Round 1 Check-in 1/26/20

“Busy is a decision“

Debbie Millman, host and founder of Design Matters, the long running design podcast, believes that. and she has a pretty good reason for doing so.  We all make time for things we want to do, even if it’s captured moments in transit or blocked out chunks of time where we immerse ourselves in a particular passion.

Yes, we do have moments where our lives demand our focus shift a bit more than others, but once the emergency passes, do we get back into a pattern or do we find that our priorities have shifted and we find ourselves too busy to go back to those old dreams.

Now that you’ve got a couple of weeks ROWing under your belt, it’s time to start asking the serious questions about those goals you set for yourself.  Are they doing what you want them to do?  Will you achieve your dreams if you keep following the path you’re on, or might you benefit from a slight course correction?

Are you busy?  What have you chosen that makes you so busy?

By the way, here is your linky for this week’s check-in:

Feel free to leave a link to your check-in there, in the comments, or in our FB thread.

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Round 3 Check-in August 14

Oh, the plots we can make…

Ever read a series to find that the author seemed to have reworked the whole story-line 3/4s of the way through and suddenly the characters you had grown to love were no longer the same people you’d enjoyed spending so much time with before?

What do you, as writers, do when this happens?  Do you create your own versions of the stories?  Do you plow through,hoping that the author will once more capture your heart?

Do you set the series aside and/or leave a low review on Goodreads or Amazon?

I had this happen twice recently, once in a TV series I was watching (instant Fanfiction fodder!) and then again, more recently in a book series I’d enjoyed.  I realized that, as a writer myself, I found these shifts harder to bear than a lot of non-writers I’ve spoken to.  And so wondered, is it a result of writing, reading, both or …. something else?

Opinions, and check-ins, appreciated, here in the comments or on our FB page.  As always….

Round 3 Wednesday Check-in 7

Hi all!

How about some more Wednesday cheer…  oh and a serious question from yours truly about the upcoming Round 4?

First, today’s cheer…

As some of you may know, things have been a little cray-cray here at Chez Mabee as we plot our move (first one in almost 20 years) to New Jersey.  It’s a project, and we have a few other projects to deal with just to make it happen.  That said, in the midst of all the doing and more doing, a local ROWer, Elizabeth Anne Mitchell, has helped with emotional support (and lots of writing encouragement even if we aren’t always posting our achievements).  So here’s my cheer to you, Elizabeth

Did I say I have a question for you about Round 4?  Well, I do.  You see, in addition to plotting a move and renovating our house, we’ve also got a decently long trip overseas happening right at the beginning of Round 4.  I can set up some pages, but I can promise to be here to run most of them after the first two weeks…  and that just isn’t fair to all of you.  The big issue is the linky….  so, would you all be okay with using the comments or the Facebook thread for your check-ins for Round 4?

If you hadn’t seen the FB thread, our delightful Denise Young will be hosting many of the blog posts for that time (that Thank You is for you too, Denise).

Think that’s it for today…

Oh! Here’s your linky for today:

Round 1 Week 2 Sunday

I have a question for all of you creatives…  What is your opinion of how recent changes in technology have changed your creative process?  Do any of them make you worried?  Excite you?  Confuse?

I ask, because I am a huge library lover (especially for reference books and those huge tomes I would love to fill my house with, but my husband would rather I did not), and one of my favorite online resources is The Internet Archive.  The access to rare and out of print resources the IA offers to someone like me, who lives out in the boonies but is blessed to have solid cable-modem service, a way to look up odd bits and see old texts (such as this example…  my son found volumes 2-4 at a book sale and wanted to read them, but we couldn’t find the 1st volume at the time).  However…  its recent project The Open Library is stirring up some controversy in some circles because of copyright violation.

I am a bit divided on this issue.  I do believe that we need more ways for people to access books, but theft stinks, even unintentional thievery (which is what these seem to be, since the files have an active DRM protection on them).  The problem is that there are people out there who are stripping off this copyright protection and then reposting authors works as their own because of the formats used to make the books available o the Open Library, depriving those who did the real, creative hard-work of credit and pay.

Something’s got to give…  I have my own ideas for possible solutions.  How about you?  Have you had any experience (good or bad) with the Internet Archive/Open library or with pirating?  Do you think technology is making more problems for writers or offering some of the best solutions?

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No matter what is happening in the publishing world however, we at the ROW80 have your check-ins covered. You can post here at out little linky froggie, on our Facebook page, in the comments below, or any combination of the three. Just let us know how you’re doing. We lover to hear from you.