ROW 80 Check-in 17th July

Ok, cranky start to the week....but since wednesday I have been less grouchy and I have met my goals this week! It has been a tough slog though!

Thursday - woke up earlier to squeeze my half an hour in before work. Turns out I may not be a morning writer! In fairness I had been having a cranky, tired week so maybe I should give it another go at another time when I am not in such a grumpy place! So tried to write, nothing came. Tried to revise second children's book, wasn't happening. So I changed tack and did 30 mins of reading up on plotting as I have been thinking about a longer piece of work and I know I need to do some plotting beforehand as it is very much an idea with not alot of detail at the moment.

Friday - 38mins spent completing my friday fiction piece from 'Write Anything'. Enjoyed this and randomly decided to write from a man's point of view....not sure my 'man speak' was very accurate. The word 'mate' featured alot when different characters were speaking to each other! Didn't really like doing this in a notebook (but was on a train) especially as I don't know the word count. Was several pages though.

(Also on Friday I went to my first book club! I really enjoyed it. Was very relaxed and no scary questions. I was brave and offered ideas and shared comments and we just spoke about what we liked and didn't about the story and the characters. Will definately go to the next one which isn't until September as we are about to have our summer holidays so won't be in school. I have actually already read the book we are going to discuss next time but enjoyed it so will read it again. Ok, back to ROW 80).

Saturday - no writing but I knew I wouldn't be able to....one of the drawbacks of not many people in your life knowing you are a writer (or atleast trying to be!) was that I couldn't carve out 30 minutes as was with my friends constantly. Brilliant weekend though so not complaining!

Sunday - on the train again, with 38 mins on friday needed 52 minutes today to be on track. Five minutes was spent writing notes in my notebook about a conversation I overheard (actively listened in on) whilst waiting for my train. Then 48 minutes working through part of Susan Bischoff's blueprint for plotting. It is genius and can be found here - http://susan-bischoff.com/downloads/ It is basically a guide to planning out or 'getting to know' a story before you try to write it. I basically worked through it for my idea and was pleasantly surprised that it does have some potential I think. However, there are many holes, a big one being the fact I know it revolves around two girls who I call 1 and 2 and although I started to come up with some background for them, I really need to work on this before I try and write it. Exciting!

So this week, fiction friday done, three posts done and 3 1/2 hours done! Yay! I have found it hard and frustrating at times but I have managed it with some planning. What is positive is that writing is definately at the front of my mind and everything I came across this week my first thought was about how it may effect my 30 minutes that day.

ps. I genuinely time myself as at this early stage of the 80 days I don't want to do 'about 30 mins' as I know I am at times pushing myself to do 30 minutes and if I estimate I am sure I would come up short!

Hope you had brilliant weeks!