3rd ROW80 Check-In

In a teaser pic in yesterday's post I asked for guesses on what I was making with the six granny squares, an old ladies support hose knee-high and a cat's toy ball as seen in yesterday's photo.

The answer is a squishy-soft baby toy.  I stuffed poly fiber into the stocking with the ball buried deep inside, it's bell muffled but still quite audible.

I started this project Thursday evening for a baby shower my sister was going to on Saturday.  I had to have it finished before I slept Friday night and as it turned out even though the squares were finished before 9pm I did not get it put together until after 8am by which time it was too late for me to lay down as my sister was leaving before noon which was putting me on duty for lunch.

I sitll haven't slept which means I need to desperately. Umm 36 hours as of half an hour ago.

It is after 10 pm.  My sister is still not home but Mom has been in bed since 9.

Needing sleep so desperately means I won't get to surf the ROW80 check-ins after the linky goes up at midnight as I'd so look forward to.

But I still wanted to get my check-in post posted so that I won't have preparing it on my agenda when I wake and can be free to surf for awhile.

So here it is:

A Round of Words in 80 Days

I copy/pasted the goal list from Wednesday's Check-in which had been copied fom Sunday's check-in which had been copied from  Friday's post of intent.  Tweaking each time as well as crossing off finished goals and adding new ones.

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.  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.  Aprox 6000 words.

___05-16-2012 Still have not started re-reading it.  Decided last Tuesday I needed fresh eyes so set new goal:

So new goal: Find beta readers

Nothing new to report on this front.


Spend 30 minutes or more per day reading a book or quality web article 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.
___05-16-2012  - Y  
___05-17-2012 - Y  
___05-18-2012 - N Put 16 or more hours into work on the granny square block between Thursday evening and Saturday morning.  Something had to give.
___05-19-2012 - N 

My focus in the reading has been on ebook publishing.

Spend 30 minutes or more per day daydreaming in the story world with pencil and pad at hand.
--- 05-16-2012  - Y est 4hrs
___05-17-2012 - Y est 2hrs
___05-18-2012 - Y est 5hrs
___05-19-2012 - Y est 1hrs


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.

And there have been some exciting ones.

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.  This is not a minor development.  Because of the time spent daydreaming and contemplating the story begins to live in me again.  I may not have new words yet but I feel the pressure building that will push them out if I just keep attending to the story world.

ATTENDING.  Think on that word awhile and all it implies.

It means paying attention.

But it also means serving as well as being in service to.


Spend 30 minutes or more per day on one or more of the following tasks:
___05-16-2012 - N
___05-17-2012 - N
___05-18-2012 - N
___05-19-2012 - N  

Nothing has changed in the list since Wednesday and I essentially did nothing more than think about the files, the list, the goals and shuffle priorities and contemplate ideas for ways to organize the files.

• 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.