I’ve survived the first week of school, and October is looming before me, cinnamon and pumpkin-scented, filled with the promise of chilly, cozy nights and the inevitable march towards winter.
I really wish leaves on trees changed color where I live. Autumn leaves are so beautiful!
I’ve been a bit remiss when it comes to blogging, responding to comments, and making the rounds through my Google reader, but with my mom in town for a week and a half, and the various challenges related to packing, moving, and doing lots of traveling and sight-seeing, I suppose I was being a little ambitious, thinking I could maintain the approximately three million things I took on over the summer.
Certain things fell by the wayside this month: the awesome Dice Games flash fiction challenge that I had planned on tackling; visiting my fellow #writecampaigners on a regular basis; editing and rewriting TELL ME NO LIES. On the other hand, I’ve had the chance to visit with friends and family, including my mom, my younger sister, and other extended family members.
At any rate, October is almost here, and with school is full swing, I’m reevaluating everything that I have on my plate. I can’t quite give anything up; I refuse to go another semester without writing, and social media and blogging is something that nourishes me in a way that nothing else can. I’ve come to depend on the community and the connections that I’ve made over the past few months, and I don’t plan on walking away from it any time soon.
Instead, what I’ll be doing is retooling the way that I approach my various responsibilities. I’m using Google calendar to create a detailed schedule for myself, setting aside time for writing and social media, time to deal with the mountain of reading I have for class, time to work on my thesis, and time to prep for the sections that I have to teach.
I’m also rethinking how I tackle blogging. While I like the themed days I’ve been trying out over the past few weeks, I think I’m going to have to scale back a bit, at least until l can build up a decent queue of posts. Right now the pace of trying to write and edit daily is way more than I can conceivably handle, so the plan for the moment will consist of ROW80 updates, and one or two extra posts in addition. We’ll see how it goes!
In the meantime, many fun things have happened in the past weeks. To recap:
Blog Awards!
My fellow ROWer, Em, over at Loves to Read, Wants to Write, as well as Miho Li (who I know from the writecampaign), both awarded me the Versatile Blogger. Sorry for taking so long to announce and link back, you two!
I won’t bore everyone with another list of 7 random things, but I will link back to my original post of randomness.
Writing Challenges
The 2nd challenge for the Writers’ Campaign was a doozy, one that asked us to use lots of obscure words that I haven’t seen since my SAT prep days, but overall, it was pretty enjoyable.
My entry is “Imago, Shattered,” and one day if I ever have the time, I am going to expand the scene. There’s much more that happens between Robert and Tessa that I couldn’t pack into 200 words.
I also entered Jenny Hansen’s “Dirty Fighting” contest, where we had to write a 150 snippet using any of the 23 Dirty Fighting Techniques she shared on More Cowbell (I encourage everyone to check out the list. It’s a fantastic resource for building tension in your writing).
My entry, along with 2 others, were chosen for an on-screen edit by none other than the Naked Editor herself, Tiffany Lawson Inman. Tiffany took my little drabble of a tale and kicked it up fifteen notches — so. darn. awesome. Check out the original top 3 entries, as well as Tiffany’s mark-ups — I learned a ton from all of her comments.
Rock the ROW!
Round 4 of A Round of Words in 80 Days begins next Wednesday, October 5th. To celebrate the general awesomeness of everyone who has been involved, will be involved, or has supported those who have participated, we are throwing a full-scale, 24 hour long Twitter party. Here are the details, via Jenny Hansen:
- Theme: “Rock the Row”
However you want to work that in is great. I leave it to your outrageously creative imagination! - Date: October 5th, 12:01 AM to 11:59 PM ET in the U.S.
This also happens to be the first day of check-in so there should be a ton of ROW80 fun happening around the blogosphere. - Party will be held at the #ROW80 hashtag.
Fire up your Tweet Deck or HootSuite and let’s get jiggy with it. - Photo Competition:
You can start now…we won’t tell. Start digging for or taking photos that reflect the theme. We’ll do our best to gather them and decide on the best to spotlight in a post at the ROW80 blog. One the readers vote, the 1st place winner gets a copy of Kait Nolan’s latest book, Red, in e-book format!! - Friendly Blog Competition
We will also post a mash-up of favorite ROCK THE ROW posts at the Row80 blog.
