We’re about halfway through this Round. How’s it going? Are you picking up steam for the last leg?
Powered by Linky Tools
Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…
Midweek Check-in
Whoops! Forgot to schedule this. Sorry, y’all. Life is getting crazy at Casa Nolan, as we are about to be moving casas next week!
Powered by Linky Tools
Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…
Like this:
Turning a Stall into a Start by Barbara McDowell
Raise your hand if you started 2012 off with the gusto of taking your writing focus up a notch. Making promises to write every day, defining word count goals, or outlining plans to edit a big project. Now, with the reality of life setting in months later, are you still running with that same fire in your fingertips?
Writers write. This is a mantra we hear when attending writers’ workshops, conferences, and author readings. We are further reminded when digging into craft books and the blogs of fellow writers. It is our gospel for in the beginning and middle and end, writers write. While bursts of divine inspiration are great, it is the steady practice and time put in that leads to regular streams of creativity. We make time for our writing in the regular balance of life.
But writers also have day gigs that can flare up beyond a standard forty hour week and melt into personal life. We might spend extended time out and about speaking at conferences or handling other networking tasks. We have families made up of other carbon-based beings that will not be ignored. We are caregivers. We find ourselves downed by an opportunistic flu looking for another host master or even more serious conditions that require medicines, surgery, or extended rest. We take much needed breaks and go on vacation. We must handle book launches and the other business of writing.
When these life moments happen, goals can be missed and writing time savaged. We might have to temporarily step away from writing at all. We stall.
“We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.” ~ Stephen Covey
The beauty of ROW80 is that it is a real world writing challenge. We set goals based on what our next step needs are with our writing projects and what is going on in our lives. When life happens, there is a circle of writers there to cheer us back to our feet or kick us back into gear. There is no shame and no judging yourself against others. The goals are about your journey—where you are right now and where you need to go.
It is said that it takes twenty-one days to make something a habit. With each ROW round, we get eighty. During Round One, I found myself distracted by extended birthday celebrating, day gig interruptions, falling ill, and then being stranded by a computer virus wiping out my laptop. At times, my goals progress slowed or was put on hold. I found inspiration in reflecting on how a cat would ROW80. I determined that “they commit to daily habits, by instinct scurry away or swing (claws out) when spooked and stop and do what they need to do in the moment… dedication, determination and self-care.”
What do we do when our progress stalls? Just keep moving forward. Forward means progress. We can sit for a moment and reflect on what might not have been met, and then we move forward. We reorganize our time and move forward. We tweak or toss some goals and move forward. We put that next word onto paper and begin again.
Have you had an unexpected life hiccup? Have you put some goals on hold or retooled? What are some of your methods for writer self-care?
~*~
Like this:
Sunday Check-In
Another week down. How’d you do? Swing by and be a cheerleader for you fellow ROWers. We’re all in this together!
Powered by Linky Tools
Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…
Wednesday Check-in
I’m currently fighting a bout of poison oak (bloody useless plant…) and thinking about how to work around life’s little irritations. Have any secrets to share with us about how you keep those little things from derailing your progress?
Note: The linky is always set to open at midnight central time. The guy who runs Linky Tools has been working on some upgrades and hasn’t got all the kinks worked out yet. If it isn’t open when it’s supposed to be, keep checking back, it will be at some point.
Powered by Linky Tools
Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…
Like this:
It’s All About Heart by Jayrod Garrett
When I sat down and I thought about what would be of most value to all the ROWers out there I had to rack my head pretty hard. There were so many things I could think of that would be good to share with you, and then I realized that the lesson of most value to you would be the one has sustained me throughout most of the past twelve years: It’s all about Heart.
I learned about Heart during basic training on my first run. I was pretty slow and I couldn’t keep up with everyone and I stopped running. So I turned around and walked back to where we started, where one of my instructors, Drill Sergeant Beller, was rounding all of us weaklings up and disciplining us with more exercise. Beller said to all of us that we didn’t have Heart. He told us if we had Heart we would have been able to push through the pain and keep running.
It was when he said that to me that I determined that I would do everything to develop and have heart. I worked hard during the rest of basic training. At any point during a run my legs felt like stopping, I might slow down, but I learned to never stop running. Later I volunteered to be one of the road guards for our company. It meant I might end up running at least another half mile in comparison to everyone else around me. And by the end of training (with the help of a pair of guardian angels) I managed to pass my Physical Fitness Test so I could graduate basic training. It was really hard, but I learned as I went through the experience what it meant to have Heart.
