make that happen in the coming week.

I didn’t get as much writing done as I’d hoped, though.  An extremely hot weekend had me down for the count.  We’re also house hunting, and we’ve just signed on with a real estate agent so there’s a lot to do with that.  I’m getting ready to do a presentation at this year’s Willamette Writers Conference, so that’s taking some time.  And today our beloved office dog died very suddenly and unexpectedly, and I am mourning and missing him so much.  I know he wasn’t my pet exactly, but I spent all day every work day with him and we were very attached and so it hurts a lot.

I did do one very fun writing thing.  On Friday I took an online class with Cat Rambo. This is the third (fourth?) class I’ve taken with her, and I always enjoy them.  To me she is a perfect example of a working writer, and I love getting to learn from her.  And her classes are always very small (5-8 people), so I always feel like there’s time to ask my questions and really dive in.

I also wrote a blog post about my favorite writing prompt sites, so if you like prompts check it out: 10 Prompt Sites to Rev Up Your Writing.  And as I mentioned last week I have a new Facebook group for talking about writing lives, maybe doing some writing together, sharing resources and tips.  Here’s a link if you want to join us: Wild Minds Writers

For the coming week:

• Three writing sessions
• Check in on five ROW80 blogs
• Find my notes and handwritten pages for my Mist story because I’m really feeling a pull to get back into that one and finish it

In and amongst house hunting, packing, and other summer activities, I think that’s enough of a list.  See you next week!

It’s already time for a ROW80 post!  And I don’t have nearly enough to report.  I did check in on blogs this week, so yay for that.  But I only got to one writing session.  A mixed bag of some progress but not quite what I had hoped and planned for.  Still, it’s better than no writing at all.

I’m finding it harder to get into the new story than I thought it would be. I am struggling with my usual overwhelm.  I have so many ideas, and I am not doing well at pinning them down.  Why is it so easy to walk someone else through this stuff but so hard to follow my own advice? As usual, I get hung up on wanting to write thousands of words each writing session even though I know realistically my life won’t support that right now.  So I tell myself to do it in small steps, but I want to do big steps, so I end up doing not much of anything at all.  This round, I intend to wrestle this beast to the ground and build a regular practice!  No more of this inner arguing.

I’ll be checking in on Wednesdays rather than Sundays most weeks, so I’ll be back on Wednesday with a short report.  By then I intend to have done at least one more writing session and checked in on a couple of blogs from today’s check-in.

Do any of you struggle with this issue of wanting to write thousands and thousands of words but only have limited time that just won’t let you do it?  What do you do about that?

See you Wednesday!

Doing a quick ROW80 check-in before returning to work on a new coaching package for writers over at MuseCraftâ„¢.

I’m making really good progress in the outlining.  Actually, I’ve delved into some character work the way I used to with a brief description of the characters and then lots of looking at pictures to find what they look like, what they wear, furniture they have, things they like, etc.  But oh my gosh doing this with the internet is so incredible!  It’s kind of what I used to do but at the same time nothing like it.  Where I used to pore over a pile of magazines and catalogs, now I have a bajillion pictures to choose from with a single clickety-click of my mouse!  It’s amazing and fabulous.  And Pinterest is making capturing the images so easy.  I’m in love.

I’m also remembering these characters I started creating almost 18 months ago.  They never fully got off the ground back then even though I did a good chunk of story writing about them.  I never quite got a feel for them. They just weren’t people to me, not enough for me to plow ahead and write their story.  That’s been changing this week.  They’re starting to be in my head.  They’re starting to be different from each other and really show their personalities.  And they’re fun!  I like them, and I’m looking forward to finishing up character work this week and diving into setting some cornerstones for the story next week.  And then I think I’m really going to be ready to sit down and write on February 1 (or maybe even before, but shhh, don’t say that out loud)!

Now I just need to get better and visitng other blogs to keep my fellow ROW-ers company and keep me thinking about writing, and I’ll be good to go.  See you on the blogs!