Check out these two new inspirational posts–one by yours truly and the other by ever-thankful and always-awesome Pamela Beckford: http://www.romeconstructioncrew.com/ Consider becoming a member of the RCC and share your story of inspiration and motivation!
Tag: RCC
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Check it out! The RCC is back and it’s awesome :)
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Is it August yet? OMG, it’s August! Yes, I’ve been lolling in the luxury of not having to meet a WORD COUNT for the past few days. Methinks it’s getting harder, not easier, to cough up 50K words, even if a third of those wind up on my blog or someone else’s blog :) NaNoWriMo in November will come soon enough and I might have to do something completely different for that word challenge. In the meantime, I’m still trying to decide what to do between now and then, besides the usual blogging, reblogging, commenting, tweeting, facebooking, and just general making a nuisance of myself. While I try to sort this out, let me revisit my RCC goals and see where I’m standing (or sitting or squatting as the case may be).
My Goals
(1) Get off my own back. I actually think I’m getting better at this. I did manage to push through to 50K in Camp NaNoWriMo but I was prepared to lose honorably, without any loss of pride. Any number of words I wrote was more than what I had started with and I could live with that. (But I’m glad I didn’t have to.)
(2) Set up a schedule of posting that gives me time to write, but doesn’t make followers think I’ve fallen off the face of the earth. I still haven’t sorted this out, and I’ve missed a number of tantalizing writing prompts on The Community Storyboard. If you haven’t been over there, do pay a visit. There’s plenty of great reading even if you not incllned to write.
(3) Get organized. That may have to wait another week or two. Here are my excuses: (1) my kitchen is in the last throes of being remodeled. I’ve been living without a kitchen sink for over a month now, and nothing makes me feel more disorganized than a unorganized house. Fingers crossed that the remodeling will be done by mid-August. (2) I have a business trip next week–a road trip no less with two other people meaning virtually no down time for the introvert that I am. (I admit that blogging has brought out my inner extrovert, as well as a few other inner things, but in the physical world, I am truly an introvert).
(4) Write the third novel in my series, The Widow’s Club (working title). OMG, I actually met this goal! And this is what I’ve been like since.
So I’m done for July. Hopefully I’ll have a schedule (eventually) for regular blog posts. Please stay tune for Monday’s Top Ten Things Not To Do posts that John Howell from Fiction Favorites and I collaborate on to give you all a chuckle for the beginning of your week.
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I am disappointed that roughly two weeks have gone by since my last update, when I had intended to make weekly updates. Oh … d**n … I just blew Goal #1 … again :(
Downloaded from http://www.doverpublications.com My Goals
(1) Get off my own back. Yadda yadda. They’ll find a cure for the common cold before they find a cure for my self-flagellation.
(2) Set up a schedule of posting that gives me time to write, but doesn’t make followers think I’ve fallen off the face of the earth. I adjusted this goal down to posting to The Community Storyboard and my blog, perhaps on alternate weeks. That all depends on whether someone has posted an engaging writing prompt and/or I:
(3) Get organized. What a joke this goal is!! Especially right now when our kitchen is in such disarray. The good news is that the cabinets are all in. We have to wait on the countertop but in the meantime my dear hubby laid plywood over the cabinets so we have workspace. And we can start unpacking and filling in the upper cabinets. But I still have to wash dishes in my shower. And now that we’re moving things around again, I’m feeling disoriented (doesn’t take much).
(4) Write the third novel in my series, The Widow’s Club (working title). This is the one goal I may actually be succeeding with: I’ve written 13,147 words so far. At this rate, I could be done ahead of schedule, but I’ve had the luxury of a long weekend. Tomorrow (Monday) it’s back to the workday world and I’ll be happy to get any writing done.
So that’s my update. I probably won’t make another RCC update until end of July, just to spare myself from having to admit that I’m still behind on most of my goals. I mean, really, I’m not that much of a masochist, am I? (No one has to answer that question.)
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A couple of weeks ago I became a member of the Rome Construction Crew, a wonderful group of supportive bloggers and writers. I really want to use my membership as a way to advance my writing by setting attainable goals. Emphasis on the word attainable. Some of you may already be aware that I have a tendency to “over-do.” When I was (much) younger and better skilled at multitasking, “over-doing” was not too much of a problem. But I’m older now and multitasking often leaves me feeling dissatisfied: I might get a lot done, but none of it very well. With that in mind, I’m revisiting the goals I set out just a short time ago.
(1) Get off my own back. Now this is a worthy goal that needs to be at #1. If I don’t cut myself some slack, then I’ll just spent my precious remaining productive berating myself … you know, kind of like what I’m doing right now.