Now all of us are going through this round together and I think it is crucial you understand this: Writing, in the end, is all about Heart. Do you know everything that you need to put into your story at the beginning? Is your outline perfect? Are you making perfect progress with all of your goals? Are you angry because you think you should be accomplishing more? Have you broken the 10,000 words in a day barrier? If the answer to any of those is no, then you need Heart. And for those of you who have mastered all of these things, you need Heart just as much as those beginning the journey.
After basic training I eventually left for AIT, while there I had new challenges to overcome, but because I had Heart things went a lot better for me than in basic training. I helped no less than ten people to pass their Physical Training Tests when I wasn’t passing mine. I shouted louder than everyone else during our running cadences earning me the title of: The King of Motivation. And after I passed my Physical Fitness test again I found myself in the best shape of my life. Heart took me beyond my own abilities and into a world of possibilities.
It is the same for us as writers. Each one of us has our own abilities and we are striving for our best. But there are days that it calls for more from us, days that stretch our patience, days that there is nothing left. And those are the days that we have to sit down emotionally exhausted and put something down on the page and believe in our self and our dream. Those are the days that Heart is crucial. As long as it is beating for the written word, nothing can stop us.
Of course you might say to me, but I didn’t make my goals this week, or I forgot something really important I was supposed to do, or I’m just not strong enough to do it right now. That’s okay. We are in this together. Heart isn’t developed all at once. It is developed over time. It might only take you nine weeks to develop the kind of heart to run four miles. But we are writing stories folks. That is the kind of heart that can take lifetimes to develop and perfect. You’ll never see your writing as perfect, but you can see it as better. With each writing principle you learn more about your craft and how you can better approach your limited time in which you have to write.
Right now I’m learning about Heart once again. And as I said, this kind of heart is different from what I needed to run. I have to be willing to put myself out there for people to read my imperfect work. I have to be willing to write during a lot of my free time. I have to be committed to telling my friends who want to do fun things with me that I can’t hang out, because I’m writing. I have to do the work to go to conferences, learn new skills, and study literature so that I can understand more about writing. My education process never ends. And it never will, because it is all about a Writers Heart.
So as you are going through this round keep in mind, you are on a great journey. You won’t always be able to keep up with everyone and that’s okay. You are working on it. You’re making progress and you are making hard decisions. You are developing your Heart. And that’s a beautiful thing. Don’t give up, don’t give in. You can do this. Why you ask?
Because you my friend have Heart. Now use that and go write something amazing today!
~*~
Like this:
Sunday Check-In
Summer’s a comin’! Kids are about to be OUT OF SCHOOL. If you’ve got ‘em, do you have a plan for how you’re going to fit writing in?
Powered by Linky Tools
Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…
Wednesday Check-In
We’re rolling on into May. You’ve had plenty of time to pick up steam. Do you need some fellow ROWers to hop out and help you push?
Powered by Linky Tools
Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…
The Solitary Writer by Eden Mabee
With apologies to Kristen Lamb, I have some bad news for you. You are alone.
Like all of us here in ROW80, you chose to become a writer. Now you must live up to that decision. You have to accept that no one else can go on this journey in your place. No one else can take your risks for you. You have to put yourself out there. You have to put your words and your thoughts out for the world to see.
You have to write.
I’m sorry to be so blunt about it, but now that you’ve chosen to be a writer, you have to settle down and you have to write. Some call this “Bottom in Chair, Fingers on Keyboard”, and you should wake up every morning with this as your mantra. You want to write (you must, you’ve chosen to join a writing challenge), so it makes sense that you should write.
But what about my fellow ROWers, you ask? Well, if you want to know a dirty little secret, they’re in the same boat as you. As wonderful and supportive as your fellow ROWers will be, they can’t do this for you. We cannot do this for you. We cannot write your words. We can write our own, but not yours. You have to do that.
We’ll cheer you on. We’ll offer our shoulders when things get difficult. But we can’t give life to your words. We can do a lot of things for you: share ideas for stories, do beta readings, recommend agents and publisher and pass along the latest market news. We can even perhaps meet you when you come to town and laugh over cakes and coffees. We can do so much for you.
But we can’t put those words into a permanent form. We can’t given a concrete image to your thoughts.
We cannot write for you.
But the good news is, you can! You can write those ideas, the way you puzzled over the waiter’s expression when you ordered the red snapper, the way the sky turned a brilliant crimson and slate-gray this evening so intense you knew a storm was coming in your main character’s world. You can do it, one word at a time.
And you know what else?
You are not alone. We’re here. We’re doing it with you. Each of us, putting down our words one at a time, one after another after another after…
We’re all solitary writers… in this together. And we are not alone.
~*~
Like this:
Sunday Check-In
We’re coming up on the end of the first month of this round. How are you doing? Let us know in your post and take some time to do some cheering of your brethren!
Powered by Linky Tools
Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list of fellow ROWers…