For my writing friends who haven’t jumped onto the ROW80 bandwagon, I encourage you to do so. The folks who are apart of this community are some of the most supportive I’ve ever met, and there’s nothing better than having a built-in cheerleading squad, especially as November inches closer. I credit ROW80 with helping me break out of a very long, very painful period of writer’s block, and I can’t wait for Round 4 to start. I’ve got some goals that I’m eager to share. 😀
How’s everyone doing? Are you ready for autumn, or hanging on desperately to summer? (I’m part of that latter category, in case you hadn’t noticed. :p)
September 30, 2011 at 7:19 am
You can’t do EVERYTHING, Lena! :0)
Just blog when you can. We’ll be there waiting on you.
October 1, 2011 at 12:51 am
Thanks so much, Lauralynn! I am going to try very hard to remember this moving forward, to do what I can, when I can. 😀
September 30, 2011 at 7:50 am
Pacing yourself is important to avoid burnout. Good thing that you recognize that. Have a good weekend!
October 1, 2011 at 12:51 am
Thank you! Have a wonderful weekend as well!
September 30, 2011 at 10:41 am
I’m an Autumn lover. However, after a dismal dismal Summer, we’ve just had a week of brilliant sunshine which was an unexpected little treat 🙂
October 1, 2011 at 12:52 am
Oh, that’s so wonderful to hear! We’ve had lots of fog during the mornings and early afternoon, but lately its been burning off and yielding some lovely warm afternoons. I’m trying to enjoy them while I can. 😀
September 30, 2011 at 12:42 pm
Enjoying family is never a bad thing! Hope your school semester is going well, too. I’m ready for the next ROW to begin…although I’ve been slacking on writing up those darned goals. Time to get cracking. ~ Nadja
October 1, 2011 at 12:54 am
I feel like I’m holding my breath with school until the first couple of weeks end. I seem to be staying afloat so far — I actually finished a paper today, on time, with a minimum of stressing and freaking out, which is incredibly out of the ordinary for me. I’m crossing my fingers that this trend continues!
October 1, 2011 at 5:26 pm
Great! I’m sure that writing for school def steals some of the joy at times for working on your novel(s). Hang in there, Lena! And by the by…I love those high heels (in theory…), but you can have them! My mother didn’t name me Grace for good reason…Ha! I can catch a ball, swim a mile, and pound out the sit ups…but heels? Well, that’s a mis-adventure I’m steering clear of. Safety first….lol. Did you see Angela’s link? Too funny…that’s me ;} ~ Nadja
September 30, 2011 at 4:21 pm
Lena,
You’re doing exactly as you need to, focusing on getting finished with school and putting your writing time to your WIP. I agree with the comments above – we’ll still be here. 🙂
Does it cheer you up that we’re all gonna party our faces off on 10/5?? What about the shout-out/Liebster that you have waiting for you at More Cowbell???
http://jennyhansenauthor.wordpress.com/2011/09/30/do-writers-need-validation/
October 1, 2011 at 12:55 am
Jenny, you’re so awesome! Thanks so much for the blog love and Liebster!
And yes, I am wildly excited for this ROW party. Definitely a fantastic way to kick off another round, and, for me, to mark the transition into fall and the start of another school year. 😀
September 30, 2011 at 8:00 pm
I am impressed that you’re doing Row80 during school. Definitely take care of yourself! I know that includes writing (it does for me too), just be careful of burnout. Good luck!
October 1, 2011 at 12:56 am
Thanks, Angela. Yeah, I’m trying really hard to avoid burnout, and it’s hard. I keep seeing all these blog challenges that I want to enter, and a ton of other cool community-building activities, but I’m forcing myself to hold off, at least until I’ve gotten this thesis taken care of. I’ve got my hands full with everything else as it is!
October 11, 2011 at 1:09 pm
I LOVE autumn! Especially since it’s so hot here all the time 🙂 And don’t worry about not posting regularly – life comes first. Plus, your readers may not always have the time to read everything right away (as evidenced by how late this reply goes up ;P)