(2) Set up a schedule of posting that gives me time to write, but doesn’t make followers think I’ve fallen off the face of the earth. I want to start slow, let’s say with one original post for my blog and one original post for The Community Storyboard and one for Stuff It Tuesdays a week. Reading this goal again made me laugh. Really, “I want to start slow”? I admit that as soon as I wrote it, I realized I was probably setting myself up for failure. While, in the interim, I have managed to post to The Community Storyboard and to my own blog, I did miss on last week’s Stuff It Tuesday. So maybe I’ll just adjust this goal down to posting to The Community Storyboard and my blog. And maybe alternate. That all depends on whether I:
(3) Get organized. This probably should be Goal #2, if I want to think and act linearly. My office at my day job is fairly organized with files and drawers and post-it notes. But my working space at home is anything but organized. And it’s just going to get worse as we get closer to our new cabinet installation. OK, well, today is Saturday, so maybe tomorrow ???
(4) Write the third novel in my series, The Widow’s Club (working title). This is for July Camp NaNoWritMo and I will NOT adjust this goal. I am psyched about actually writing a third novel in a series, getting to know my characters that much more, see what sort of trials and tribulations I can put them through. See if any one survives ;)
So now I’m feeling a bit better about what I’m committing myself to. At least until my next update when I again berate myself for being lax in posting to The Community Storyboard ad nauseam.
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Recently (okay, yesterday) I became a member of the Rome Construction Crew, and I am pretty excited about it. The crew are a wonderful group of people who I have been “following” (not stalking, following) since I rebooted my blog. From reading their posts on their goals, I could ascertain that nobody was putting the thumbscrews to anyone, no dissing or taunting if a crew member fell behind (well, ok, some good-natured ribbing now and then). Even though they have a lofty name to their crew (Rome Construction!), they are a warm and fuzzy group. Just what I need right now.
I gave serious thought to membership, to the point of making Green Embers wait a week, thinking he had missed my submission when in fact I hadn’t followed up when I said I would. Yes, off to a great start I was. I have a tendency to “over-do.” I usually have several projects of various types going on at the same time (including at my day-job). It was worse when I was on Zoloft. Now that I’m medication-free, I experience the appropriate sense of panic every time I commit myself to yet another obligation. But I still overcommit. Yet this, the RCC, feels very different.
In fact, my whole blogging experience feels very different. I don’t feel pressured by anyone, except myself. I know I’m not keeping up with reading and commenting like I had at the beginning, but no one is scolding me. I’m struggling with trying to write original posts, both for my blog and for The Community Storyboard and the Stuff It Tuesday collaborations with Writings of a Mrs, but nobody is giving me any grief over it. Nobody except me. So, in thinking about the goals I want to set for myself as a member of the RCC, I think the first one should be:
(1) Get off my own back. I am my own worst enemy. It’s been a lifetime pursuit to thwart my every chance at success and happiness. Rather than pat myself on the back for what I do accomplish, I admonish myself for what I don’t accomplish. This has to stop and it has to stop now. I think I can make that happen if I follow through on the next goals.
(2) Set up a schedule of posting that gives me time to write, but doesn’t make followers think I’ve fallen off the face of the earth. I want to start slow, let’s say with one original post for my blog and one original post for The Community Storyboard and one for Stuff It Tuesdays a week. That actually may be too much, but I am building some draft posts and I have plenty of writing around. I just need to:
(3) Get organized. Start taking time to go through my extant writing and sort out what may be appropriate for The Community Storyboard, for example. Organize my reading as well because I’m committed to provide reviews of books/stories from fellow bloggers (and those reviews would be original posts on my blog … two birds with one stone, except that I like birds and hate that little homily). Also, I plan to participate in the July Camp NaNoWriMo, write another 50,000 words for a third novel. And our kitchen is going to be redone in July, so getting organized would be nice. Not to mention how it would help with:
(4) Write the third novel in my series, The Widow’s Club (working title). You will be hearing a lot more about the three novels over the next several weeks (or into infinity) since once I start writing in July, there will be little to nothing of me left over for much else.
So these are my goals for the foreseeable future. I do have other goals, like ensuring that I go to yoga classes at least twice a week, that sort of thing. But for RCC, I want to focus on writing. That’s why I’m here. It’s what I do. (Well, I also knit but right now writing trumps knitting.)
So now I’ve put this all in writing and am about to send it into the blogosphere (I can hear the NSA starting to yawn). And since it’s past my bedtime, I’ll wish you all a good night.
Marie at 1 Write Way 