I can’t believe 80 days have passed me by already. Are we truly at the end? Sheesh. Where did all those days go? Tomorrow’s the last day. What did I learn?
Since I am writing this in advance, I can’t tell you for sure where the kids and I are. We are playing our vacation by ear. This is a new concept for them. 🙂 Dad is home working like a dog to bring more fabulous video games your way in the coming year. As for the kids and myself, I’m fairly certain we’re seeing some pretty cool things. We should be on our way out of Vegas and stopping in on the famous town of Calico for the kids to get their first glimpse at a mining town/ghost town!
Today is my adventure. As has been the whole week! How about you? Make today and every day an adventure!
2012 Row80 Round 1 ~ Summing it all up
❤ This round of Row 80 has come to an end. Expect me to jump on board the next, as I’ve grown to enjoy being accountable and I’m beginning to get a feel for a better balance in scheduling (finally!) In the end I didn’t write forward on my WIP (book 3) as much as I would have liked, but my focus changed during the course of this round. I switched gears into editing mode.
❤ I currently have ¼ of my first book edited and I’m prepping it for another round of beta readers. I’m also very excited to have finally found a home in an on-line critique group to help better perfect my work.
❤ To top it all off, as if fate is smiling on me, I won a critique for my first few pages by a very well respected writer (don’t know if I’m allowed to talk about who???). Thinking about it leaves me both scared and excited. This was something I had been seriously thinking about paying for, but with my financial diet haven’t made any quick moves in that department yet. Now I don’t have to! I expect my work to get ripped to pieces, but it will be an invaluable experience.
❤ What else have I accomplished? I established a better balanced schedule. It may give me less social network time, but WIP and family come first. I’m reading (finally finding the time)! I finished 4 books in the last month. I’m now reading 2 – 1 fiction, 1 craft.
❤ Blogging has remained on schedule without consuming my life. At the same time it is going through a change. Blog posts will start to reflect me more and less what I think they should be. I may be introducing flash fiction because I have fallen in love with the exercise. I’m leaning towards participating in more contests as well. All of it should work towards refining my skills.
Alright, bring on round two! We start-up April 2nd. See all you Rowers then.
~O~
Know that I always appreciate your time and love it when you stop by plus take the time to comment. Huge thanks! If you enjoyed this post or any of my previous posts, I’d be delighted to have you follow by email or RSS for any future posts!
Hope you’re having a good vacation, Debra! My adventure today is getting the stitches out of my foot – hurray! Then 3 more weeks in a walking boot, which got old really really fast.
Congrats on all you learned and accomplished during Round 1. I’m joining you all for Round 2!
That sounds like a wonderfully overdue adventure! Those kind never come soon enough, do they? I hope you are back to your old self in no time at all. I remember how much fun it was NOT. Congratulations on joining us! Yay! Thanks for stopping in and supporting my blog while I was on the road. 🙂
Even if you didn’t get as many words written as you wanted, you had a fantastically successful ROWnd! The great thing about ROW80 is our goals can change. And you learned tons that will help you in the next round! I got a better handle on what I should put on my to-do list, and what to leave off, and that’s a big one for me. Have a wonderful vacation, and see you in ROW80 when we start back up!
Thank you Jennette. That’s exactly what I am doing. I am reassessing my goals all the time. You amaze me in all that you are able to accomplish. I look forward to us only getting better. Thank you for always being so supportive.
Fantastic round Debra – girl you ROCKED it and can’t wait to see what you accomplish next round. Amazing. Have a FAB family day!!!!
Thank you, Natalie! Your support means a lot to me. Can’t wait to see all the great things you learn in the courses you are taking.
Had a fabulous family trip! Hope your B-day was the BEST!
Debra, you know I’m a family first kind of girl, so even though Hubby had to stay behind and work, (hey he has a job right?) I do hope that you and the kids have a fab time! And looking forward to cheer you on in the next round of ROW80! You really did great girl! As Natalie said, You ROCKED it! See you soon and take care of you! 🙂
That’s right, he has a job and we want him to keep it! Thank you, Karen, for your wonderful words of encouragement. I hope to be cheering you on in the next round as well!
Debra, your holiday sounds fantastic. Enjoy!
I’m taking the next round off, with hopes of getting a few other things in order. But I loved the accountability of ROW80′ and it’s really helped me get better organized. You rocked this round. You’ll do great next round, too!
Thanks, Sheila. I wondered if I should take the next round off. There have been a few changes since I wrote this check-in that makes me wonder even more. I have a week to change my mind. Hmm. At the moment I plan to stay on track with Row80. The accountability is great.
We had a fantastic time. Thanks again.
It looks like a successful round for you, Debra! Some of the things you accomplished are priceless, like finding the balance between family and career. The critique you won should prove invaluable as well.
I’m so happy for you. Enjoy your vacation. We’ll see you in round 2 🙂
I think finding the balance between family and writing may have been one of the most difficult. It resulted in less social media. It was the only way it could happen, but it had to be done. I wish I was super fast like some of the others at running through the blogs and posting comments. That would be awesome! I am so impressed with all that you have done and are doing. Thank you for cheering in my camp, Fabio. 🙂
Great job this round, Debra, and I’m so glad to see that you’re coming back for round 2! I think there’s something so great about learning to be accountable — it’s definitely helped me to become more productive, at any rate.
There are a whole bunch of fun flash fiction challenges that abound each week online. Some fun ones are Glitterlady’s Tuesday Tales (http://glitterword.wordpress.com/), which involves a 1 word prompt + photo (entries are 100 words each), Rebecca Clare Smith’s Saturday Sunday Tails (http://rebeccaclaresmith.blogspot.com/2012/02/proposal.html), also with the 1 word prompt + photo (entries are 150 words each), and Cara Michaels’ popular #MenageMonday (http://www.caramichaels.com/defiantlyliterate/2012/03/19/menagemonday-challenge-week-26/), which are 100-200 words, with 3 prompts to incorporate into your work.
See you next round!
Fantastic, Lena! I’ll definitely look into these links. Thank you. I look forward to seeing you at more word sprints next time around.