2nd ROW80 Check-In

A Round of Words in 80 Days

Since I generally do most of my blog post prep late evenings I am going to allocate Tuesday and Saturday's posts for ROW80 check-in.  But they are likely to go up quite late

I copy/pasted the goal list I created in Friday's post of intent and then added and adjusted and noted what got done for Sunday's check-in.  I will do this for each check-in.  Watch the strike-throughs accumulate.

Since I've identified the mess in my fiction files created by the 8 NaNos and 2 or three 70 Days of Sweat challenges as the worst stumbling block keeping me from working my fiction WIP and also since I'm jumping in at nearly the mid point of round 2 for 2012, I have set my goals for between now and the end of June accordingly:

Choose 1 of the finished short stories to be the first ebook to publish on Smashwords or Amazon and prep it for take off by the end of June: any revision, line edit, format, convert.  
___[Blow Me a Candy Kiss  part 1; part 2; part 3; part 4; part 5;] -  
05-12-2012 Yes on choosing the title.

___05-15-2012 Have not started re-reading it let alone doing any revision or line-editing.  It has been years since I have reread it and by then I had worked it over with revision and edits so many times it began to feel frayed at the seams to me.

I think that before I commit it to the ebook ap I need to have fresh eyes on it and that counts out all friends and family who are even willing to look at it as they all already have.  More than once.

So new goal: Find beta readers:

I saw a lot of talk of beta readers on my ROW80 blog hopping.  So I thought I would put out a call for beta readers.  How does that work?  How does one acquire a beta reader and what is the protocol?

The links I put next to the title above are to the four posts in which I posted the full story in installments for Friday Snippets several years ago.  Anyone interested in reading and critiquing that version on any level from story mechanics to grammar, punctuation and spelling can do so by leaving comments on those posts or emailing me at joystory AT gmail DOT com.  Also if you are then interested in seeing it all in one piece after this next round of edits let me know.

FYI for anyone considering it: this story is set in my Fruits of the Spirit story world and aspires to be literary.  It has elements of romance in it but that is not the primary focus since the couple involved are already married.  The focus is on loss and grief over infertility and the death of a child/sibling.



Spend 30 minutes or more per day reading a book on Writing or Publishing from my ever growing TBR of books on writing and/or blogs or websites with professional level content on writing or publishing.  Will compile list for future updates.___05-12-2012  - Y  Read several chapters in Let's Get Digital: How to Self-Publish and Why You Should by David Gaughran.  I picked up the Kindle edition free on Amazon earlier this week.
___05-13-2012 - N  Mother's Day was over committed besides which I stayed up all night crocheting on the scarf/shawl I was giving Mom.  Still not done had to take it back after showing her Sunday.
___05-14-2012 - Y Not a book but Gaughran's blog and a couple other websites.  Decided that counts since it is more about the information and education than it is about the form it takes.
___05-15-2012 - Y Again it was the web.

Spend 30 minutes or more per day daydreaming in the story world with pencil and pad at hand.
--- 05-12-2012  - Y est 3hrs
___05-13-2012 - Y est 2hrs
___05-14-2012 - Y est 4hrs
___05-15-2012 - Y est 5hrs


This has been easy since daydreaming my stories is as natural as breathing for me.  Especially when I'm crocheting which I'm doing a lot of this month.  What makes the difference is making sure the notebook and pencil are at hand for the quick jots of thoughts.

The importance of this too is that it is getting my head back into it with the expectation that something more than daydreaming will come of it.


Spend 30 minutes or more per day on one or more of the following tasks:
___05-12-2012 - Y
___05-13-2012 - N
___05-14-2012 - Y
___05-15-2012 - N  


What I did do was mostly glancing around my files, re-familiarizing myself with what was what in them so nothing has changed in the list

• Input any material from the daydreaming session into it's appropriate file or task list.
• Clean up the Fruit of the Spirit storyworld worksheet.
• Clean up the 8 NaNo novel files: quarantine the mess, create work space for new writing, and create a system for  storing the material salvaged from the mess in such a way as it can be found when needed. i.e. linking it to appropriate topic pages in the FOS story world worksheet.

• ____Storyteller's Spouse 2006
• ____The Substance of Things Hoped For 2009
• ____Mobile Hopes 2008
• ____Spring Fever 2007
• ____A Trick of Light 2011
• ____Brooding Instinct 2005
• ____Everything That Rises Must Submerge 2010
• ____Majoring in Marine Biology 2004

• Read and notate the scene text of the 8 NaNo novel files

• ____Storyteller's Spouse 2006
• ____The Substance of Things Hoped For 2009
• ____Mobile Hopes 2008
• ____Spring Fever 2007
• ____A Trick of Light 2011
• ____Brooding Instinct 2005
• ____Everything That Rises Must Submerge 2010
• ____Majoring in Marine Biology 2004

• Create a master task list in FOS story world worksheet file and add any actionable task that comes to mind while working with the files: research and fact check, character development, scenes needed etc.  Future goals can be taken from this list.
• Create topic pages in the FOS story world worksheet file for every character from every existing story and novel finished or in progress that is set in this story world.  Add any of the characters known life events to the master timeline.
• Choose 10 POV level characters from FOS and write a first person rambling monologue for them.
• Do a line edit of all of the completed short stories

• Blow Me a Candy Kiss
• How Does Your Garden Grow
• Running In Circles
• Of Cats and Claws and Curiosities
• Making Rag Doll Babies and Million Dollar Maybes

• During the line edits consider whether any significant revision is still needed--scenes to add or delete, rearrange or rewrite; timeline issues, facts to confirm or to change--and create an actionable task topic in the file.
• Write fresh scenes whenever a spark is lit by the above work.