An accomplishment for my check-in

Sunday, July 31, 2011

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I haven't posted a ROW 80 check-in for awhile. I've been a bad writer and blog reader. I got lazy and didn't write much or read other people's check-ins. This past week though I pushed myself to quit messing around and do more work. I decided to pull out my short stories and see what I could finish off for the sake of typing the end to something at long last. (So many WIPs, sigh)

The short story push is partly from reading a bunch of other people's short stories like The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales, The Secret History of Fantasy, and Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded. I also have Dragons and Dreams from the library and Happily Ever After from the bookstore waiting for me to read them.

My troll story didn't pull me much. I'm still not sure how I want to tackle the middle. I gave my wolpertinger story a try and on the 26th I wrote 343 new words on it and then cut them off and moved them to the remnant file. The direction it took didn't sit right with me. I added 195 words to my half-orc bard story on the 27th. Those weren't bad, but my brain didn't want to stick with it.

But on Friday, I pulled out my Red Riding Hood story, determined to get something finished. I knocked out 1685 words, one of my top word tallies. (300-500 is more my typical sort of count) And yesterday I came in with 731 words including The End. Ding ding ding! Yippeeee!

Oh, it still needs massive work: a completely redone beginning and an expanding out of noted bits I'd had to skip to keep me from bogging down. But I completed it. I've proved to myself that I really can finish a story. I was totally giddy yesterday when I did it. And then I went through and read several check-ins from Wed to cheer on other folks.

I'm still way behind on reading my blog roll, taking today to work on that, but I want to say thanks to the unspoken pressure to get something accomplished on my goals. Finishing a story wasn't technically one of them, but it is something I've had hanging over me for the past few years. Everyone who has ever said good luck, or hope you make it, or some other variant of encouragement here on my blog or other online places I hang out: Thank you.

My other goals might get tweaked later since by the end of this round, I intend to finish the first round of revisions on the Red Riding Hood story, maybe even come up with a title other than RRH. I'm not sure how I want to break down the revisions into smaller check-off-able chunks yet, but I'll work on that too. I'm also behind on posting book reviews here, so I intend to have 4 books reviews during the month of August. Hope you'll check back for them. I think I already know which one I want to cover first. It'll be up tomorrow (if I write it tonight) or Tuesday (after I get back from the Buffalo Museum of Science).

Hope everyone has a productive week!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Help Jaleh,

Congrats on getting to The End this week. I'm notorious for starting a lot of things but finishing few. I hope you have another fruitful week.

Regards,

Kerry

Jai Joshi said...

Big hug and congrats on finishing that story! There's nothing like a feeling of accomplishment to give an energy boost and I hope you use it to finish off those other stories too!

Jai

Sandy Fowke said...

YAY you got to THE END :D U say a big bowl of icecream and a session of feet up relaxation is in order.

Jaleh D said...

Thank you! I let my son benefit from my celebration, too. We both had a big bowl of ice cream (Perry's Death-By-Chocolate) with sliced bananas, Heath toffee bits, and whipped cream. Mmmm.

Nadja Notariani said...

It's encouraging to reach the end of a project. Congratulations.
Thank you for stopping by my page today, Jaleh. It's nice to meet different writers through ROW80.
I love snatching up a bargain at the bookstore, but I will also have to drive much further to reach one now that Borders has closed. I used to spend Friday evenings in the little cafe inside, catching up on lesson plans or writing, but I'm afraid I'll have to find a new place to hang out. Sigh.
The editing is progressing....I reached half-way today. Once I finish this second read-through, I'll begin another. I'm crazy about releasing a clean novel. (Big dreams from a new novelist, I guess)
Take care, and best wishes for inspiration on your works in progress pile. ~ Nadja

Chris Phillips said...

Congrats. I love that feeling.

Gwen Gardner said...

LOL, you're like me - I rarely finish my short stories. Nice job on pulling it back out!

P.S. I'm a new follower :)

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the draft. Maybe we'll get to read it soon...maybe...

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