Progressively Plodding - ROW80 Check-In

 

A Round of Words in 80 Days
Round 3 2023

The writing challenge that
 knows you have a life

With more full YESes and two partials that were once flat NOs I can congratulate myself on steady progress.  The biggest progress of all is the ability to see these small steps forward as bright possibility lighting the way forward rather than see the failure of a perfect goal fulfillment as a boulder about to land on my head.  Or proof I don't belong on the path at all.

This check-in marks the first time I've been able to say I've done work with the two goals that are the core of my current project: storydreaming with notebook and working on the storyworld bible.  It is not a full YES for either yet as they are daily goals and I just started Friday.  Dabbled at that.  But it IS a start.

I see where I made choices that effected the outcome.  Some of those I will now recognize more clearly in real time and maybe make a different choice.  But some, like choosing to set aside the writing goals to join the Reverse Readathon, I accept guilt free as I know I'd make the same choice again as readathons are a competing priority for me.  Maybe if I had an actual set publication date and participating in a thon would mean missing a hard deadline that discombobulated more than me, myself and I... Well then, that might cause me to choose differently.  But with difficulty and extreme disappointment.

Making it easy to give priority to a readathon is my belief that reading feeds the fire that fuels my passion for words and story.  Reading is also my favorite teacher of the craft.  Sure, I read regularly anyway but reading in a thon has layers of other benefits.  Including community. But one large benefit for a writer is exposure to a lot of titles and authors that you might not have encountered anywhere on your regularly traveled paths.

Valuable for writers in a readathon is also the potential to network, the glimpses of the market from a less curated angle, and encounters with other writers who are readers.  And the Dewey thon was once followed by publishers, editors and agents pushing their wares and testing the waters but I get the feeling these last several years that has tapered off.

One of my takeaways this week is comprehending the role the other goals on the list have.  They are not negligible nuisances nor frivolous fillers to give me easy YESes.  They are part of the foundation and structure that supports and encloses my efforts in the craft itself--from research to drafting to rewriting to editing.  And I know that without them, nothing but dreaming ever gets done.

I had this insight when I realized that those supporting goals were now quite easy to fulfill and immediately saw that the fact I had actually dabbled in my storyworld again was directly related to the presence of those other activities in my daily routine.

I may need to add a few more of them eventually but I know better than to overwhelm myself with too much after such a long hiatus especially knowing I now have challenges I didn't have when I was going strong.  I won't be adding any this month and will likely wait until next round.

Meanwhile, I'm going to bask in this pleasing feeling as I acknowledge my real progress.  Plodding though it may be.

ROW80 Round 3 Goals:

• Morning pages daily.  Average 40 minutes (ala Julia Cameron The Artist Way and Writing For Life) YES
• Storydreaming with notebook for noting ideas for characters or scenes. (ala Robert Owen Butler From Where You Dream)  30 minutes per day TWICE (Until last Thursday afternoon, lots of storydreaming. No notebook.  I'd misplaced the one I used to use for this and was reluctant to start a new one but I think I need to be less fussy.  The notebook is the key to this goal as without it the storydreams go to the same place night dreams go an hour after waking.  I found the notebook. So.  No excuses left for Wednesday checkin)
• Working on the Fruits of the Spirit (aka FOS) Storyworld Bible at least 30 minutes per day at least 5 days per week.  I'm sure this will expand as I get involved but I need to set a minimum for that jumpstart. TWICE (with pain level back to normal background hum and the Reverse Thon in the rearview I will make this and storydreaming the high priority for the rest of Camp NaNo.  They are the core after all.  The rest are support.)
• Weekly Artist Date (ala Julia Cameron)  This is about doing something to recharge your creative battery.  I'll go into more detail in one of the check-ins. YES (went to visit an hour or so with my 91 year old mom and went shopping for the Thon food. Which, if you ever participated in Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon, you know can be a very creative and muse stimulating endeavor.)
• A minimum of 5 minutes of physical activity.  Either a walk outside with my caregiver or a session on my mini-tramp, or pacing the floor between front and back door. YES (may need to look at upping the expectation soon.  this is getting too easy)
• I want to reengage with my blog so: Two blog posts per week besides the two check-ins. One about encountering other people's stories via print, video or audio which can include formal reviews.  The other about a current fiber art WIP or about one of my personal challenges: widowhood, independent living with visual impairment and autism and issues related to health and aging among them.  YES!!!  (I put up the first of two posts Tuesday about getting my reading mojo back and announcing the Reverse Readathon this weekend and of course I blogged the thon from Friday at 5PM until Saturday at 5PM )