I am pleased and relieved to say I have had a much better week this week. In fact I have actually achieved some of my goals!
Here they are:
1) Read two books a week in order to read
100 books this year!
2) Spend 30 minutes a day, five times on short story for
competition. Prep, reading notes, research and writing all
count.
3) Write a ROW80 check-in
every Sunday.
Goal 1 - I have finished book number 8 and read number 9 this week so guess I achieved this one! Book number 9 was a great collection of short stories put together for a book raising money for Breast Cancer Care and includes stories by writers such as Sophie Kinsella and Jojo Moyes. I wasn't sure if a book of short stories should count in my book count but since it contains 34 stories I decided it would!
Goal 2 - I had a busy week this week what with a good friend's wedding and a weekend long hen party but I still have achieved this goal! One Monday I spent an hour reading five short stories and I emailed my lovely friend and fellow ROW80er Lauren with my short story idea as I was worried it wasn't a good enough idea but she assures me it is! She has even agreed to read it for me before I enter it into the competition. So now I need to write it! On Friday I read seven short stories in an hour on the train and today I read 20 in just over two hours. Although I was reading because I was reading short stories I am counting this as working on my short story. I have learnt so much from reading a lot of different stories by different writers so I am counting this as research. So really I spent over three hours on this goal which is wonderful and a big tick!
Goal 3 - As you are reading this, it is done!
So a successful week even though I haven't put pen to paper. But I will! I am off work for half term this week and considering how cray cray my life has been lately I am looking forward to a calm week! I am going to try and keep things clam and not make too many plans so I have time to sleep, read and write. I am hoping to properly plot my story, work on the characters and maybe even hammer out a first draft (or at least part of one) so I can start to shape it. I know the first draft will be far from perfect and knowing me I will write too much so have to edit it down but that is fine.
I hope everyone has had wonderful weeks and you are smashing your goals whatever they will be. See you next week, hopefully with good news of the writing I have done!
Lovely check in, Em!! You're doing great :D I love the different things you can do with short stories that aren't possible in longer works. I can't wait to see what you come up with for yours. Have a wonderful week off!!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on a successful check in! Two books a week is such a great thing to fit in. I'm usually a big reader myself, but so far this year I haven't found a lot that's caught my attention. I keep picking up and putting down books dissatisfied. Good luck in the coming week!
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to write every week to make it a good week! And good luck on that short story!
ReplyDeleteGreat job on your goals Em! Good luck with your short story-I am sure it will be great. And I totally agree, reading definitely counts as research! After all, how do we keep improving our writing if we don't read lots and lots?! This is my rationale for being a reading fiend! LOL
ReplyDeleteI've learned that I move in ebbs and flows...my ebbs are filled with taking in and processing huge amounts of new information and inspiration. In the flows, I find true words pouring out of me faster than I can get them down.
ReplyDeleteBetween, there are the times when I organize, play with ideas, edit, jot, clean house and my mind....
Fighting any of this makes me miserable and doesn't help my writing.
May this foray into reading yield some amazing ideas!