It's been a while (8 months, to be precise!) since my last ROW80 post - back then, I was in Germany, finishing up a 2-week long course in the Bavarian mountain town of Garmisch - now I'm writing from my latest home-away-from home at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan's Helmand Province.
That's life when your full-time job is as an officer of Marines, and writing is something you squeeze in where you can! Suffice to say that I've been very busy standing up a new unit and deploying with them half-way around the world - on top of that, I'm teaching a college class and a French class out here to help my fellow Marines and Soldiers advance their careers - so, why ROW80 on top of all that?
Simple! I really do need to get back to writing, and I've found that nothing is as good for maintaining accountability and progress on the literary front as weekly ROW80 check-ins!
So, here are my initial goals for this Round of Words...
WRITING
- Post one Chapter of The Perfidious Mister Wickham each week.
- Write one Chapter of my Learning Indonesian book each week.
- Finish The Artillerists (short story)
- Finish Merry Christmas, Mister Washington (short story)
- Finish Ho B-52 (short story)
PUBLISHING
- Start the Parasol Books imprint
FITNESS
- Add 5 lbs per week to my Bench Press
- Drop 1/2 percent bodyfat each week
LANGUAGE
- Five hours of studying French per week
NETWORKING
- Work on establishing a better social media presence.
- Add 2 people to my "Core Group" each week.
A key difference in this round as opposed to previous iterations is that I have tried to tie the majority of my goals to weekly progress - rather than say, "I'm going to write 10 chapters" I've said "a chapter a week" - that gives me something to focus on and it's progress that can't be "put off" more than a few days. We shall see if that results in a more productive Round of Words this time.
Well, that's that! I wish you all a wonderful and productive Round Two, and look forward to popping in to your blogs to check out your progress as the Round progresses!
Best regards,
Edward
p.s. If you are a Jane Austen fan, I cordially invite you to take a peek at the prologue to The Perfidious Mister Wickham - not a continuation, nor an adaptation, this unique work looks at Mister Darcy, the Bennet family, and a wide array of late Georgian and early Regency historical and literary figures through the eyes of the eponymous scoundrel! See what wickedness Wickham was up to before he arrived in Meryton, how he seduced (or was seduced by) Lydia Bennet in Brighton, and what became of their scandalously patched-up marriage after their carriage rolled away from Longbourn.
Edward, that sounds like a heckuva load! My hat's off to you. I'm a huge Regency fan in general, and an Austen fan in particular. I can't wait to follow Mr. Wickham's adventures the way he whispered them to you.
ReplyDeleteBe well.
Wow! You are going to be crazy busy this round! Best of luck with it! I'll be checking out The Perfidious Mister Wickham - sounds like fun! :D
ReplyDeleteLara, spaciireth, thanks to you both!
ReplyDeletePlease let me know the title of your initial ROW80 blog post so I can return the visit! In a perfect world, I'd manage to get over to ALL the blogs on the linky, but sadly time and bandwidth are rather limited out here, you I'll start with yours and see how far I get from there!
Have a great day, and will look forward to seeing how we all progress in our goals as the months progress.
Best regards,
Edward
Those are lofty, and admirable, goals you've set for yourself, Edward. And I think you've got the right idea about doing things with a weekly bent included. I've seen a few ROWers who use a combination of long-term and short term goals for the ROW. It seems to work well, and as you say, having that extra bit of accountability helps a ton too.
ReplyDeleteSo, go get writing, Author. ;-)